U.S. Backed Overthrows are an Old, Old Story

Once upon a time, United States troops entered a foreign country half a world away under the guise of liberation. They were initially welcomed and regaled with thanks. But tensions soon developed. U.S. troops became resented, and denounced as imperialists and colonialists. Fighting soon erupted between the U.S. and that country. U.S. forces sometimes fought with established armies, but soon the other country started resorting to guerilla-style combat, prolonging hostilities and taxing both the country and our troops. Well over 100,000 U.S. forces were soon fighting and dying in what was supposed to be an easy mission, which ran for years after the president formally declared an end to large-scale hostilities. As the situation dragged on, U.S. troops were accused of war crimes and torturing prisoners and opposition to both the war and the president claimed a heavy political toll.

Is this Iraq today? Nope. It was the War in the Philippines that was happening exactly a century ago. The parallels are eerily familiar, but the similarities don’t stop at the Philippines. Since becoming a world power, the United States has had a long history of toppling foreign governments or invading other countries when it serves our interests. Sometimes this has been correct and justified, like overthrowing Hitler in World War II, Milosevic in Kosovo or the Taliban in Afghanistan. Sometimes U.S. troops are involved (Iraq, the Philippines, Panama in 1989). Sometimes we are a behind-the-scenes player (Iran in 1953, Hawaii in 1893). Sorry, but Iraq was not instigated by Bush’s buddies at ExxonMobil. And of course, there’s that whole Vietnam/Cambodia thing.

All of these endeavors were executed by people who claimed to have America’s best interests at heart. Not all of them turned out to be successful, and some had disastrous consequences, either right away or a decade or two down the road. It is inevitable that given America’s power, it will become involved in other country’s domestic affairs and get its hands dirty. And this is certainly not limited to America either, given Ethopia's recent invasion of Somalia to topple the fundamentalist Muslim government. In fact, the last decade alone of regime change and government overthrows in Africa, by African nations makes the U.S. look like the U.N.

But I’m willing to bet people aren’t learning from past mistakes, and don’t take proven historical facts like nationalism and sectarianism into account when deciding how much intervention or force is necessary. And overthrowing governments have been U.S. success stories too. Countries like Panama and Afghanistan are much better off today than they were beforehand. But the U.S.-backed Iranian coup that placed the Shah of Iran in power sowed the seeds for disastrous consequence two decades later, Vietnam forever scarred us, and Iraq certainly looks grim.

In the Philippines, U.S. troops were involved in full-scale war for three years until Teddy Roosevelt declared hostilities over and made the Philippines a U.S. colony. However, U.S. troops continued fighting a guerilla war (with the official Philippine army they trained) for another 11 years. The Philippine War is barely mentioned in U.S. history books today. How long will the Iraq parallels continue? Nobody knows.

More info: Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change – An overview of the last 100 years or so of American-designed coups gone bad. Focuses too much on the negative, but still worth checking out.