News Analysis

Goodbye, Emperor Bush
U.S. president to step up ‘war on terror,’ free trade

George W. Bush will be visiting a familiar territory – the region that for over a century has been a priority in America’s drive for global hegemony in order to ensure its continued access to major raw materials, trade and vital security and commercial routes. What will be unfamiliar to him is that the trip will not be all pomp and pageantry – he will be greeted by widespread protests enflamed by the illegitimacy of the war on terror and the bane of imperialist globalization.

By Bobby Tuazon
Bulatlat.com

The war on terror and free trade will underline U.S. President George W. Bush’s nine-day swing through six nations of Asia-Pacific – including the Philippines – beginning Oct. 17. The trip is also intended to thank Asian allies, among them President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, for supporting Bush’s unpopular war on terror against Afghanistan and Iraq and for sending forces and war materiel to war-torn Iraq which is now under U.S. neo-colonial occupation.

Bush will be visiting a familiar territory – the region that for over a century has been a priority in America’s drive for global hegemony meant to ensure its continued access to major raw materials, trade and vital security and commercial routes. What will be unfamiliar to him is that the trip will not be all pomp and pageantry – he will be greeted by widespread protests enflamed by the illegitimacy of the war on terror and the bane of imperialist globalization.

His official trip will kick off from California where he is expected to congratulate its new rightist governor, Hollywood celebrity Arnold Schwarzenegger. From there he will fly to Japan, then to the Philippines and Thailand (where he will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit). The next leg of his trip will include Singapore, Indonesia and Australia, where he will address a joint session of parliament in Canberra.

Bush is flying in at a time when support for the war and occupation of Iraq has plummeted in his own country and elsewhere in the world. U.S. forces are deep into a quagmire in Iraq amid guerrilla attacks that they are unable to prevent. Washington has been unsuccessful thus far in pushing for a UN multilateral force for peacekeeping mission in that Middle East country outside of the pledges of support already committed by Macapagal-Arroyo and other Asian allies. Meantime, the U.S. economy is on the edge of deflation and the Bush visit is expected to boost U.S. pressures to – in the light of the collapse of the recent Cancun WTO ministerial conference – forge new free trade agreements as well as new investment schemes favorable to U.S. transnational corporations. The first of such free trade agreement has been forged with Singapore early this year.

More commitments

No doubt the U.S. president will use his visit as a platform for the intensification of his “war on terror” and to extract more commitments to support not only America’s neocolonial and pacification campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq but also current war preparations against other members of the so-called “axis of evil” particularly North Korea and Iran. Inevitably, this particular agenda will also call for the strengthening of bilateral and multilateral security relationships conducive for the U.S. Pacific Command’s (PACOM) plans to bolster its power projection in the region. The plans have included, among others, the forward deployment of more forces, reshuffling of forces, joint anti-terrorism operations and a blueprint for a NATO-type regional defense force.

U.S. alliance with Japan is the linchpin of America’s military hegemony in Asia. Almost half of the 100,000 U.S. troops in the Far East are in Japan including the Marine Expeditionary Force and Fifth Air Force based in Okinawa that will be used in a war with North Korea. In the U.S.’ recent wars of aggression, Japan as a junior ally has played an active role by using the façade of peacekeeping and humanitarian missions even if these clearly exceeded the constitutional limits that provide only for a self-defense force.

Singapore, on the other hand, has been a leading advocate of stronger U.S. military presence in Southeast Asia and has even offered its territory for a military base. The 1990 Access Memorandum of Understanding allows U.S. carrier visits, aircraft deployments as well as naval and air training exercises.

Like Singapore, Thailand is a long-time ally where the U.S. PACOM enjoys rights of access and a high level of interoperability. It is here where the U.S. conducts centerpiece war exercises including Cobra Gold. Thailand had been under military dictatorship and supplied troops to fight America’s wars of aggression in Indochina during the 1970s. The Thai government has also sent at least 1,000 troops to Iraq.

Indonesia

The U.S. expects to renew a strong security relationship that it once enjoyed under the 33-year long authoritarian rule of General Soeharto whom Washington also supported. If it cannot rebuild its military base in the Philippines, it can potentially do so in Indonesia considering this country’s geostrategic position and – with the world’s largest Muslim population and a large oil industry – its own regional influence. Indonesia is a gateway between the Pacific and Indian Oceans and straddles some of the world’s critical sea lines of communication.

