Where is the outrage over torture and high regard for American values once voiced by President Theodore Roosevelt?

The Philippines was ceded to the United States by Spain at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War in 1899. Filipinos, who had previously considered the Americans as allies against the Spanish, declared independence. Since the American government had planned to make the Philippines an American territory fighting soon broke out between Filipinos fighting for independence and occupying American soldiers.

The Philippine-American War is one of the lesser know conflicts in American history. The war lasted from 1899 until 1902 but hostilities lasted for least another decade. The insurrection was crushed (the Philippines wasn’t granted independence until 1946) and the fighting was brutal. Reports of atrocities against the population, including a form of torture known as the “water cure”, made their way back to the U.S. Some Americans were willing to tolerate or even encourage the treatment of the Filipino people…but not all. Talbot D'Alemberte writes in today’s Miami Herald:

The cable reads:

THE PRESIDENT DESIRES TO KNOW IN THE FULLEST AND MOST CIRCUMSTANTIAL MANNER ALL THE FACTS . . . FOR THE VERY REASON THAT THE PRESIDENT INTENDS TO BACK UP THE ARMY IN THE HEARTIEST FASHION IN EVERY LAWFUL AND LEGITIMATE METHOD OF DOING ITS WORK. HE ALSO INTENDS TO SEE THAT THE MOST VIGOROUS CARE IS EXERCISED TO DETECT AND PREVENT ANY CRUELTY OR BRUTALITY AND THAT MEN WHO ARE GUILTY THEREOF ARE PUNISHED. GREAT AS THE PROVOCATION HAS BEEN . . . NOTHING CAN JUSTIFY . . . THE USE OF TORTURE OR INHUMAN CONDUCT OF ANY KIND ON THE PART OF THE AMERICAN ARMY.

This message from the president of the United States was sent not to members of the American military dealing with insurgents in Iraq but to an earlier Army dealing with insurgents in the Philippines approximately a century ago. Even without the characteristic capitalization of cablegrams sent during President Theodore Roosevelt's time, the strong statement of outrage over torture and high regard for American values comes through. Today there is no similar message, either from the president or from the new attorney general. This is sad.

Teddy Roosevelt had to deal with the mistreatment of civilians by U.S. troops who were fighting an insurgency. American soldiers, who occupied the Philippines following the Spanish-American War, learned a technique of punishment and interrogation from the Spanish that they called ''the water cure.'' Along with other violence toward civilians, the U.S. soldiers used the technique liberally. Edmund Morris' biography Theodore Rex quotes the official report's description of that ``cure'':

``A man is thrown down on his back and three or four men sit on his arms and legs and hold him down, and either a gun barrel or a rife barrel or a carbine barrel or a stick as big as a belaying pin . . . is simply thrust into his jaws . . . and then water is poured onto his face, down his throat and nose . . . until the man gives some sign of giving in or becomes unconscious. . . . His suffering must be that of a man who is drowning, but who cannot drown.''

This may be the first use by American soldiers of what we now call ``waterboarding,'' which has surfaced in so many different places and come under so much scrutiny. It has been widely reported that some U.S. troops and ''other government agencies'' have used this technique, as well as other inhumane and degrading practices that run counter to international law principles prohibiting inhumane treatment of detainees. Even in the face of evidence of such abuse, the Bush administration has given us repeated assurances that U.S. personnel do not torture. We are also told they do not rape and kill innocent people, and yet rapes and killings have taken place without a condemnation that matches the force of Roosevelt's.

At Roosevelt's insistence, military men implicated in torture and abuse, including even those of high rank, were prosecuted and sanctioned.

Imagine – a President with a sense of moral decency and the courage to act.