William McKinley Quotes

The term “your” referred to the imperialists in America who were supporters of the war in the Philippines. There were some unfortunate atrocities committed by American officers. See General Jacob H. Smith: {42097}.

The General had differed with the George W. Bush Administration neoconservatives over the strategy regarding the invasion and war in Iraq. He was pushed out of office as a result. Later, it was clear that he was right originally, and the press, some members of Congress and others wanted him to comment. He refused.

When the Confederate Government realized that the Union was planning to arm escaped slaves and induct them into the Union Army, they quickly passed a law that declared any escaped slave who joined the Union Army or wore its uniform was guilty of Treason and would be executed. Most Union Generals one way or another got word to the Confederate Officers that they had better treat all Negro Union Soldiers as prisoners of war. Even President Lincoln warned the South. Butler, however, had a large number of Negro troops in his area and had heard threats of some of the Southerners to execute Black prisoners of war. He had a way of making things very clear, and he was able to prevent murder of any of his Negro troops despite the Treason law.

In the 1930s, led by the conservative Republicans, there was an isolationist subset of our population and the Congress that blocked all efforts to increase defense spending and readiness. The attitude towards the military was terrible. After WWII, the Republicans, realizing the weakness of their earlier political philosophy, flip flopped and went to the other extreme becoming hyper pro-military with little oversight of the needs.

The First World War had recently ended with the mass of horrible casualties that resulted from the use of poison gas. Permanently debilitated veterans were trying to rebuild a life all over England. Many Englishmen wanted to ban English use of poison gas. Churchill objected as the Middle East was a cauldron of various forms of terrorism then in areas that the British were “responsible for” under the Peace Treaty. He argued that there was little difference be gas and shells, but that did not persuade many others. Churchill was outvoted and overruled and the British have never used poison gas since although they had a large supply and were prepared to use it in WWII if the Germans did. This quotation was a blot on Churchill’s reputation. One issue was whether or not it was human to use poison gas. Churchill was willing to say no where white Christians were concerned but was perfectly willing to use them on the “uncivilized”.

This quotation is a wonderful illustration of the change that has taken place in the American military. The young man who was not skilled enough for anything else was meant to be a soldier. By 2010 only one in four high school graduates would be skilled and intelligent to be qualified for the Untied States Navy. The other services also had high requirements in order to function with the high technology, of the modern military.

This size standing army which alarmed so many at the beginning of the 20th century, looked very small when compared with the standing army of America a century later. For earlier American Politician’s views on a standing army, see {592824}, {631687}, {622888}, and {641008}.

He was referring to the famous Eisenhower quotation of 1961. See {641114}.

The President told McNamara that if the administration does not send the troops the Generals want, they will be blamed for any military failures that occur. If they do send all the troops that the Joint Chiefs wanted, they would be going far beyond the limits that the Defense Secretary recommended and the President would have preferred. JBJ felt he really had no political choice. He authorized the wanted troops further escalating the war. See his special assistant’s question about that decision in {617151}.

During WWII, the Japanese militarists maintained what they euphemistically described as “brothels” of “comfort women.” They Japanese forced 200,000 Korean Women to become sex slaves for the Japanese Troops in addition to Dutch and other white civilians interned by the Japanese in Asia. For years after the war, the Japanese Governments denied this or maintained a discrete silence. Finally some of the Korean women demanded an apology and restitution and it became a world-wide scandal. Unlike Germany which went through a public nationwide assessment of their WWII atrocities, Japan’s apologies for their war crimes have always been very muted and discrete and Japanese students are not even taught about the Japanese atrocities. Worse, nationalist Japanese politicians have either denied the facts about the sex slavery or as in this quotation, attempted to justify the horrid behavior. See {632770} for an American approach to the same problem.

The George W. Bush Administration had gone to war against Iraq for reasons that turned out not to be true, and then after a military victory with few casualties, botched the occupation of the country and a vicious insurgency developed bogging down the nation in its longest war in history. The major burden fell on the armed forces and their families. The hearings were in part examining the Bush Administration policies.