Herman Tiu Laurel
5/7-5/13/2012
OpinYon
I grew up with the United Nation's message of World Peace hung on my elementary classroom. That era of utopian peace vision ended at the turn of the last century and optimism from the closure of the Cold War soured as the West's imperial projects became apparent again over the decade. Led by U.S. neoconservatives' vision known as the PNAC (Project for a new American Century) to reestablish U.S. predominance over the World.
The PNAC pined for a New Pearl Harbor to re-ignite U.S. patriotism and serendipitously came the shock and awe of the 2011 World Trade Center 9/11 terrorist attack allowing George W. Bush his "Axis of Evil" State of the Union Address on January 2001, subsequently leading to the attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2006 in a Zogby poll, 30% of the American people believe the U.S. government was engaged in a "cover up" and many believe it was an "inside job".
Project for a New American Century
In the mid-2000s the indisputable confirmation of the new hegemonistic crusade emerged: Nato Yugoslavia war commander, 4-star General Wesley Clark in his memoirs "A Time to Lead" recalls two visits to the Pentagon after the 9/11 incident and in those occasions narrates that a "senior general" told him "We're going to attack Iraq. The decision has basically been made, and six weeks later the same general held up a memo to him saying "Here's the paper from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Ronald Rumsfeld) outlining the strategy. We're going to take out seven countries in five years.", and named Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Iran. The U.S., dragging Nato along, has been or are in or around all those countries today fomenting "regime change". Unmentioned in all these is the fact that the fall of these countries constitute a stranglehold on Middle East and Africa oil, a sine qua non for constricting oil to China and eventual encirclement.
World Peace today is more elusive than ever before, incontrovertibly due to U.S.-Nato "exuberance" in all continents of the World, the latest in its basing of 2,500 Marines in Darwin, Australia in it "refocus" on Asia-Pacific and the announced deployment of "missile defense systems" in Japan, South Korea, and rumored, believe it or not, even in the Philippines. The missiles here may still be a rumor but the spy and weaponized drones are already believed flying about in the Southern islands and reportedly killed 15 Abu Sayyaf fighters. Given this reality in the Philippines, including the reported "rendition" of terrorists the U.S. catches in foreign lands and brought to the Philippines for interrogation and torture (see "Gregan", Carlos Isagani T. Zarate's April 30, 2012 column of Filipino believed "suicided" by U.S. military in Zamboanga), we clearly can't expect the Philippine government to examine its foreign policy in relation to U.S. imperial overreach.
Filipinos, citizens of a Republic and of the World, have an obligation to engage in forming world public views on matters affecting our nation in the community of nations. Corny as it may now sound to some, our World's and children's peace is at stake. After the deceptions for war in "Saddam's WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and Osama bin Laden's improbable role in WTC 9/11, the "R2P" or "right to protect" in Libya, "humanitarian intervention" in Syria, and the alleged "kill" of Osama bin Laden but show not even DNA proof, can we trust U.S. claims to lead the globe to peace? If not, why then are we as a nation silent about the U.S. abuse of power everywhere – from the U.N. Security Council to all continents of the World. Lord Acton's famous phrase "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely," we appreciate when applied to governments, but it is as true for global powers. When the Soviet Union fell the U.S. became the sole power and it ate into its brain – PNAC was born.
BRICS to build a Multi-Polar World
The U.S. and Europe, misleadingly appropriating for their selves the term "international community", are allied in the project for hegemony over the World; but the real and greater international community comprising 70% of the World's population has refused to go along. These countries are organizing an alternative World to supplant the U.S.-Nato vision of the 21st Century. It is the most historic development that will shape the rest of next 90 years of this century – the BRICS alliance of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, building currency bridges to skirt the global US Dollar system and establishing a BRICS bank as an alternative source for developing nations. BRICS blasted U.S.-Nato intervention in Libya, opposes outside intervention in Syria, and is effectively helping Iran survive unilateral U.S. economic sanctions as China and India buy more Iranian oil using gold, barter and each other's currencies to trade.
World Peace will depend greatly on how Iran survives the onslaught of U.S. sanctions. A fallen Iran would bring U.S. and Nato to the Russian border and control of 20% of China's oil supply. That's a situation tempting for Western powers to exploit and likely the last straw for the long wary Eurasian and Asian powers. In a "next war" global holocaust is imminent. Hence, it's better to keep the balance of power where it is today maintain, expand and fortify the current "multi-polar world" to distribute global powers amongst more players against the consolidation of global power into a "uni-polar world" under a U.S. hegemony. What policy does the Philippine government have on this issue? There is no discussion of it but by its actions it is clear the Aquino III government and cabinet are scampering behind like a little ugly duckling tailing Mother Goose. The Philippine president and his cabinet are blatantly obsessed with playing sidekick to the U.S. even as the Lone Ranger refuses to declare its loyalty to the Philippine cause.
