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Malice in Moroland
By
Gary LaMoshi
DENPASAR, Bali - Philippine
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and US President
George W Bush share enough traits to be subjects of a
Tales from the Crypt or Twilight Zone
episode.
Each is the offspring of a former
president of their respective countries. Each took
Daddy's old chair in the freest nation in their region
on January 20, 2001, without benefit of a popular
mandate. Their twin ascensions were enabled by dubious
decisions of Supreme Courts packed with backers of the
interests these presidents protect. Not surprisingly,
each president seemingly regards the national
constitution as an inconvenience to flout when it blocks
a desired path.
Each of these two presidents in
their mid-50s (she's 55, he's 56) is obsessive about
physical fitness and wields his/her religious faith as a
justification of his/her public policies, in contrast to
their corpulent, morally lax predecessors. Each seized
the war on terrorism as a central plank of their
previously floundering administrations.
So why
can't they keep their stories straight about the latest
deployment of US forces to fight Abu Sayyaf in the
southern Philippine province of Mindanao?
He
said, she said
The Pentagon announced last week
that about 3,000 troops, including 350 Special Forces
Green Berets (where has Southeast Asia seen that hat
before?), will take part in combat operations aimed at
finishing off the Abu Sayyaf forces that escaped last
year's joint US-Philippine deployment. That operation
was classified as a training mission. American fighters
were not allowed to fire their weapons except in
self-defense.
For this mission against the
bandit brigade's remaining stronghold on the island of
Sulu, the Pentagon says, things will be different. The
Green Berets are going in shooting, with an offshore
contingent of 1,000 marines and attack helicopters,
aiming to eliminate Abu Sayyaf once and for all.
That pesky Philippine constitution, however,
prohibits foreign troops from fighting in the
Philippines. "That's something they will have to
finesse," a Pentagon official said, referring to
Philippine government.
Just how much finessing
is needed was evident in Philippine Senator Aquilino
Pimentel's criticism of Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes.
"I say this is treason in its basest form because he is
subverting the constitution by militarizing the
policymaking process even in relation to the maintenance
of law and order and the establishment of peace in the
country, which the legislature [is mandated] to decide."
In the usual measured tones of Philippine
political discourse, Pimentel also condemned Reyes for
sanctioning Philippine territory for use as a "deadly
laboratory for the testing of the effectiveness of US
troops, tactics and weaponry against so-called
terrorists in Moroland".
"There will be no
combat role of US troops, period, period, period,"
presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye contended on
Saturday. But the Texas White House reconfirmed the
Pentagon version of the deployment, no doubt winning
hearts and minds in Malacanang Palace for its
sensitivity to host-country exigencies.
Defense
Secretary Reyes "categorically" assured reporters asking
about the Pentagon's statements "that anything that they
say that contradicts the constitution and the laws will
not materialize". Asked directly about a possible US
combat role in the Philippines, Reyes demurred, "That's
a matter for lawyers to decide."
Hot to
trot
US military motives for making a tough,
violent anti-terrorism stand in East Asia are easy to
understand. While the United States is preoccupied with
preparations to invade Iraq to thwart its unrealized
nuclear ambitions, North Korea's Dear Leader Kim Jong-il
is winning a game of chicken with the US over his very
real nuclear program. Displaying US combat muscle in
Mindanao could serve as a warning that the US has the
will and the capability to undertake operations in the
East Asian theater, regardless of any Iraqi
entanglements, since 38,000 troops in South Korea and
bases in Japan apparently haven't yet proved the point.
Singapore's allegations of a plot to attack US
military, diplomatic and commercial interests on that
island and Hong Kong in late 2001 met with skepticism,
but last year's Bali bombing provided a deadly wake-up
call that al-Qaeda's brand of Muslim extremist violence
has found fertile ground in Southeast Asia. Abu Sayyaf's
roots trace back to al-Qaeda, and new intelligence
reportedly ties it to Jema'ah Islamiyah, which seeks to
create an Islamic state stretching from southern
Thailand through Indonesia.
Taking heat for its
focus on Iraq without a smoking gun linking Saddam
Hussein's regime to September 11, 2001 - not to mention
its failure to capture Osama bin Laden and eliminate the
al-Qaeda threat - the Bush people are anxious to
demonstrate that their anti-terrorism interest isn't
confined to nations prominent in the oil business.
Particularly at this moment of strained relationships
with traditional allies France and Germany over its Iraq
plans, and reactions in East Asia ranging from China's
indifference to vehement opposition in Indonesia in the
streets and the government, the United States needs to
reinvigorate its credentials in the global war on
terrorism.
Fighting Abu Sayyaf, which has killed
Americans along with scores of Filipinos, as comrades in
arms with the host nation demonstrates a US commitment
to cooperate with allies anywhere in the world to
eliminate terror threats. It also shows that the
Pentagon has a combat strategy other than devastating
whole nations in order to save them from terrorists.
And, as Senator Pimentel notes, the operation might be a
chance for Pentagon planners to gauge how their Asian
jungle combat strategies have progressed since that
miserable failure three decades ago in Vietnam.
Constitutional solution
While US
motivations for teaming with Philippine forces to
obliterate Abu Sayyaf are clear, the Arroyo regime's
desire to permit US combat troops remains mystifying.
Unlike the case with Turkey, there's no indication that
the Philippines will receive billions in new aid or a
piece of conquered Iraq as a payoff. Arroyo should study
fellow presidential offspring Indonesian President
Megawati Sukarnoputri's reluctant and limited support
for the war on terrorism that has won Indonesia a
renewal of US military aid without meaningful reforms or
concessions. Arroyo ought to know that playing hard to
get works better than being a pushover.
Despite
vocal opposition, the previous US mission in the
Philippines enjoyed widespread popular support,
according to pollsters. But Arroyo doesn't need to win
any popularity contests. She says she's not running for
another term in order to avoid inflaming tensions in the
nation. Flouting the constitution by calling back the
colonial rulers and its troops banished a decade ago
with the Clark and Subic Bay base closings hardly
qualifies as a step toward national unity.
Ratcheting up the violence against Abu Sayyaf
may further Arroyo's stated goal of making peace with
the more dangerous Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the
New People's Army communist insurgency now in its fourth
decade. But Muslim separatists reaffirmed last weekend
they're ready for a ceasefire and resumption of
suspended peace talks. Malacanang is also trying to
restart negotiations, though the two sides differ on
details. Summoning US troops to eliminate Abu Sayyaf,
rather than motivate compromise, could create a backlash
among separatist leaders and supporters that will hamper
the government's peace agenda.
Abu Sayyaf
remains a major irritant. It's kidnapped 102 people
during the past 22 months, and killed 18 of those
hostages. However, Abu Sayyaf's days as a Muslim
separatist political force are behind it. Abu Sayyaf has
become nothing but a gang of outlaws, and it's
embarrassing that police and military forces have been
unable to subdue it, despite knowing who runs it and
where it operates.
Philippine military
intelligence estimates that Abu Sayyaf has just over 100
members remaining. There is a solution that would fit
the Philippine constitution in every sense of the word:
rather than calling in Uncle Sam to wipe them out, the
government could hire them.
(©2003 Asia Times
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