Time for the Philippine government to admit defeat against the insurgency and pull their troops out of the Philippines;
At least 14 government troops were killed in some of the heaviest fighting with Muslim insurgents in the southern Philippines in recent months, officials said Wednesday.
Military officials said they had recovered the bodies of 14 marines after clashes with suspected Abu Sayyaf militants late Tuesday in Tipo-tipo, a hinterland town on Basilan island, and that at least 10 of them had been beheaded.
This has to be frustrating for Islamists who go to so much work for so little attention by the international press. Unless they can get the Americans involved, there’s virtually no hope of earning a media-declared victory.
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six swiss soldiers were killed in a mountain training
accident last week.
i’m waiting for the imminent pullout of swiss troops
to the safer “urban environment” of say… geneva.
safety break… nobody works, nobody gets hurt.
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Thankfully Kate, the Americans are involved. When I met with Pacific Command (PACOM) in Hawaii in April, their work in the Philippines was described in as much detail as was permitted. Though it isn’t a combat role for the Americans, the Filipinos have at their disposal equipment, advice, training, medical care, radar and satellite, remains recovery and identification, and virtually anything else they need with the exception of actual fighters from the USA.
Sadly, their work there is ignored because all eyes are focused on Iraq.
RG
My wife is from Zamboanga City on the island of Mindinao, which is the heart of Muslim country. Two of her brothers still live there. First off, there are no longer any – zip, zero, none – American troops at the army base just outside of town. Second, the army and police force are as corrupt as can be. My brothers-in-law, and other members of the Chinese business community (who dominate retail, real estate, and hospitality) through the “Chinese Benevolent Association” make regular monthly payments to both organizations to ensure that their children are not kidnapped by the police or army. Both of them live behind 12-foot walls topped with razor wire and broken glass, and they have a 24-hour armed guard (with an AK-47 no less) on duty.
The Muslim “insurgents” are generally considered to be fairly disorganized, not so fanatical (there have been no suicide bombings in Zamboanga – some bombings, yes, but generally small ones with very few deaths), and mostly interested in kidnapping for ransom.
Basilan itself is almost 20 miles off-shore from Mindinao, and has (for the Philippines) an almost
miniscule population of 300,000. Of that, 75,000 live in Isabela City, which did NOT vote to become part of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindinao in a plebiscite a few years ago. The fact that the insurgents are now only operating actively on a few islands, and have basically left the larger islands shows that, for the most part, the Muslims and Christians have learned to get along. Certainly, my B-I-L’s hire plenty of them to work in their department stores, and plenty of Muslims shop there as well.
Overall, I think most Muslims feel they got what they wanted when the ARMM was created (Muslims form a very slight majority in southwestern Mindinao, while Christians dominate the rest of the country) and the tensions have lessened considerably, according to my B-I-L’s. As I noted earlier, they are more concerned about the police and the army than they are Abu Sayyef.
Kevin you are wasting your breath. You are just interrupting their two minute hate against Muslims. That is bound to get you flamed. Nice try though.
It’s sad that Kevin’s informative post had to be followed by such ignorant trash. Greg, next time you feel the need to say something, do us all a favor and just keep it to yourself, ‘k?
Why should it get him flamed, Greg? KevinB seems to be a reasonable guy, just like most of the regular commenters at SDA.
Seems to me he’s making a clear distinction between a large majority of peaceful, law-abiding Muslims, and common thugs who use Islam as cover for their thievery; notice his rendering of “insurgents”.
The question is, can YOU distinguish between the two camps?
Paid a visit, Greg, and read your “Quote Of The Day” by T.E. Lawrence.
So, let me get this straight. By your claim that, it “seems to (you)” the Taliban have read Lawrence’s essay, they have the upper hand in Afghanistan? Just who are the “…98% passively sympathetic” to the Taliban in Afghanistan? Maybe those 4,000,000 Afghan school girls?
Or maybe those 4,000,000 kids are just part of the “…not actively friendly, but sympathetic to the point of not betraying ‘rebel’ movements to the enemy”, the “enemy” in this case, and by YOUR inference, being any army who fights the Taliban.
Or have I failed to take your meaning as regards your post?
P.S. Maybe the 98% are just scared to death that the Afghanistan version of (dis)organized crime will kill ’em. Or is it more complicated than that, Greg?
So Greg, why would an intelligent post like KevinB’s get him flamed? What’s the matter. You afraid you are the one who should be flamed? You lose another leftie to the logical side,instead of the feeling side? Just because he relates what he is being told in a concise,clear matter upset you. Should he maybe have said that the terroist Phillpino troops are murdering members of the religion of peace so that they can’t carry out their goal anymore? They are stepping upon the poor,downtrodden,misunderstand followers of a viable alternative to civility and freedoms?
Oh..and JoeB,,,why would you give Greg’s site any traffic. It should be obvious from his post where he falls :):)
I wish a few of these trolls would have the balls to come meet me at the gym for a little debate. Headgear optional.
I agree, Kate. Perhaps Canada should send a nosegay of Canadian progressives to the Philippines, to try to convince the government there to pull their troops out of the Philippines before there are any more pointless deaths.
And perhaps we could also send them some of CTV and CBC’s Lib-proxy, perk-inured insider-propagandists — you know, the ones who are not simply prurient, but eagerly, ambitiously prurient about every death or injury to a Canadian soldier — to teach the Philippine media how best to get the citizens to go along with the Running Plan.
I remember a few months back how CBC treated the non-combat injuries of a couple of soldiers — their vehicle had gone into the ditch — as national news.
Jeepers, you’d almost think the lib/left, propaganda division, was trying to make political hay out of Canadian casualties!
