The Defense Department could be setting a dangerous precedent by moving the Bells of Balangiga war memorial from a Wyoming air force base to the Philippines, three US lawmakers representing the state said in a press release on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th August, 2018) The Defense Department could be setting a dangerous precedent by moving the Bells of Balangiga war memorial from a Wyoming air force base to the Philippines, three US lawmakers representing the state said in a press release on Tuesday.
"We oppose any efforts by the [Trump] Administration to move the Bells to the Philippines without the support of Wyomings veterans community," the release said. "While we have respect for the relationship between the United States and the Government of the Philippines, we believe that moving the Bells establishes a dangerous precedent for future veterans memorials."
The Bells of Balangiga were used by Filipino insurgents in September of 1901 to launch a massacre of US soldiers, Senators Mike Enzi and John Barrasso along with Congresswoman Liz Cheney said in the release.
The delegation added that the majority of Wyomings veterans, including the American Legion and the Wyoming Department of Veterans of Foreign Affairs, oppose the move.
Defense Secretary James Mattis started taking steps to transfer the bells after notifying Congress that it was in the interest of US national security.
According to US State Department figures at least 200,000 Filipino civilians died as a result of the violence during the Philippine-American war (1899-1901). However, independent analysts have estimated that more than 1 million Filipino civilians were killed by US forces during what some scholars have described as a policy of genocide. With respect to Balangiga, the US brigadier general sent to avenge the massacre was accused of war crimes and eventually court martialed for ordering extrajudicial executions and the slaughter of all Filipinos above the age of ten.
