March 18 2003

By Steven T. Jones

I WAS UNPACKING my books from a recent move and putting them on the shelf, looking through them as I went for a source of wisdom and perspective on President George W. Bush's announcement earlier that evening that we were going to war.

Tolstoy's War, Peace, Patriotism almost drew me in, but I settled instead on a collection of 20th-century American speeches, In Our Own Words, edited by Sen. Robert Torricelli.

I'm glad I did, because I immediately keyed on a pair of speeches to the Senate from just over 100 years ago, when our country was fighting a brutal war to subjugate the people of the Philippines, which we had recently acquired as a colony in the Spanish-American War.

The first speech was by Sen. Albert J. Beveridge on Jan. 9, 1900, arguing that we had a duty to teach good, American-style government to the savage peoples of the world. Stripped of its obvious racism ("God has not been preparing the English-speaking and Teutonic peoples for a thousand years for nothing") and given a modern public relations sheen, it could be the same speech that Bush just delivered this evening.

Beveridge spoke of Americans as the extension of divine will. "Were it not for such a force as this, the world would relapse into barbarism and night. And of all our race, He has marked the American people as His chosen nation to lead finally in the regeneration of the world. This is the divine mission of America, and it holds for us all the profit, all the glory, all the happiness possible to man. We are trustees of the world's progress, guardians of its righteous peace. The judgement of the Master is upon us: 'Ye have been faithful over a few things; I will make you ruler over many things.'"

A couple years later, the war in the Philippines wasn't going so well.

Not only did thousands of Americans die, but we also ended up decimating the country that we're trying to liberate and enlighten. During a debate over whether American troops should leave the country (which didn't get its independence for another 44 years), Sen. George F. Hoar took the floor in May 1902, breaking ranks with fellow Republicans to denounce the war.

He admitted the sentimental ideals his side had about spreading American political values. "You also, my imperialist friends, have had your ideals and your sentimentalities. One is that the flag shall never be hauled down where it has once floated. Another is that you will not talk or reason with a people with arms in their hands. Another is that sovereignty over an unwilling people may be bought with gold. And another is that sovereignty may be got by force of arms, as the booty of battle or the spoils of victory. What has been the practical statesmanship which comes from your ideals and your sentimentalities? You have wasted six hundred millions of treasure. You have sacrificed nearly ten thousand American lives – the flower of our youth. You have devastated provinces. You have slain uncounted thousands of the people you desire to benefit."

Why must history repeat itself?