I remember reading around the time of the broadcast that in Alberta in the previous year 22 people had died in ATV accidents. Each one of those deaths was never more than minor local news. And it occurred to me that if one of those ATV-ers had been killed while doing good works — say, delivering a water-pump to a village, or protecting school kids from a bunch of fanatics — you can be sure that a Liberal reporter would be cued up to broadcast a description of the death as pointless, and as a national tragedy, a pointless death that GTA experts determined as being caused by Canada’s lack of a lib-left national government.
PS, BTW, here’s a recent CBC headline: “Funerals held for soldiers killed in Afghanistan.”
Gee, well that’s surprising.
In a reasonably non-partisan environment you would be no more likely to read such a headline than one stating “Deceased grandparent lowered into the ground and covered up with soil while family members watch.”
Politics trumps all, even honour and decency.
Let’s teach those Philla-pinas how advanced countries “do it”.
Hi Justthinkin,
Thanks for the support. I don’t consider myself a “leftie” (or a righty, for that matter). I just try to call ’em like I see ’em.
For example, the Philippines (which is surely the national equivalent of Job, given the typhoons, earthquakes, volcanoes, and mudslides with which they are afflicted on a regular basis) also suffers from the most entrenched corruption of any country I have ever visited.
The governor of one of the southern provinces in Mindinao is also reputed to be the kingpin of the local “shabu-shabu” drug trade (a low grade version of meth, I’ve been told). As I noted in my earlier post, Army colonels and police chiefs supplement their incomes through payoffs from local businessmen (naturally, some of this filters down through the ranks). If a businessman decides not to pay, one or more of his children or other family members disappear until the required ransom is paid. No ransom? The disappeared party is “salvaged” (i.e. killed), and the crime is blamed on the Muslims. My B-I-L’s don’t actually pay the taxes they are required to by law; instead, they “negotiate” a rate with the local tax collector, which includes a hefty bonus for him. Want the contract to supply text books to the local schools (my B-I-L’s run a bookstore along with their department stores)? Judicious wining and dining of the local school superintendent, including a dessert consisting of Librano-style stuffed envelopes, will go a long way to getting the deal.
The truly sad part is the Filipinos who are not in these positions of corruption are generally the nicest and friendliest people you could ask to meet. Most of them are dirt poor, and yet are still generous to a fault. They deserve so much better from their institutions.
And of course, having seen this, I wonder what will happen in Iraq if the Americans are forced to leave early next year? Without the US troops to keep Iraqi institutions in line, will Iraq degenerate into the same type of apparently democratic (they have lots of elections in the Philippines) kleptocracy? Certainly, I’ve seen many reports here and elsewhere which suggest that in Afghanistan, the civilians trust Canadian troops much more than they do their local police.
It’s one thing to create the structure of democracy; it’s quite another to ensure the integrity of them. That will take time – time I’m afraid the Democrats don’t want to invest, and the average American doesn’t understand the need for.
KevinB…the average Phillipino will truly give you the shirt of his/her back if you need it. When I worked with Transport Canada,one of my fellow ATC’s had married a Phillipino. She was the most gracious,friendly,easy-going person I had met in a long time. BUT…not PO her,cause she did have a very natural nasty streak :)). After all these years, I think she still sucks me in. When we are invited for supper, and I offer to clean up after,she only protests once now,instead of about 12 times before! It only takes a small group of a**holes to make the whole population look bad. Look at Canada and the Liberals/Dippers. Think back. If not for the Phillipino’s,most of the Pacific would be speaking Japanese right now,and playing with the geisha’s and watching those not under the Emperor’s protection being beheaded.Ummmmmm…question…why did the Japanese embrace democracy so totally,when the Muslims won’t???
Justthinkin (6:40 P.M.)
I know, but, well, I always like to try to gauge precisely what goes on in some posters’ minds. I look in occaisionally at sites to see what makes them chug along… easier to pull them to pieces, sometimes.
I recommend you open Kate’s link below “Reader Tips” just a ways below here (A “liberal supporter” demonstrates the progressive attitude towards women…) Read the comments over at Red Tory; I did, and it reminded me of all the reasons I no longer am in the “left” camp.
They don’t like Kate vewwy vewwy much over at Elmer Fud.., er, Red Tory’s place; that will extend to you, me, and all of us regular crew members here at SDA. At least I hope it does!
Picture this; a middle-aged guy with receding hairline, slight paunch, and cotton batten stuffed in each cheek speaking in a gravelly voice with a bit of an Italian accent saying “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”.
By the way, regarding your last question to KevinB… might have something to do with the fact that the Americans, check that, the Allies destroyed utterly the Imperialist Japanese way of doing things, and then the Americans “midwifed” (as Mark Steyn would say) a democracy in the American mold. The most heavily bombed city on Earth in World War II was Tokyo; some 1,000,000 killed, I believe the figure is.
War is messy, damn right, but are the Japanese better off today than they would have been if the Allies had held back? Not fought hell bent with EVERYTHING they (we) had? And no, I’m not saying we have to exterminate an entire religion’s followers, but neither am I a believer in appeasement. We need to get STRIDENT support from both “right” and “left” for people like Wafa Sultan, Walid Shoebat, Irshad Manji,… I for one am trying my damndest to distinguish between Muslims and Islamic fascists. Why would Muslim moderates try to take back their religion if a huge phalanx of leftists, walking hand-in-hand with the MSM like lovers (yuk!) do their best to deny the problem even exists?
A living, working Arab democracy in the heart of the Middle East had never been tried. It was long past time the project got under way. It’s only been 4 years; we’re just in the preliminaries. My guess; sometime between tomorrow and 2025 before things are all shaken out IF the west has the stomach to see it through.
Sorry about the essay.