Jolo: A Massacre To Remember

Circa 1900: Uniformed Moro soldiers in Jolo island. (Library of Congress)

American Troops Killing Muslims: A Massacre to Remember

History is full of cautionary tales for any ruler looking to start a war in a foreign land. It is even full of specific warnings for Americans fighting small Asian nations. Before the lessons of the first Gulf War, or Vietnam, or even Korea, came America’s first dalliance with empire.

If for every Abu Ghraib there is a My Lai, for both there is an earlier, largely forgotten lesson about what happens when an American force in a faraway land confronts a group whose religion and customs seem completely alien.

In an extinct volcano in the southern Philippines 100 years ago today, March 8 -- about 800 American soldiers killed 600 Muslim men, women, and children in what came to be called the Moro crater massacre...