Media is giving Trump hell about his glib admiration for General John Pershing’s war crimes against Moro Muslims in the US expedition in the Philippines (1899-1913). They claim it’s a myth that Pershing executed them with bullets dipped in pig blood or buried them with pigs in violation of Muslim religious beliefs. We don’t know if he did those particular crimes since US war crimes during colonial expeditions were unreported. They were also the norm. They didn’t even have international laws to shake the naughty finger about it. It is a certainty that Pershing ordered monstrous crimes against the Moro to humiliate them, violate their religious beliefs, torture them before executing them. That’s what kind of guy he was. That’s what colonialism was all about.
The old boy got his training by leading several expeditions in the wars to exterminate American Indians from the Dakotas to California. He was in several US wars at the height of its outright colonial period including in Cuba for the Spanish-American war; in the Philippines for the Moro Rebellion; in the Russo-Japanese war; in the expedition against Pancho Villa & the Mexican Revolution; & he was in WW1, a war fought between the US & European countries over colonial partition of the world. It’s not irrelevant that Pershing maintained strict segregation policies in the US Army during the war.
The only reason media is making a stink about Trump’s comments is not because they’re complete lies about Pershing but because Trump openly admires US war crimes which media insists never happen.