DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / May 5, 2014 / Daily Tribune
It was headlined as a “Believe or Not” story, the recent and widely reported Pew Research survey result showing 86 percent of “Filipinos love the US more than the Yanks.” Despite historical and present realities: Filipinos murdered en masse in the Fil-Am War and then sacrificed wholesale to protect the rear of General McArthur’s forces in WWII, and today’s continuing economic rape by imposed debt, taxation and privatization from US sponsored institutions like the IMF-WB and transnational corporations — the Filipinos’ cross-eyed view seems inexplicable. It is hard to imagine any other country where such a view would be possible.
A survey last year by Worldwide Independent Network/Gallup placed the US as the “biggest threat to peace” and among the most hated in the World. This cuts across almost all continents. There is hardly any section of this Earth that the US has not waged wars against smaller nations and killed countless non-combatant, innocent lives. The top 10 haters of the US are Pakistan, the Palestinian Territories, Algeria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Greece, Serbia. Many of these countries have experienced US political and economic imperialism first hand. Latin American and African countries are not far behind.
James Lucas writes in countercurrents.org referring to William Blum, American critic of US wars, listing deaths from US aggression after World War II: “US Miliary forces were directly responsible for about 10 to 15 million deaths during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the two Iraq Wars... between nine and 14 million deaths in Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor, Guatemala, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sudan... The remaining deaths were in smaller ones (wars)... Virtually all parts of the world have been the target of US intervention... the US most likely has been responsible since WWII for the deaths of between 20 and 30 million people...”
US victimizations of Filipinos persist to this day, though not on massive scales as yet. But are hundreds killed by attacks and bombs attributed to “Muslim rebels” that are actually supplied and instigated by US agents, such as the Davao bombing early 2000s. Proof? The 2002 case of Michael Meiring who assembled bombs at the Davao Evergreen Hotel, suspected and said by police sources to be supplied to Abu Sayyaf et al. One accidentally set off and maimed Meiring. The US Embassy and FBI swooped down, stopped local police investigations (Duterte and Col. Boggie Mendoza, if memory serves me right, were stopped), paid the hospital bills and flew Meiring to the US.
The 2010 mysterious deaths of Gregan Cardeno, a private interpreter in Bahasa contracted by US operations in Marawi City, and Capt. Javier Ignacio who was helping in the investigation of the Gregan’s death. The deaths have been forgotten by the Philippine government despite the calls of their families. And there’s the alleged Abu Sayyaf killed by a US “to whom it may concern” drone in 2012. These incidents are evidence of US military operations here even before the recent Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement or (EDCA) signing. How many more victims from such US operations like Michael Meiring and the “rendition” center (apparently interrogating kidnapped Indonesian suspects) in Marawi are going we may never really know.
The US pivot to Asia will shift 2/3 of US aircraft carrier fleets, war jets, missiles and troops to this region by 2020. One can imagine what it is for. Although the coy Obama declared last week that he has no intention of “containing” and “constricting” China, many in the US foreign policy and military establishment have a different view as an October 2013 article from Foreign Policy magazine by John Reed entitled “New US Drone Base Is America’s Latest Move to Contain China” from Japanese soil. Another FP article said, “Where the Drones Are... mapping the launch pads for Obama’s secret wars”, by Micah Zenko and Emma Welch, “Location: Zamboanga, Philippines, Coordinates: 6.92, 122.06; … the US to fly unmanned surveillance drones ... The most active site is in Zamboanga, one of the locations where the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines is based...”
A family Zamboangueno guest, married to a German, told us the US has been inside Zamboanga’s Southcom years before EDCA, and even Filipino officers can’t get into the US section. Our guest told us too that Germans detest the US even more now, pressuring Europe to sanction Russia. The US is creating a new Syria in Ukraine. In 2020 it will be Asia’s turn and the Philippines is “it.” Who’s to save the World from the US? Thank goodness Russia, South and Eastern Ukrainians and President Putin is blocking the US there. We all should help Russia by identifying the US as the World’s and Philippines’ nemesis.
