Telltale Signs: DONALD TRUMP AND THE BATTLE OF BUD DAJO
The Philippines was finally mentioned by Donald Trump, the front runner in the Republican presidential sweepstakes, but the reference may prompt his Filipino supporters to beg him to please continue to ignore the Philippines.
Recently, on February 19, in a speech to supporters the day before the South Carolina Republican primary, Donald Trump used the apocryphal story about how U.S. Army Gen. John Pershing executed Muslim terrorists in the Philippines in the early 1900s as an example of how the US should deal with Islamic jihadists.
At the South Carolina rally, Trump said: "I read a story, it's a terrible story, but I'll tell you. Early in the century, last century, General Pershing — did you ever hear — rough guy, rough guy. And they had a terrorism problem. And there's a whole thing with swine and animals and pigs — and you know the story. They don't like that. They were having a tremendous problem with terrorism. Pershing caught 50 terrorists. He took 50 bullets, and he dipped them in pig's blood. And he had his men load his rifles and he lined up the 50 people, and they shot 49 of those people. And the 50th person, he said, 'You go back to your people and you tell them what happened.' And for 25 years, there wasn't a problem.”
Following his speech, the next day Trump handily won the South Carolina primary and all 56 of its state delegates
Trump’s story may insult and alienate 1.8 billion Muslims and may extol the virtues of a war criminal but it is also a completely fiction.
Dr. Frank E. Vandiver, professor of history at Texas A&M University and author of “Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing” said that he “never found any indication that it was true in extensive research on his Moro experiences. This kind of thing would have run completely against his character."
David Emery, who wrote “Black Jack Pershing vs. Muslim Terrorists”, reported that he never found any basis for this “pig’s blood” story nor could he find “any evidence corroborating the more general claim that Muslims believe that "eating or touching a pig, its meat, its blood, etc., is to be instantly barred from paradise and doomed to hell."
Emery continued: “It is true that Islamic dietary restrictions, like those of Judaism, forbid the eating or handling of pork because pigs are considered unclean. But according to Raeed Tayeh of the American Muslim Association in North America, the notion that a Muslim would be denied entrance to heaven for touching a pig is "ridiculous." A statement from the Anti-Defamation League characterizes the claim as an "offensive caricature of Muslim beliefs."
Since Pershing’s war against Muslim terrorists in the Philippines was used by Trump as an example of how he would wage war against Muslims if he was ever elected president, it would be instructive to learn about what really happened in the Battle of Bud Dajo some 110 years ago next week.
As a background to Bud Dajo, it should be remembered that Muslim Mindanao was never conquered by Spain until 1876 when Spain occupied Jolo, the seat of the Sultan of Sulu. Soon after, Spain signed a Treaty of Peace on July 22, 1878 with two versions: the Spanish version stated that Spain had complete sovereignty over the entire Sulu Archipelago while Tausug version described a mere protectorate relationship.
When Spain sold the Philippines to the United States at the Treaty of Paris in December of 1898, it included Spain’s alleged ownership of the entire Sulu Archipelago. On May 18, 1899, Spain handed control of Jolo to the US. But the Moros continued their resistance against the US as they had against Spain for three centuries.
The bloodiest engagement of the war was the Battle of Bud Dajo which occurred in a volcanic crater 6 miles from the city of Jolo, 2,100 feet above sea level.
The US military forces under Gen. Leonard Wood dispatched an assault force of 272 men of the 6th Infantry, 211 men of the 4th Cavalry, 68 men of the 28th Artillery Battery, 51 Philippine Constabulary, 110 men of the 19th Infantry and 6 sailors from the gunboat Pampanga. After climbing up to the top of the crater, on March 5, 1906, they fired their mountain guns, rifle grenades and ship cannon into the crater where the Tausug Moros were holed up.
Out of the estimated 800 to 1,000 Moros at Bud Dajo, only 6 survived. Eyewitness reports that corpses were piled five deep, and many of the bodies were wounded multiple times. To this day, the US 4th Cavalry Regiment's coat-of-arms features a reference to the Bud Dajo campaign: a green volcano is seen at the crest with an inverted kris symbolizing the Moros' defeat. The unit's victory is symbolized by a yellow saber at the charge.
US President Theodore Roosevelt congratulated Gen. Wood for his splendid victory. But the New York Times March 11, 1906 headline presented another account: "WOMEN AND CHILDREN KILLED IN MORO BATTLE; Mingled with Warriors and Fell in Hail of Shot. FOUR DAYS OF FIGHTING Nine Hundred Persons Killed or Wounded—President Wires Congratulations to the Troops."
Contrary to Trump’s tale, Pershing was in the US and had just been appointed Brigadier General when the first Battle of Bud Dajo occurred in 1906 but he was quickly promoted up the ranks to become Governor of Moro Province in 1909. On September 8, 1911, he ordered the complete disarmament of all Moros. Some 1500 Moros who defied Pershing’s order went to Bud Dajo to set up their resistance there, ready to fight and die in their scared mountain.
As David Emery wrote (“Pershing the thought”), “Pershing's strategy was to surround the Moros and wait them out while attempting to induce them to surrender, a strategy that worked effectively: the Bud Dajo campaign ended with only twelve Moro casualties. But in his report Pershing seemed keenly aware that the best approach was not to take any action that would encourage religious fanaticism.”
Goading and encouraging the Islamic fanatics is the strategy of Donald Trump, exactly the opposite of the hero of his story to the South Carolina voters.
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