Philippine American War

How many of you have ever heard of the Philippine American War? Not many is my guess. Now most educated Americans have heard about the Spanish American War of 1898 which was fought to free Cuba from the oppressive Spanish and in the process the US gained the territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Many people may remember the war chant, "Remember the Maine" about the warship that was sunk off the Havana Harbor. Referred to as "A splendid little war!" Because of all that was gained in such a short time and at the cost of only about 1000 American lives.

Let me now explain about the Philippine American War. It lasted 15 years from 1898-1913, 4300 American lives were lost (as many as 200,00 Filippinos may have died). This war was fought why? To stop the Philippines from gaining independence. The US annexed them instead. We just fight a war supposedly to help Cuba gain independence, and now we have just fought a costlier war to stop another country from gaining theirs. What is worse is that the US committed unspoken about atrocities to the Filipino people. Women and children were killed, villages were burned, it was horrendous!

The meaning of this blog post is to point out the fact that the Spanish American War is still celebrated in this country and well written about, yet a longer and more tragic war with the Philippines is hidden and hardly written about at all. Why? Because we are embarrassed and would prefer to hide that part of history. History is written by the winners, what will happen when we lose? What will the history of the US look like then? Hmm....

Here is a link to a Mark Twain writing about the Philippine War. It is a nice snippet to some of the atrocities that we committed there. It is also a good read as Twain is masterful with his sarcasm!


http://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/25/26060/timeline/docs/sources/theme_primarysources_Culture_17.html

Hunting season

This has been an extremely successful hunting season for the Geiser-Bauck deer hunting group around New York Mills, MN. At least 6 potential wall mounter bucks have been shot. Dad shot a 164 inch 13 pointer 150 yards from the house (deer drag story to come later), my brother Cody shot a 140 inch 12 pointer, my uncle David shot a 147 inch 9 pointer about 200 yards from my stand, my cousin Shanna Shot a 130 incher right by the house, cousin Sam shot a 137 incher, and my cousin Isaiah shot one that will probably go over 130 as well. 15 years of passing up little bucks is paying off!

But I do not measure success of a hunting season on the size of the bucks we shoot. It is also about spending some time with family, getting out in the woods, and relaxing. In those areas this hunting season has been very successful as well!

Hunting pics

Politics and War and the Media

As far as I am concerned politics and war and media do not mix. Take Iraq for example. We have won a war there, yet the politicians to the left and the media refuse to admit it. On a website I check frequently for casualty numbers (icasualty.org) one can view casualties, both hostile and non hostile for every month of the war, and the facts don't lie. In May of 2007 the American troops suffered 123 hostile fatalities, and in Oct. of this year they suffered 2! Some will say that the Iraqi civilians are taking the brunt of the violence now, also not true. In Sept. of 2006 there were 3300 civilian fatalities, in September of this year: 96! For some reason the media and the politicians to the left don't like positive things. Maybe they should read the book, "How Full is Your Bucket?" When things were going bad in Iraq there was criticism everywhere, people wanted Bush out of office. It was a key issue in the campaign during the primary races for President. Another sign that things got better is that the nearer we got to the election last November, the less of an issue Iraq was. Why? Because we are winning and no one knows it or wants to write about it. And everyone likes to claim how well we are supporting our troops yet we refuse to admit that they have gone over and kicked butt, is that support?
Now Afghanistan is a different story. Things have gotten worse there as it is trending the other way, fatalities are getting higher. The military is asking for 40,000 more troops now. Obama says he is thinking about it. Americans are dying while he is thinking and the politicians to the left are using rhetoric and stall tactics. If I had a son or daughter in Afghanistan and the military leaders were requesting more troops to help, I would not be happy with the situation happening in the Capital right now. It was proven in Iraq that troop increases helped win the war. I say give it a try in Afghanistan. To me it is time to go all in or go home. This half way stuff is costing Americans lives! I thought we learned lessons from Vietnam, obviously the wrong ones it looks like.

I guess my main point is this: How can we as Americans let the media and politicians get away with this? All these positive things going on in Iraq, when positive news can be so good for the American people and the troops, and nothing is said. That is sad, and it hurts the morale of the American people. I am sending an email to Obama, Clinton, and Pelosi and highly encouraging them to read the book "How Full is Your Bucket?" It might help.

Great message!

We had a speaker in today who graduated HS from Grygla, and was near the bottom of his class of 20 there as a senior. While there he had 2 teachers and the career counselor tell he could not do what he wanted to do- fly F15 fighters for the Air Force. His counselor told him he should be a pig farmer like his dad or work at Marvin Windows- he has been flying F15 fighters now for 4 years and makes 75 grand a year. Soon he will be one of 40 people in the world who flies U2 Spy Planes. His message was simple: work hard to achieve your goals, don't let people tell you what you can't do, and have a plan of how to achieve your goals.

For me the coolest part of the presentation was a video he showed at the end of his presentation. It was a montage of photos from Iraq and Afghanistan that showed soldiers fighting, soldiers wounded, and soldiers being carried in caskets. The most emotional photos, however, were those showing fathers hugging their sons or reuniting with their families. Very powerful. If I find it I will post it. Also, when he was asked why he does this, all the sacrifices and being away from his family, he said it was because as a fighter pilot he gets to help ground troops be safer and help them return to their families. A true patriot and lets us no that there are some good guys left in the world.

Kids say the darndest things...

Here is one of my favorite photos of my son, he posed unprompted to look like a prairie dog he had seen for the first time. The real prairie dog is also shown here.


We were at a Halloween party for kids on Saturday when my 4 year old son pointed out one of his classmates, I told him that his friend's dad was a doctor, he replied with the following: "Did you know Michael Jackson died, because his doctor gave him drugs." So am I to believe that he thinks the doctor will give him bad drugs?

Another line of Kale's this week came from school. They had a visit from the police officer and I asked how it went, he replied with, "They can't arrest kids because their hands are too small for the cuffs." Often times we tell him to behave or that the police may arrest him, oops, maybe we should be more truthful.