"Freedom is the Almighty's gift to every man and woman in the world. And as the greatest power on the face of the earth, we have an obligation to help spread freedom." -- President George W. Bush.

"We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem." -- Mark Twain.

DETROIT -- America's president read those words of messianic mission buttressing his dangerous delusion that he's God's delivery boy. George W. forcefully spoke the lines in a prepared statement before his bumbling performance trying to dodge questions at one of his rare news conferences last week.

While the media focused on his inability to articulate coherent thoughts and his mindless rambling, he did say a few things that should give the world pause, especially his assessment of the bloody disaster in Iraq.

In a frightening admission, Bush brushed off a question pointing to "a series of false premises" he used to lead the nation into war, declaring that, even if he had known Saddam didn't have any stockpiles of deadly weapons, he still would have pushed for war with Iraq.

"Stay the course" is one line Bush has memorized well and we will hear it over and over in his campaign for re-election, but he also admitted for the first time publicly that the Iraqi people are upset with their imperial masters.

In what Mark Ellis of the London Daily Mirror describes as "a Forrest Gump moment," the president said, "They're not happy they're occupied. I wouldn't be happy if I were occupied either." The box of chocolates Bush has opened in Iraq will only bring the people there and the suffering U.S. occupation forces more tragedy.

Mark Twain, America's greatest literary icon, wrote the truth about imperial conquest and how it poisons both the oppressed and the oppressor more than 100 years ago.

Twain's words applied to our first overseas colonial adventure that showed, even then, that oceans couldn't protect people. The U.S. conquest and occupation of the Philippines during the Spanish-American War, sold as "liberation," inspired Twain's wrath and genius and is a far more apt analogy for the mess in Iraq than the Vietnam War.

So note the date. I agree with George W. Bush. Iraq should not be compared to Vietnam. But, of course, he's right for the wrong reasons. The most vivid memory Bush has of Vietnam is that he didn't want to go there and his daddy's influence kept him safely in Texas. But the very mention of that bitter struggle still gives him shudders.

Bush maligns and attempts to intimidate those who even raise the question about the Vietnam comparison. He said, "That analogy sends the wrong message to our troops, and sends the wrong message to the enemy." In other words, you're helping kill our troops and comforting terrorists if the Vietnam thought enters your mind.

The Vietnam War had, in many ways, a more noble purpose than the Iraq war. As misguided as they were, serious people believed that, if Vietnam fell to the communists, all of Southeast Asia would tumble like a row of dominoes, and the Australians would start thinking about Karl Marx.

As absurd as that now seems, people sold that rationale for war with sincerity and many in government felt an obligation to protect the people in South Vietnam from the bloodbath that eventually did follow the communist takeover.

The conquest and slaughter in the Philippines was pure ambition and greed, driven by phony fears and cloaked as a necessary conflict to promote moral values and democracy while protecting American vital interests.

The war was supposed to be about saving Cuba from Spanish oppression and avenging the sinking of the battleship Maine, which went down in Havana harbor following an explosion that killed 260 crewmen.

The United States blamed a Spanish mine for the explosion and American newspapers took up the cause, proclaiming "Remember the Maine" and promoting war.

William Randolph Hearst's newspapers and those of his competitor Joseph Pulitzer led the charge, often exaggerating and using outright fabrications. They created the horrible, yet effective, example the cable news networks have followed in drumming up support for the war in Iraq.

President William McKinley was a man of modest ability who was put in the White House by -- and took his marching orders from -- Mark Hanna, a clever political operative. Hanna, a turn-of-the-century Karl Rove, saw war with Spain as a way to boost McKinley's hopes of re-election, then looking dim because of a poor economy.

So off we went to what U.S. Ambassador to England John Hay called "a splendid little war." Teddy Roosevelt led the Rough Riders up San Juan Hill and the hapless Spanish were defeated in Cuba. It was a cakewalk with few casualties.

The U.S. Navy steamed into the Philippines and whipped the Spanish fleet. The Army marched into Manila and we "liberated" the people from the yoke of Spanish colonialism.

But then, American corporate interests thought how nice it would be to have a strategic base and possessions in that part of the world. Sugar, rubber and oil were important resources in the region, and having the U.S. flag flying in the Philippines and the Navy in the neighborhood would protect those interests. What a marvelous idea!

McKinley was deeply religious and he seized the nation with kindness and even paid Spain $20 million for its former territory. The American imperialism and colonial grab of the Philippines was called the "Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation" and McKinley saw a splendid opportunity to spread his faith and American values.

Mark Twain was outraged and, in his writings and lectures, he spoke out against the occupation. "I am an anti-imperialist," he wrote. "I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land."

In his book "The American Presidency," Gore Vidal writes, "President McKinley decided we ought to keep the Philippines in order to Christianize the natives. When reminded that the Filipinos were already Roman Catholics, the President responded, 'Exactly.'"

Refusing "born-again" baptism and other benevolent gifts, Filipino nationalists fought for the "Almighty's gift," freedom and independence. Under the brilliant leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo, who had fought Spanish rule and had wide popular support, the resistance to U.S. occupation grew.

After the eagle landed, the fighting went on for several years and, by 1902, 10,000 American troops had died from rebel attacks and disease. It became the first conflict in which more Americans died after the formal end of hostilities than before. Iraq is now the second.

On the Filipino side, 16,000 resistance fighters were killed and 200,000 civilians were left dead. And there were atrocities. Thousands of unarmed Filipinos -- including women and children -- were slaughtered. Torture was routine and people were executed without trial. The barbarism so offended Twain that he suggested a new flag for our Philippine colony. "Just our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by skull and crossbones," Twain wrote searingly.

The brute force being used on Fallujah may satisfy Bush's demand that "I want heads to roll," after American contractors were murdered and their bodies mutilated. But the collectivized punishment may spawn even more violence. There was a report last week that U.S. troops beat an Iraqi man who refused to remove a picture of wanted Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada Sadr from his car. Qassem Hassan later died from his wounds.

Dr. Juan Cole, an expert on Iraq at the University of Michigan, says, "A hated occupier is powerless even with all the firepower in the world." Bush's undue reliance on force to quiet the colony just won't work.

The transfer of authority to an Iraqi puppet government on June 30 has everything to do with Bush's political calendar and nothing to do with the reality there. We are stuck in the muck of our own making.

As we face the prospect of an indefinite, imperial occupation of Iraq and continuing bloodshed, we should heed the wise words Mark Twain wrote and ignore the hollow words George W. Bush reads.

Bill Gallagher, a Peabody Award winner, is a former Niagara Falls city councilman who now covers Detroit for Fox2 News. His e-mail address is gallaghernewsman@aol.com.

Copyright 2004 Niagara Falls Reporter

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