Muslim Leader Concerned Over Role of US troops, Inclusion of RP in War on Terror

Published on September 27, 2008

Operation Enduring Freedom is the official name given to the US government’s military response to the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001 in New York City. It entails a series of anti-“terrorism” activities in Afghanistan, the Philippines, the Horn of Africa, Trans-Sahara, and Pakinsi Gorge.

Adan said at the Sept. 25 hearing that majority of US troops’ activities in the Philippines are “humanitarian and civic actions.”

A similar claim was expressed at the same hearing by Sulu Gov. Abdulsakur Tan, a supporter of the VFA, who said, “American forces have been helping in civic, social, and economic activities.”

However, a June 2006 article by Robert D. Kaplan – an American journalist who has been a consultant to the US Army’s Special Forces Regiment, the US Marines, and the US Air Force – even “humanitarian and civic actions” serve to assist the war effort. He wrote in a June 2006 article for The Atlantic Monthly that:

I have visited a number of CSLs in East Africa and Asia. Here is how they work. The United States provides aid to upgrade maintenance facilities, thereby helping the host country to better project its own air and naval power in the region. At the same time, we hold periodic exercises with the host country’s military, in which the base is a focus. We also offer humanitarian help to the surrounding area. Such civil-affairs projects garner positive publicity for our military in the local media – and they long preceded the response to the tsunami, which marked the first time that many in the world media paid attention to the humanitarian work done all over the world, all the time, by the US military. The result is a positive diplomatic context for getting the host country’s approval for use of the base when and if we need it.

More straightforward was Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat, another VFA supporter, who said that the work of US troops in the Philippines includes intelligence, which has included the use of unmanned aerial vehicles.

According to Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) secretary-general Renato Reyes Jr., intelligence or surveillance already constitutes participation in combat operations. “We believe that US participation in intelligence work is already engagement in the armed conflict because it involves the deployment of resources and personnel against a hostile military target,” the Bayan leader said.

Simbulan had expressed a similar view in his interview with Bulatlat.

“(It is part of combat operations because) you identify what your targets are,” Simbulan said. “You do not just attack with a shotgun approach. You have first to identify your targets.”

Other purposes of US military presence in the Philippines, Lobregat said, are “winning hearts and minds, supporting effective communications…and sharing of experience.”

The first deployment of US troops to the Philippines since the 1991 Senate vote against the extension of the RP-US Military Bases Agreement took place in 2002, when the Balikatan 02-1 military exercises in Basilan were held. Since then, US troops have established a continuous presence in the country. (Bulatlat)

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