U.S. Presidential Bets Want Troops Out of RP

By Bobby Tuazon
Bulatlat

Incumbent U.S. President George W. Bush, a Republican, and Democrat Sen. John Kerry are not the only candidates for the American presidency in November this year. Also in the race are Ralph Nader, a lifelong consumerist, and seven others, many of them from the American Left.

If he wins, Kerry will mostly likely continue Bush’s policy of deploying troops in the Philippines which has been much criticized here in the Philippines as interventionist. But seven other candidates believe they should be sent back to the United States.

Four of the seven presidentiables also believe that Jose Maria Sison, founding chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), should be removed from the list of “terrorists” issued by the U.S. departments of state and treasury.

Five of them also believe that U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Iraq.

The survey findings were released last July 28 by the Network in Solidarity with the People of the Philippines (NISPOP) based in New York. NISPOP sent survey questionnaires to Bush, Kerry, Nader and seven other candidates running for the presidency to ask their reactions on four questions: on the U.S. troops in the Philippines; on the listing of Sison as “terrorist”; U.S. forces in Iraq; and on the USA PATRIOT ACT.

NISPOP, according to its spokesman Dan Wilson, does not endorse any candidate. It conducted the survey just the same in line with its campaign for human rights and a just and lasting peace in the Philippines.

Better than Bush and Kerry

When it comes to the four questions, Wilson said, Kerry’s score is not notably better than Bush’s. Eight of their rivals, including Nader who is known to be a pacifist, are better than both Bush and Kerry on the issues, he said.

“We find it noteworthy that all of the minor candidates - even the Libertarian and Constitution Parties which are not on the left - are better on these issues than are the two bought and paid for by oil companies, banks, and other multinational corporations,” Wilson added.

Aside from Kerry and Bush, interviewed in the NISPOP survey were Nader (Reform Party); David Cobb (Green); Michael Badnarik (Libertarian); Michael Peroutka (Constitution); Róger Calero (Socialist Workers); Walter F. (Walt) Brown (Socialist); John Parker (Workers World); and Bill Van Auken (Socialist Equality).

Kerry, Bush, Nader and Calero failed to respond to the questions. But especially with Bush and Kerry, their stance on the four issues is known.

Bush started the “war on terror” which led to the deployment of U.S. forces in the Philippines. It was also under his presidency when Sison, along with the CPP and New People’s Army, was included in the U.S. terrorist list.

Kerry has supported Bush’s “war on terror.” During the Marcos dictatorship, he led a U.S. Senate delegation in the Philippines to investigate allegations of human rights violations. 

Another candidate, Brown, said he served in the U.S. Navy at Subic Bay in the early 1960s.

Speaking for NISPOP, Wilson said some Americans “will agree with us on these issues and their importance, but will choose to vote for Kerry for pragmatic reasons summed up by the slogan ‘Anybody but Bush.’ That is their prerogative.”

He notes, however, that when it comes to these issues - troops in the Philippines and Iraq, the war on anti-imperialists and national liberation struggles under the “war on terror” rubric, and the USA PATRIOT Act - Kerry’s score is not notably better than Bush’s. Bulatlat

Candidates’ responses, based on the NISPOP survey

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