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Arroyo’s ‘All-Out War’ Pledge is in Pentagon’s Agenda

President Arroyo may have to watch her step in endorsing America’s new war against “international terrorism.” She could tumble and fall in a trap laid by the United States in which there is no way out. But then, Arroyo’s pledge of support is nothing new and is in fact consistent with her previous policy stand as far as Philippine-U.S. security ties are concerned.

BY BOBBY M. TUAZON*
Bulatlat.com

There is nothing surprising in President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s pledge of all-out support to the United States’ retaliatory action against the attackers of New York and Washington and, eventually, to that country’s fight against “international terrorism.” When she described the U.S.-led air strikes against Afghanistan as “the start of a just offensive” and pledged her government’s support to the coalition against global terrorism, she was just being consistent with her earlier stand to fight alongside the United States.

The problem is, by declaring her full support to the U.S. war against terrorism, she has in fact signaled her willingness to involve the Philippines in a new American security strategy in Asia Pacific. But that strategy involves not only the fight against perceived terrorism of the Osama bin Laden type but also cross-border aggression, civil wars, internal aggression (read: insurgency), armed uprisings and civil disturbances.

In September last year, as a vice president, Arroyo supported a proposal to form a multi-force to fight terrorism including piracy, banditry and drug trafficking not only in the Philippines but the rest of the region. Her stance came while Admiral Dennis Blair, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Command (CINCPAC) was holding a press briefing in Manila. Blair was talking about United States plans of a stronger multilateral security cooperation in Asia particularly in its Southeast Asian region in the light of growing international terrorism, Leftist insurgencies, ethnic conflicts and other core security issues.

In the same briefing, Blair cited expressions of concern by members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Manila about the explosive political and security scenario in the Philippines as elsewhere. This itself warrants the beefing up of a regional security framework, the Pacific Command chief said.

Top-level visit

Two weeks from now, Blair will head a top-level United States military team and a contingent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that will arrive in the Philippines in two weeks purportedly to assist the country’s security forces in their fight against the Abu Sayyaf band. In Washington’s list of terrorist organizations, the ASG is linked to Bin Laden’s Al Qaida international network.

The fact that the chief of the U.S. Pacific Command is leading the team raises questions whether the visit is confined only to pursuing the objective of wiping out the ASG and, hence, Bin Laden’s link in southern Philippines. Or is this the beginning of a plan to make the Philippines more deeply involved in the renewed American security strategy in the region which would include plans to eliminate once-and-for all the country’s acknowledged top national security problem – the Marxist-led armed struggle?

When Blair took over the U.S. Pacific command in Feb. 1999, he began promoting what he called “a security community” for Asia-Pacific. His plan included multilateral military and intelligence, bilateral-multilateral armed exercises as well as anti-insurgency civic programs and propaganda warfare such as “disaster relief.” One of the Pacific-command sponsored military exercises is the “Cobra Gold,” which included the Philippines, Thailand, Australia and Singapore.

Other components of the U.S. military package for the Philippines are exchange of intelligence information, visits and training in American anti-terrorism training schools and regular briefings. AFP and defense officials as well as a number of University of the Philippines political science and security experts regularly attend seminars at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS) in Hawaii which was opened by the Pentagon in 1995. Their reports give the Pacific Command valuable data and analysis on security issues in the Philippines and the region.

Security partnership

The Blair security plan has been backed by a Pentagon quasi-government think tank, Rand Corporation, which in a widely-reported proposal last May called for the widening of the U.S.’ bilateral security treaties with South Korea, Japan and Australia with those of the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand towards building a comprehensive multinational security partnership.

The overall Pentagon strategy, which traces its roots in the 1995 Clinton Doctrine, does not single out “international terrorism,” piracy and drug syndicates as major U.S. security concerns in the region alone. Uppermost in the minds of Pentagon strategy thinkers are other issues that warrant greater U.S. security involvement in Asia: cross-border aggression, civil wars, internal aggression (read: insurgency), armed uprisings and civil disturbances. They also see the threat of China as a power to contend with in the next few years, the internal conflicts in Indonesia and Malaysia, and the Leftist and Muslim “insurgencies” as security flashpoints.

Former U.S. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen made this quite clear early this year in his last annual report to Clinton and Congress. These concerns, he said, have the most serious potential consequences in Asia where U.S. economic interests will be affected and the lives of Americans will be endangered.

“The United States will do whatever it takes to defend them including, when necessary, the unilateral use of military power,” Cohen said.

In oblique reference to the VFA and other similar agreements with other countries, he said the use of U.S. military power will include “forces deployed temporarily for exercises, combined training or military-to-military interactions.” The other forces are those permanently stationed abroad, those rotationally deployed overseas, defense and security cooperation programs, “humanitarian and civic assistance,” as well as regional centers for security studies including the APCSS.

Show of force

In particular, Cohen said, American forces will be involved in “show-of-force operations, coercive campaigns, limited strikes, noncombatant evacuation operations, no-fly enforcement, maritime sanctions enforcement, operations to address a mass migration, counter-terrorism operations, peace operations, counter-drug operations, foreign humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and emergency operations overseas in support of other U.S. government agencies.”

Last week, Arroyo called on members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to support the new U.S. war on “international terrorism” and its air strikes against Afghanistan. She is expected to renew that call in next month in Brunei when Asean convenes and in Qatar when the Asia-Pacific Economic Council (Apec) convene.

Soon, the President is also flying to Washington and be part of a coterie of chiefs of state who have pledged their full support for President George W. Bush’s campaign against “international terrorism.”

These are indeed signs that the Philippines is going to fight again for America courtesy of Arroyo at a time of global recession and upsurge of Muslim resistance against perceived American interventionism worldwide. Bulatlat.com

(*Author is political analyst and a University of the Philippines political science professor who teaches international politics, among others.)

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