In a story relevant to the present day, the February 25 issue of the New Yorker has an article, “The Water Cure,” exploring waterboarding and other acts of torture committed by U.S. forces in the Philippines during the “anti-insurgency” there in 1902.
The parallels are striking: U.S. forces turn to illegal practices in a guerilla struggle against a little-understood enemy far from home. Opponents of torture are derided as traitors and apologists for the enemy. The acts of others—past mistreatment of Filipinos by the Spanish, the supposed savagery of the “uncivilized” insurgents—are used to rationalize torture. And the public, initially outraged, quickly loses interest.
So what inspired that initial outrage? The article recounts: