Largely eclipsed by the Charlottesville Horror are comments that President Trump made the other day that included a historical lesson on how to deal with Muslim terrorists. The advisory came in the course of a statement denouncing the recent ISIS attacks in Barcelona. Mr. Trump made mention of a tactic that United States General John Pershing supposedly deployed in his capacity of governor of a Philippines province, following the US’s crushing of The Philippines insurrection, circa 1902.
The Washington Post has an account of Trump’s claims:
“They were having terrorism problems, just like we do. And he caught 50 terrorists who did tremendous damage and killed many people. And he took the 50 terrorists, and he took 50 men and he dipped 50 bullets in pigs’ blood — you heard that, right? He took 50 bullets, and he dipped them in pigs’ blood. And he had his men load his rifles, and he lined up the 50 people, and they shot 49 of those people. And the 50th person, he said: You go back to your people, and you tell them what happened. And for 25 years, there wasn’t a problem. Okay? Twenty-five years, there wasn’t a problem.”
Politifact calls this account “Pants on Fire” nonsense, of course. There seems to be a single questionable reference in the historical record to a pig’s blood tactic being used once on a prisoner (and historians don’t even believe that story). There are no sources suggesting that Pershing himself actually did this awful thing. And even if he had, the region still remained a hotbed of internal conflict, right up to the present.
But one can’t help but admire the Old Testament style symmetry in this fictional tale: 50 terrorists, 50 executioners, 50 bullets, and a 50th person functioning as the witness to the alleged event, which, when 50 is divided by the number two, supposedly pacified the locals by that result’s equivalent in years. I suppose that if Trump had added 50 pigs it would have come off like a very gnarly Dr. Seuss story. As is, it almost fits into Genesis in a Victorian sort of way.
From whence comes this steaming pile of crap? I am going to look into that soon.
