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= A_Defence_of_General_Funston =
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Introduction
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"A Defence of General Funston" is a satirical piece written by Mark
Twain lampooning US Army General and expansionism advocate Frederick
Funston. Funston had been a colonel during the Spanish-American and
Philippine-American Wars, and Twain had been an outspoken critic of
these wars, as immoral ventures of the American state into the
imperialist subjugation of foreign peoples and territories.
In the piece, Twain essentially excoriates Funston as a scoundrel for
the tactics he employed in capturing the Filipino president Emilio
Aguinaldo, while at the same time facetiously arguing that Funston is
not responsible for any of his actions since it was not Funston
himself but his "inborn disposition" that determined his actions for
him. As this is the only ground upon which Twain makes his "defence",
the overall effect is to ironically and comically emphasize Twain's
view that Funston's actions were completely indefensible.
License
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License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Defence_of_General_Funston