Hillary Clinton prefers to officially state that "The United States supports a collaborative diplomatic process by all those involved for resolving the various disputes that they encounter," which makes cabinet member Albert del Rosario and Voltaire "Rambo" Gazmin seeking partisan support and the country they represent, in the words of Sen. Joker Arroyo "… look like beggars". While the Aquino III administration continues to hew to the age-old Philippine "little brown brother" role, other emerging economies and nations are in advancing their breakaway from the dependencies and inequities of the neo-colonial past, forging economic progress with each other: Venezuela recently signed a $ 130-M offshore oil development project with Iran which has the technology, and Vietnam has joint oil exploration with India and Russia. In the Philippines, Recto bank project is delayed due to Chinese hostility to the Philippine government and the project.
Rambos or Peace makers and De-nuclearization
Del Rosario and Gazmin went to the U.S. to obtain equipment for "credible deterrence" while CNN was reporting the "pagpag" or recycled garbage eaters of the Philippines. The oil in the Philippine claims of the China Sea remain unexplored and untapped, and projects in the pipeline are getting clogged up by the acrimony with China. The Philippines present leadership doesn't even make an appearance of trying to figure out what Filipinos really need under the present circumstances, it just maintains its Rambo posturing. The Filipino should be dismayed that this government simply doesn't have any inkling about the broader issues of the World that affect our country – global stability for global development, the multi-polar world and the abundant opportunities it offers, the great boon that BRICS is in terms of economic alliances and projects, and the potentially great role of the Philippines in helping BRICS build World Peace as the present generation's legacy to the next.
The great aspiration for this century is global nuclear disarmament. The Philippine government has no progressive and honest policy on this, preferring only to parrot the U.S. State Department line, condemning the North Korean rocket test but silent on Israeli possession of 200 nuclear missiles and on the recent Indian and Pakistan successful missile tests. In Syria where the balance of World power hangs today and Filipinos OFWs are in peril, it has no clear policy. On the aggression facing Iran that puts Philippine oil supply and costs in peril the government has no creative initiative. There is no thinking "out of the box" of traditional U.S.-Philippines ties that straitjackets the conduct of Philippine foreign affairs. Suffice it to say at this point that if the Philippine government had the ability to exercise leeway, support for Iran and North Korea would be the best steps towards global nuclear disarmament.
If Iran and North Korea attain even a limited degree of "MAD" (Mutual Assured Destruction) with Israel and the U.S. the global nuclear weapons disarmament table would be assured of a quorum. The tension will continue into the future, however there will be a short period of respite between now and the U.S. elections, the feared Iran-U.S./Israel confrontation is put off the rest of 2012 with Obama unwilling to engage in conflict before the U.S. elections and Israel wracked with divisions between war-itchy Netanyahu and detractors including former Mossad chiefs and prime ministers. Meanwhile, I urge readers to join in preaching the gospel of Multi-Polarism and the BRICS road to World Peace and democracy – and for the Philippines and Filipinos to drop its dependency on the U.S. syndrome.
The PNAC pined for a New Pearl Harbor to re-ignite U.S. patriotism and serendipitously came the shock and awe of the 2011 World Trade Center 9/11 terrorist attack allowing George W. Bush his "Axis of Evil" State of the Union Address on January 2001, subsequently leading to the attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2006 in a Zogby poll, 30% of the American people believe the U.S. government was engaged in a "cover up" and many believe it was an "inside job".
Project for a New American Century
In the mid-2000s the indisputable confirmation of the new hegemonistic crusade emerged: Nato Yugoslavia war commander, 4-star General Wesley Clark in his memoirs "A Time to Lead" recalls two visits to the Pentagon after the 9/11 incident and in those occasions narrates that a "senior general" told him "We're going to attack Iraq. The decision has basically been made, and six weeks later the same general held up a memo to him saying "Here's the paper from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Ronald Rumsfeld) outlining the strategy. We're going to take out seven countries in five years.", and named Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Iran. The U.S., dragging Nato along, has been or are in or around all those countries today fomenting "regime change". Unmentioned in all these is the fact that the fall of these countries constitute a stranglehold on Middle East and Africa oil, a sine qua non for constricting oil to China and eventual encirclement.
World Peace today is more elusive than ever before, incontrovertibly due to U.S.-Nato "exuberance" in all continents of the World, the latest in its basing of 2,500 Marines in Darwin, Australia in it "refocus" on Asia-Pacific and the announced deployment of "missile defense systems" in Japan, South Korea, and rumored, believe it or not, even in the Philippines. The missiles here may still be a rumor but the spy and weaponized drones are already believed flying about in the Southern islands and reportedly killed 15 Abu Sayyaf fighters. Given this reality in the Philippines, including the reported "rendition" of terrorists the U.S. catches in foreign lands and brought to the Philippines for interrogation and torture (see "Gregan", Carlos Isagani T. Zarate's April 30, 2012 column of Filipino believed "suicided" by U.S. military in Zamboanga), we clearly can't expect the Philippine government to examine its foreign policy in relation to U.S. imperial overreach.