Chiefly because of Prime Minister John Howard’s own warmongering, Australia has sent combat troops to both Afghanistan and Iraq aside from naval contingents. It is with Australia that the U.S. maintains some 250 defense-related bilateral agreements. Military ties between the two countries have been upgraded during the past few years with bigger and more frequent bilateral war exercises and a more visible presence of the U.S. Navy. Australia, which seeks to project itself as a regional power, provides a key link to America’s global military domination as it hosts strategic intelligence-gathering programs and is a partner in the Pentagon’s secretive new missile defense system.

Philippines

Compared to other Southeast Asian countries, however, it is the Philippines where its government has long salivated to become not only America’s most trusted ally but its own propaganda mouthpiece in the region. And this is the reason why Bush will use his visit in Manila to – upon Macapagal-Arroyo’s own prodding – address a joint session of Congress on Oct. 18. Seen from that angle, Bush’s presence in the Philippine Congress is a virtual endorsement for Macapagal-Arroyo’s bid for the presidency in the May 2004 elections.

Bush’s tacit support for Macapagal-Arroyo’s presidency is not at all unexpected and is not without reason. With her unequivocal support for Bush’s war on terrorism and strong military presence in the region even when her own country cannot afford it, the U.S. has used the Philippines as its “second front” in the global war against terrorism. As a result, the U.S. has won legitimacy and expediency for a deeper war interventionism in this country as well as for using the Philippines as a staging base for greater military presence in Southeast Asia. Bush is also expected to reiterate military aid pledges as well as investment packages particularly in Mindanao where the U.S. is pressuring the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to capitulate in exchange for development assistance. Today Macapagal-Arroyo is described as a puppet without equal for trading her country’s sovereignty and her own people’s civil liberties for that crucial U.S. tacit support to her presidency.

U.S. security relationships with Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia are seen however as unilateral impositions by America that have nothing to do at all with ensuring the security of these countries. Rather, these security arrangements – backed by military bases, war exercises, forward deployment of forces and the USPACOM – provide the full spectrum mechanism for guaranteeing America’s economic and geopolitical interests while preventing the rise of a rival military power in the region. As a matter of fact, these security relationships are being calibrated to support U.S. wars of aggression as far as the Persian Gulf, Central Asia and elsewhere. Coincidentally, the U.S. military presence is also used to rein in governments and maintain regimes who help administer America’s junior allies, quasi-protectorates and – in the case of the Philippines – neo-colonies.

Anti-war movements

The current war on terror has however generated strong anti-war movements in Asia particularly in Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines and Australia. The anti-war movements have arisen alongside the worldwide resistance to globalization and are germinating higher levels of struggles against U.S. imperialism and its military bases. There is a growing awareness among peoples in the region that the U.S. has been the main source of instability and oppression and that their sovereign integrity can only be guaranteed through non-interference by all foreign powers and the phase-out of all types of foreign military presence. The U.S. stands accused of instigating terrorist acts in order to justify greater armed interventionism and military presence in the region.

The latest report is that big protest actions will greet Bush’s Asia visit. A news release by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) last week reveals that Workers’ Democracy, among several groups, will spearhead mass actions in Bangkok in time for the Apec summit and the Bush visit. In Japan, nationwide mass protests led by the Asia-Wide Campaign (AWC) and other organizations will call for an end to U.S. military occupation and protest the Koizumi government’s dispatch of Japanese soldiers to Iraq.

A “Day of Ridicule” will be staged on Oct. 29 when Bush is expected to address the Australian parliament in Canberra. The Sydney Peace and Justice Coalition, one of the lead organizers of anti-war rallies protesting the U.S. war on Iraq, will again take to the streets “to give George the welcome he deserves.” In the Philippines, “Ban Bush” indignation rallies will be launched nationwide with Metro Manila as the center of city-wide protest actions. The Legislators Against War (LAW) led by Bayan Muna representatives will also protest when Bush addresses the Philippine Congress in a joint session.

Similar mass protests are also set in the United States. Bulatlat.com

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