Moroland 1899-1906

That’s the title of the book I just read by Robert Fulton – America’s first attempt to transform an Islamic Society.  I am not sure the title really describes what the book is all about which is the evil machinations of politicians and ambitious military men to hoodwink the public into agreeing that massacring civilians in distant countries is all just fine and dandy.  The events described are from 12o years ago but the scheming and trickery reminds you of the lies about Saddam Hussein and the claims of weapons of mass destruction from 2003 in the British Parliament, Blair, Campbell and all.

It makes you wonder if the clock can be put back and that the current Philippine Prime Minister’s efforts to rebuild trust with the Islamic peoples living in Mindanao will work in the future, in terms of brining peace.  Duterte comes from Davao not far from the Moslem areas of the island, and he has deeper knowledge of the situation than any previous administration.

The USA was all up for fighting the Islamists in 1900 despising their use of slavery and harems etc, but more recently the USA has supplied ISIS with funds and weapons via its Saudi Arabian allies to subvert this otherwise stable country resulting in thousands of deaths at Marawi and suffering on a massive scale.  I wonder what the generals of that period, if here today, would feel about how the USA operates by supplying and secretly sponsoring terrorists like Isis – total disgust I would imagine.

War is now simply a business that makes good money, whether from weapons, drugs or human trafficking.  The same evil of personal ambition which was sniffing around in 1900 has since then simply taken over the process from top to bottom.  It’s good to read how the snake oil salesmen operate from reading their minds in their communications which have since been publicly released, all kept under wraps at the time.  You can see how the world today operates, still in apparent secrecy, from this very well worked and detailed account, giving the game away so if you ever doubted it, you can see how war starts off with fine intentions but ends up corrupted throughout.  Full marks to Fulton.

ISBN 978-0-9795173-0-3