Filipinos, citizens of a Republic and of the World, have an obligation to engage in forming world public views on matters affecting our nation in the community of nations. Corny as it may now sound to some, our World's and children's peace is at stake. After the deceptions for war in "Saddam's WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and Osama bin Laden's improbable role in WTC 9/11, the "R2P" or "right to protect" in Libya, "humanitarian intervention" in Syria, and the alleged "kill" of Osama bin Laden but show not even DNA proof, can we trust U.S. claims to lead the globe to peace? If not, why then are we as a nation silent about the U.S. abuse of power everywhere – from the U.N. Security Council to all continents of the World. Lord Acton's famous phrase "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely," we appreciate when applied to governments, but it is as true for global powers. When the Soviet Union fell the U.S. became the sole power and it ate into its brain – PNAC was born.
BRICS to build a Multi-Polar World
The U.S. and Europe, misleadingly appropriating for their selves the term "international community", are allied in the project for hegemony over the World; but the real and greater international community comprising 70% of the World's population has refused to go along. These countries are organizing an alternative World to supplant the U.S.-Nato vision of the 21st Century. It is the most historic development that will shape the rest of next 90 years of this century – the BRICS alliance of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, building currency bridges to skirt the global US Dollar system and establishing a BRICS bank as an alternative source for developing nations. BRICS blasted U.S.-Nato intervention in Libya, opposes outside intervention in Syria, and is effectively helping Iran survive unilateral U.S. economic sanctions as China and India buy more Iranian oil using gold, barter and each other's currencies to trade.
World Peace will depend greatly on how Iran survives the onslaught of U.S. sanctions. A fallen Iran would bring U.S. and Nato to the Russian border and control of 20% of China's oil supply. That's a situation tempting for Western powers to exploit and likely the last straw for the long wary Eurasian and Asian powers. In a "next war" global holocaust is imminent. Hence, it's better to keep the balance of power where it is today maintain, expand and fortify the current "multi-polar world" to distribute global powers amongst more players against the consolidation of global power into a "uni-polar world" under a U.S. hegemony. What policy does the Philippine government have on this issue? There is no discussion of it but by its actions it is clear the Aquino III government and cabinet are scampering behind like a little ugly duckling tailing Mother Goose. The Philippine president and his cabinet are blatantly obsessed with playing sidekick to the U.S. even as the Lone Ranger refuses to declare its loyalty to the Philippine cause.
Hillary Clinton prefers to officially state that "The United States supports a collaborative diplomatic process by all those involved for resolving the various disputes that they encounter," which makes cabinet member Albert del Rosario and Voltaire "Rambo" Gazmin seeking partisan support and the country they represent, in the words of Sen. Joker Arroyo "… look like beggars". While the Aquino III administration continues to hew to the age-old Philippine "little brown brother" role, other emerging economies and nations are in advancing their breakaway from the dependencies and inequities of the neo-colonial past, forging economic progress with each other: Venezuela recently signed a $ 130-M offshore oil development project with Iran which has the technology, and Vietnam has joint oil exploration with India and Russia. In the Philippines, Recto bank project is delayed due to Chinese hostility to the Philippine government and the project.
Rambos or Peace makers and De-nuclearization
Del Rosario and Gazmin went to the U.S. to obtain equipment for "credible deterrence" while CNN was reporting the "pagpag" or recycled garbage eaters of the Philippines. The oil in the Philippine claims of the China Sea remain unexplored and untapped, and projects in the pipeline are getting clogged up by the acrimony with China. The Philippines present leadership doesn't even make an appearance of trying to figure out what Filipinos really need under the present circumstances, it just maintains its Rambo posturing. The Filipino should be dismayed that this government simply doesn't have any inkling about the broader issues of the World that affect our country – global stability for global development, the multi-polar world and the abundant opportunities it offers, the great boon that BRICS is in terms of economic alliances and projects, and the potentially great role of the Philippines in helping BRICS build World Peace as the present generation's legacy to the next.
The great aspiration for this century is global nuclear disarmament. The Philippine government has no progressive and honest policy on this, preferring only to parrot the U.S. State Department line, condemning the North Korean rocket test but silent on Israeli possession of 200 nuclear missiles and on the recent Indian and Pakistan successful missile tests. In Syria where the balance of World power hangs today and Filipinos OFWs are in peril, it has no clear policy. On the aggression facing Iran that puts Philippine oil supply and costs in peril the government has no creative initiative. There is no thinking "out of the box" of traditional U.S.-Philippines ties that straitjackets the conduct of Philippine foreign affairs. Suffice it to say at this point that if the Philippine government had the ability to exercise leeway, support for Iran and North Korea would be the best steps towards global nuclear disarmament.
If Iran and North Korea attain even a limited degree of "MAD" (Mutual Assured Destruction) with Israel and the U.S. the global nuclear weapons disarmament table would be assured of a quorum. The tension will continue into the future, however there will be a short period of respite between now and the U.S. elections, the feared Iran-U.S./Israel confrontation is put off the rest of 2012 with Obama unwilling to engage in conflict before the U.S. elections and Israel wracked with divisions between war-itchy Netanyahu and detractors including former Mossad chiefs and prime ministers. Meanwhile, I urge readers to join in preaching the gospel of Multi-Polarism and the BRICS road to World Peace and democracy – and for the Philippines and Filipinos to drop its dependency on the U.S. syndrome.
(Tune in to 1098AM, DWAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN's HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on "Mindanao's Revenge" with Govs. Bono Adaza and Al Tillah; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)
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