4 FEBRUARY

First Fil-Am War Berdugo: Pvt. William Grayson (in left photo, standing on the spot where he first fired the trigger shot

1899 - The Philippine-American War (1899-1914) is begun by a United States sentry who shoots and kills a Filipino soldier making an attempt to cross the bridge in Sta. Mesa, Manila under the vile pre-arranged plan of US President William McKinley to precipitate a war in the bid to trick the Senate to approve the Treaty of Paris and thus secure funding for military operations to annex the Philippines as part of the imperialist policy for Bald Eagle's overseas expansion; the sentry tasked with the dirty job is Pvt. William Grayson, killing Filipino Corporal Anastacio Felix of the 4th Company, Morong Battalion under Captain Serapio Narvaez, with Col. Luciano S. San Miguel as battalion commander; the Treaty would be approved in the US Senate by a margin of one vote from the required two-thirds majority and the war of invasion would be officially declared over on July 4, 1902 by US President Theodore Roosevelt but the last major battle will occur in 1913, with hostilities not ceasing until the following year; the Filipino-American War will sometimes be called as America's 'first Vietnam' in reference to what would be a historical pattern of genocide against Asians/non-Westerners, what with the enemy invading Americans inflicting much dislocation, devastation, suffering, torture, massacres and pillaging on the Filipino freedom  fighters and including the civilian native population.


Photo credit: http://philippineamericanwar.webs.com/filamwarbreaksout.htm