In response to Barcelona attack, US President Donald Trump invokes general who supposedly carried out mass executions of Muslim insurgents
General John “Black Jack” Pershing who was the US governor of largely Muslim Moro province from 1909 to 1913
US President Donald Trump appeared on Thursday to endorse the idea of mass executions for Islamist extremists, as he alluded to a widely debunked account of summary punishment by a US general in the Philippines in the early 1900s.
It was another provocative tweet from an increasingly isolated leader who uses Twitter to take shots at perceived opponents – and even announce big policy changes.
Thursday’s tweet also suggested Trump actually believes a story that many historians say is apocryphal.
Trump first sent out a tweet offering aid to Spain after Thursday’s van attack in Barcelona that left at least 13 dead and more than 50 wounded.
About an hour later, Trump tweeted: “Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught. There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years!”
He was referring to General John “Black Jack” Pershing who was the US governor of largely Muslim Moro province from 1909 to 1913. At the time, the Philippines was a US colony. And Pershing’s forces had to fight Muslim counter-insurgencies.
