Airheads and strategic realities

Airheads and strategic realities

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 02-23-2015 MON)

 

To paraphrase Albert Einstein: “An airhead (a person with nothing between the ears) is someone doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

 

I see a few hundred airheads and an airheaded Philippine mainstream media doing the same Edsa “people power” demonstrations again and again expecting “regime and systems change” but getting the same worsening corrupt, oligarchic and oppressive system.  Even worse, airheadedness is expecting regime change even when the indispensable requirement of US blessing is absent; hence, no forthcoming Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) “withdrawal of support” or direct military action as in Edsa I.

 

Rallies galore are heading to the Edsa Shrine from Feb. 22 to 28 where motley groups promise “a million” rallyists to force BS Aquino to resign (even when the popular anti-pork Million Man March managed only over 100,000 in spite of Sunday promenaders mixing in as kibitzers).

 

The groups range from the National Transformation Council (NTC) to Peping and Tingting’s Council on Philippine Affairs (COPA-cabana) loyalists, from Fr. Jose C. Blanco’s defunct creation Kasapi, to the Anti-Dynasty Coalition and Occupy Edsa movements, and groups from the progressive Left to FVR-linked Jose Malvar Villegas’ unknown crime watch group, and countless others trying to get their names into the news.

 

Subsumed under the common “Resign Noynoy” agenda are multifarious personal and subgroup agendas.  There is no hope for Aquino’s resignation since he enjoys the unmitigated blessings of Uncle Sam, to whom he has shown his ultimate canine devotion with the bloody sacrifice of the Philippine National Police (PNP)’s SAF (Special Action Forces) 44 on the altar of its “War on Terror” and BangsaMoro Basic Law (BBL) Balkanization.  Sans Uncle Sam’s blessing, there can be no AFP-PNP “withdrawal of support” a la Gen. Angelo Reyes against Erap Estrada (Edsa II) or military rebellion a la RAM (Reform the Armed Forces Movement) essential to Edsa I.

 

A genuine “people power” revolution without Uncle Sam can only succeed if and when a core of AFP officers joins the cause without US benediction.  Countries of Latin America have achieved this through relatively peaceful electoral revolutions, breaking free of US neocolonialism and pursuing independent economic development and foreign policies by way of people power and independent military factional support.  This was the case in Hugo Chavez’ liberation of Venezuela through the nationalization of its oil wealth, which was followed by Bolivia, Ecuador et al.

 

Among the anti-Aquino Edsa rallies since Feb. 22, the strategic movers are a small minority.  The progressive Left is one among such group: It boycotted Edsa I and found itself out of the political rigmarole that followed.  Its members then joined Edsa II and advanced their parliamentary struggle beyond their wildest dreams, albeit with strings attached.  Some individual strategists have clear objectives, too, like Ado Paglinawan of the NTC network who believes that a minimum target would be the crippling of the Aquinos’ and the Liberal Party’s political leverage for 2016.

 

The basic issue for the Philippines is the strategy of “perpetual war” of the US-British-Old European oligarchy.  This group, also known as the Trans-Atlantic Alliance, is using its proxies in Ukraine and has embroiled the European Union and Russia in economic-political tensions.  Fortunately, Germany, France, and Russia have rejected this in the recent Minsk Agreement for peace in Ukraine.  This Trans-Atlantic Imperial Alliance is doing the same in Africa and the Middle East, creating proxy terror groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic State to create chaos.

 

Peacefully prospering Asia is the final target; hence, the US’ Asian pivot positioning 60 percent of its military forces here by 2020; its push for Shinzo Abe’s Japanese militarization; and its promotion of Xinjiang and Mindanao secessionism.

 

Systematic mainstream media misinformation, like in the Inquirer’s recent hyper-exaggerated reports of “ramming” of three Filipino fishing boats and a BBC journalist’s baseless claim that “China has no friends,” blind Filipinos to the US’ hegemonic agenda and buries Deng Xiaoping’s offer of mutual beneficial joint development of China Sea islands (which is impliedly also a security partnership against any war).

 

Since the implied security alliance is rejected in favor of an RP alliance with the hegemonic US agenda, China has no choice but to proceed to beef up its perimeter defenses to counter preemptive US-Australian military facilities against the all-important access to sea lanes.

 

BS Aquino’s approval of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, granting unlimited US use of all Philippine military bases ensures US rejection of any regime change against him.

 

To ensure a successful genuine People Power in the future, the AFP young officers corps should be awakened to such injustices as the sacrifice of ordinary Filipinos as well as the SAF 44 massacre.

 

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