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LUKBAN
But for a political coincidence , the episode probably would have left Waller otherwise unscathed . But the Governor of the Philippines at the time , William Howard Taft , was a mortal enemy of Maj . Gen . Chaffee and his military policy with which Waller was inextricably involved . In 1911 , when Waller became eligible for Commandant of the Marine Corps , Taft was President and chose instead William P . Biddle who , as a major , had sat on Waller ’ s court-martial . 3
But was Waller truly innocent of the charges as the military court had declared ? In his arguments , Waller said the porters were conspiring to mutiny . Hence , their execution . But the facts contradicted him as the porters voluntarily returned to camp after the tragic march , carrying the hapless Marines ’ rifles and ammunition . No one however told the military court about this or spoke in behalf of the porters . It had simply relied on the statements of military men who testified in behalf of Waller and Day .
Perhaps , in closing , the US had made a convenient scapegoat of the retiring Brig . Gen . Jacob Smith as the person responsible for the excesses committed by their soldiers in the hinterlands of Samar . But as the records would show , Smith was only the last in the long list of commanders implementing American colonial policy and its harsh , brutal and repressive measures , ranging from food blockade , the establishment of garrisoned towns , the use of torture to exact information from suspected rebels , burning , pillaging and destruction of villages , food items , and killing of work animals … acts admitted in their official reports . Smith became the impersonation of an American officer gone haywire , the favorite poster boy of critical American press . His statements were echoed in cartoon editorials in many of these newspapers of the period , encapsulating and dramatizing some elements of American neo-colonial policy .
Casualties of War
By the time American President Theodore Roosevelt formally declared the end of Philippine-American War on July 4 , 1902 , the casualties numbered 4,200 Americans dead and 2,800 wounded . Those of suspected insurgents reached 20,000 killed , while Filipino noncombatants numbered 200,000 dying from disease , famine and other effects of war .
The overall cost in human lives of American actions in the Philippines was horrific . One scholar has concluded concerning the American occupation that “… in the fifteen years that followed the defeat of the Spanish in Manila Bay in 1898 , more Filipinos were killed by U . S . forces
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