With the world going down the tube, we’re still shadow-boxing

When this writer left the country almost a month ago, the Senate and indeed the entire media were talking about "Rosebud", Panfilo Lacson, Victor Corpus, Mike Arroyo, and kidnapping. Upon my return, I find that they’re still talking about the same people and crimes. Sanamagan!

The Americans, reeling from their September 11 terrorist attacks, are trying to cobble together a coalition to seize Osama bin Laden, dethrone his protectors (the fanatical Islamic Taliban), infiltrate Afghanistan without inflicting more misery on the oppressed Afghani people – and what are we concerned about? Not that "war", but the "war" in the Senate, which has come to resemble a war zone. Wow! Newly-elected Senator Joker Arroyo, who delights in spearing opponents with his barbed tongue, lost his cool, even if none of fellow Senator Panfilo Lacson’s barbs mentioned him directly. Shot back Joker: "You want a fight? I’ll give you a fight. I wasn’t born yesterday!" We used to refer to our solons in the upper chamber as the "gentlemen of the Senate." They’re apparently gentlemen no longer. They’re brats and the Senate has become as unruly as a schoolyard when the "end-of-class" bell rings. Except that too many of our Senators, alas, have no class.

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The new way of referring to our Abu Sayyaf bandits is to call them Abu Sayyaf "terrorists." That’s the buzzword of the hour. In addition, of course, they are kidnappers, murderers, and thugs. If these are the so-called "holy warriors" for Islam’s cause, then we ought to teach them some real religion.

The Abus have been emboldened by the army’s and marines’ failure to corner them to the extent that they mortar-attacked Isabela, the capital of Basilan, the other day. It’s well-known that the Abus, although they’ve been put in a separate terrorist category, were bankrolled and are still being funded (aside from their huge ransom bonanzas) by bin Laden and his Al Qaeda bunch. They have to be crushed in the same manner.

However, the nagging thought intrudes. What if American commandos should succeed in tracking down bin Laden on his mountain lair and killing him? That would be to Americans and their friends (including this nation) a kind of "justice" for the thousands brutally destroyed in the Twin Towers (5,979 still "missing" and presumed dead) and the Pentagon. To the Muslim world, on the other hand, Osama would become a martyr. Other "Osamas" will rise up in his stead. My suggestion, and mind you it’s only a suggestion: Just get him, or kill him; then deny that you did. A little counter-terrorism is in order, I believe.

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The biggest beneficiary of the World Trade Center assaults has been Pakistan. President Pervez Musharraf, a general who blatantly seized power in a coup d’etat, and thus became a pariah in the Commonwealth, is now being courted by US President George W. Bush, and even more directly by Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair, who called on him personally, in Islamabad. With the Pakistanis being enlisted in the battle against terrorism and hailed as an ally by the Americans and the NATO countries, what is more populous India to think? India has been accusing Pakistan of infiltrating armed terrorists into their contested Kashmir region for 20 years. Indeed, the Paks had been aiding and abetting Moro rebellion in Mindanao.

The exigency makes strange bedfellows. Bush and Blair are right to attempt to enlist as many Muslim nations as possible to the fight against terrorism, the Islamic revolutionary bin Laden and the ruthless Islamic Taliban. But they must not expect anything but lip-service. When push comes to shove, the world’s Muslim leaders (fearing assassination or an overthrow fomented by their own radicals) will turn their backs on their pledges of support. Look at Uzbekistan in the former Soviet Central Asia, which has reluctantly agreed to take in 1,000 US soldiers (but not, the Uzbek President Islam Karimov underscored, for offensive purposes). The Uzbeks made one of their airbases available for US transport planes, helicopters and other aircraft, but only for search and rescue operations. Karimov made it plain that using the base for offensive action against Afghanistan, with which it shares a common border, would not be permitted, nor were US special forces units or commandos welcome.

Saudi Arabia is being called upon to help, and being reminded that the US and NATO countries joined a grand coalition to "save" the Saudis from attack by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. The Saudis are still complaining, though, that the US support for Israel over the years was one root cause of the terrorist attack on New York and Washington, DC. Let’s say that might be true, but does it justify the mass murder of unsuspecting civilians? Let’s not forget that many of the terrorist hijackers were Saudis (two even having come from the Saudi Air Force) along with Egyptians – and that Osama bin Laden is a Saudi, although his father immigrated from Yemen.

In the end, Americans will find that they stand alone – with probably one exception, the United Kingdom, led by an eloquent Blair who, immediately after the September 11 outrage, nailed his country’s flag to the mast and vowed that global terrorism must be extinguished, come what may. I like a man who has the guts to stand up, ready to fight bare-fisted against the foe. As for the other European "allies", there are already critical and querulous voices being raised in their societies about America having brought the curse on herself by being too swaggering, smug, and too rich. Is that any way friends should talk in the hour of a nation’s adversity?

I’m glad that our own President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has announced full and unstinting support of the US in the fight against bin Laden and terrorism. But, after all, we have for more than a decade now been under attack by bin Laden and his surrogates here, the Moro insurgents. It’s good that the Yanks, for their own reasons, have today been enlisted to our cause.

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The real "achievement" of the terrorists is that the world’s economy is in shambles. The Twin Towers and Pentagon attacks pushed America over the edge into a recession. In a domino-effect, the sharp downturn in the US economy has caused disarray and economic dismay in even the richest of Europe’s capitals. You can imagine what it is doing to our own economy – but we have one advantage over others: We long ago dropped off the "investment" radar screens of the world, and by now we’ve grown used to adversity, disappointment, being ignored and even being scorned. We’ve realized that we have to muster our own resources and overcome through (to borrow from the disgraced Bagong Lipunan’s lexicon) sariling sikap. It’s a useful word, whatever its origins.

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Among the hardest hit in the crisis were US airlines, whose planes are flying today with 50 percent of their seats empty. Americans are reluctant to return to air travel, so they stay home, or take the train and Greyhound bus. Hotels are going begging over there for customers and resort destinations like Honolulu are suffering mightily.

Amtrak, the country’s 22,000-mile inter-city rail system, although teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, is suddenly experiencing a boom. Amtrak, however, says it will still need at least $3 billion in added federal assistance to keep its trains rolling. (The current load of 22,000 passengers a day riding the inter-city rails represents a boost of 35 percent over normal.) As for Greyhound (on which my late mother once traveled from San Francisco to New York City), I thought that famous bus line was moribund. Today it is fielding 2,700 buses with 5,000 drivers to take up the slack in North America alone.

As for me, I didn’t experience the hassle I had anticipated at the Los Angeles ("Brady") international airport. My luggage went through smoothly enough, the security staff were courteous. Our Philippine Airlines flight PR 103 left on schedule, and after a comfortable journey we landed safely at NAIA. There’s no place like home!

Our stewardesses told me that PAL has seen no drop in Filipino passengers going to the US. Just goes to show that the Pinoy "bahala na" disposition is not afraid of Anthrax, germ or biochemical warfare, or airplane hi-jackers. They’re not even afraid of the once-dreaded INS, the US Immigration and Naturalization Service. After all, Mohammad Atta and all the other terrorists got into the US legitimately, on tourist or student visas!

Right now, 439 persons have been arrested or detained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the drive to track down terrorists and those who conspired in mounting the Twin Towers and Pentagon attacks. (500, if you include those detained by other law enforcement agencies, not to mention 150 detained outside the US.) Some $6 million in bank accounts and assets belonging to suspected terrorists have been sequestered. All these are a mere drop in the bucket. Al Qaeda is still far from being smashed or dismantled root and branch. Abangan.