In the southern Philippines the US colonial army was at war with Muslim Filipinos, known as Moros. In 1906 what came to be known as the Moro Massacre was carried out by US troops when at least nine hundred Filipinos, including women and children, armed mainly with knives and clubs, were trapped in a volcanic crater and shot at and bombarded for days. Mark Twain responded to early reports with bitter satire: "With six hundred engaged on each side, we lost fifteen men killed outright, and we had thirty-two wounded. The enemy numbered six hundred including women and children – and we abolished them utterly, leaving not even a baby alive to cry for its dead mother. This is incomparably the greatest victory that was ever achieved by the Christian soldiers of the United States." President Theodore Roosevelt immediately commended his good friend General Leonard Wood, who had carried out the Moro Massacre, writing: "I congratulate you and the officers and men of your command upon the brilliant feat of arms wherein you and they so well upheld the honor of the American flag." |