A political cartoon regarding the Philippines from the ever-
brilliant Winsor McCay. Alright, I've done my 60 minutes of
cardio at the Y and eaten a delicious dinner my wife prepared
with soba noodles, chicken, endamame beans, shredded carrots and
some sort of orange and lemongrass vinaigrette and feel
refreshed, so I'll hop back on the keyboard here and finish my
train of thought. While most of the attention and recollection
of the war goes to our exploits in Cuba, the protracted struggle
and the real lesson in empire was in the Philippines. While the
American media focused on Cuba, American leaders were ready to
fight in the Pacific when the war broke out, and I'm fairly sure
that this was a large, underlying motivation in forcing Spain's
hand. While there was the Teller Amendment for Cuba, no such
promises were made for the Spanish holdings in the Pacific.
America saw the European powers scrambling for land and
influence in the East and could be left out without a port
closer to the action than Hawaii. The