(Tune in to “Sulo ng Pilipino” on 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.; catch GNN’s Talk News TV with HTL Destiny Cable channel 8, SkyCable channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday 8 a.m.; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)
It was headlined as a “Believe or Not” story, the recent and widely reported Pew Research survey result showing 86 percent of “Filipinos love the US more than the Yanks.” Despite historical and present realities: Filipinos murdered en masse in the Fil-Am War and then sacrificed wholesale to protect the rear of General McArthur’s forces in WWII, and today’s continuing economic rape by imposed debt, taxation and privatization from US sponsored institutions like the IMF-WB and transnational corporations — the Filipinos’ cross-eyed view seems inexplicable. It is hard to imagine any other country where such a view would be possible.
A survey last year by Worldwide Independent Network/Gallup placed the US as the “biggest threat to peace” and among the most hated in the World. This cuts across almost all continents. There is hardly any section of this Earth that the US has not waged wars against smaller nations and killed countless non-combatant, innocent lives. The top 10 haters of the US are Pakistan, the Palestinian Territories, Algeria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Greece, Serbia. Many of these countries have experienced US political and economic imperialism first hand. Latin American and African countries are not far behind.
James Lucas writes in countercurrents.org referring to William Blum, American critic of US wars, listing deaths from US aggression after World War II: “US Miliary forces were directly responsible for about 10 to 15 million deaths during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the two Iraq Wars... between nine and 14 million deaths in Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor, Guatemala, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sudan... The remaining deaths were in smaller ones (wars)... Virtually all parts of the world have been the target of US intervention... the US most likely has been responsible since WWII for the deaths of between 20 and 30 million people...”
US victimizations of Filipinos persist to this day, though not on massive scales as yet. But are hundreds killed by attacks and bombs attributed to “Muslim rebels” that are actually supplied and instigated by US agents, such as the Davao bombing early 2000s. Proof? The 2002 case of Michael Meiring who assembled bombs at the Davao Evergreen Hotel, suspected and said by police sources to be supplied to Abu Sayyaf et al. One accidentally set off and maimed Meiring. The US Embassy and FBI swooped down, stopped local police investigations (Duterte and Col. Boggie Mendoza, if memory serves me right, were stopped), paid the hospital bills and flew Meiring to the US.
The 2010 mysterious deaths of Gregan Cardeno, a private interpreter in Bahasa contracted by US operations in Marawi City, and Capt. Javier Ignacio who was helping in the investigation of the Gregan’s death. The deaths have been forgotten by the Philippine government despite the calls of their families. And there’s the alleged Abu Sayyaf killed by a US “to whom it may concern” drone in 2012. These incidents are evidence of US military operations here even before the recent Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement or (EDCA) signing. How many more victims from such US operations like Michael Meiring and the “rendition” center (apparently interrogating kidnapped Indonesian suspects) in Marawi are going we may never really know.
The US pivot to Asia will shift 2/3 of US aircraft carrier fleets, war jets, missiles and troops to this region by 2020. One can imagine what it is for. Although the coy Obama declared last week that he has no intention of “containing” and “constricting” China, many in the US foreign policy and military establishment have a different view as an October 2013 article from Foreign Policy magazine by John Reed entitled “New US Drone Base Is America’s Latest Move to Contain China” from Japanese soil. Another FP article said, “Where the Drones Are... mapping the launch pads for Obama’s secret wars”, by Micah Zenko and Emma Welch, “Location: Zamboanga, Philippines, Coordinates: 6.92, 122.06; … the US to fly unmanned surveillance drones ... The most active site is in Zamboanga, one of the locations where the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines is based...”
A family Zamboangueno guest, married to a German, told us the US has been inside Zamboanga’s Southcom years before EDCA, and even Filipino officers can’t get into the US section. Our guest told us too that Germans detest the US even more now, pressuring Europe to sanction Russia. The US is creating a new Syria in Ukraine. In 2020 it will be Asia’s turn and the Philippines is “it.” Who’s to save the World from the US? Thank goodness Russia, South and Eastern Ukrainians and President Putin is blocking the US there. We all should help Russia by identifying the US as the World’s and Philippines’ nemesis.
(Tune in to “Sulo ng Pilipino” on 1098 AM, dwAD, Tuesday to Friday, 5 p.m.; catch GNN’s Talk News TV with HTL Destiny Cable channel 8, SkyCable channel 213, and www.gnntv-asia.com, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday 8 a.m.; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)
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