[news] Narratives of Imperial Conquest

[Resist!ca]

Three vignettes of imperial conquest: Phillipines 1901 - Brigadier General 
Jacob H. Smith, commander of the US Sixth Separate Brigade in the Philippines: 
"I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn: the more you kill and burn 
the better you will please me. I want all persons killed who are capable of 
bearing arms in hostilities against the United States." Asked by an officer 
about the age limit of the "enemy combatants" he considered "capable of bearing 
arms," Smith replied, "ten years." Vietnam 1971 - Sergeant Scott Camile of the 
11th Marine Regiment in Vietnam testified: "The way that we distinguished 
between civilians and VC [Vietcong], VC had weapons and civilians didn't and 
anybody that was dead was considered a VC. If you killed someone they said, 
'How do you know he's a VC?' and the general reply would be, 'He's dead,' and 
that was sufficient." Iraq 2003 - "There was no dilemma when it came to 
shooting people who were not in uniform, I just pulled the trigger," said 
Specialist Corporal Michael Richardson in Iraq last year....."If they were 
there, they were enemy, whether in uniform or not. Some were; some weren't."

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2004/6/30/03026/1521