One of the great defining moments in American history happened at the end of the 19th century. Filipinos, with our help, fought Spain for their independence and won. The question now was, for Pres. McKinley and Congress, whether to withdraw our troops and let the folks determine their our future, or to retain a presence and "guide them" to their future. There was a very strong isolationist faction in this country at the time, and for a while it looked like we'd leave and let Filipinos be Filipinos.
Then an amazing thing happened. A mind-boggling thing, something that says so much about the American political character then and now.
Pres. McKinley had a dream, and he shared the dream with the press. He was visited by Jesus Christ, he said, and Christ told him that it was our duty to stay and help "our little brown brothers" and by God, since Christ told him this himself, this was exactly what he was going to do. And so he did.
Unfortunately, Aguinaldo and other homegrown patriots didn't want to trade one master for another, and so now we found ourselves fighting the very folks we helped "liberate." And we became the moral policeman of the world.
Too bad Christ didn't mind his own business. Too bad McKinley wasn't a little more skeptical about the dream. We've been the world's policeman ever since and not always to results in our best interests. And today it's deja vu all over again, in one of the most boring and destructive habits in history.
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