If we examine history, war – not peace, alas – is the lot of all mankind

It was fine for 3,000 "anti-war" advocates, led by His Political Turbulence Jaime Cardinal Sin (who bestirred himself from his sickbed) to rally last Friday for World Peace.

Most of us who use EDSA and the surrounding streets, of course, wish that People Powerists and prayerful demonstrators as well as the Usual Leftists would hold their rallies somewhere else rather than at the EDSA Shrine. For those demonstrations of faith and political phlegm always gum up traffic, and a lot of other people have to pass through those areas bound for work, play or the worship of lesser gods.

After all, who’s not for "peace"? Everybody wants peace. Nobody really gets it.

I used to teach history – Philippine, Oriental, European, Diplomatic history (from St. Theresa’s to Far Eastern University, University of the East, St. Paul’s and ADMU) – some of these schools had ambitious curricula and occasionally had to tap ignoramuses like me to fill up the faculty list).

I even used to handle a fascinating course named – by the university, not by me – "Epitomé of Western Civilization". This was at the Ateneo. One of the best ways to learn about any subject was to be compelled to teach it. (There are always some wiseguys in every class who read two chapters ahead of the professor, so they can ask questions which embarrass him and reveal his stupidity. So you had to keep at least five or six books ahead of such potential pitfalls.)

A study of Western civilization shows that it traces its roots to the "fertile crescent", meaning those great rivers that flow through the Middle and Near East: the Tigris, Euphrates, and the Nile. It was the Nile that gave life to Egypt’s grand and ancient civilization, dating back more than 7,000 years. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers, on the other hand, originated in Turkey and gave life to the other great civilizations of the Middle East, including, if you’ll notice on the chart those that flourished in and around what is now known as Iraq. If you look at the battle maps published in current newspapers and newsmagazines, you’ll find that the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow through Iraq.

Another important thing history reminds us about is that war, not peace, is the natural condition of man. The famous Spanish historian, Salvador de Madariaga, who once gave a renowned Rizal Lecture (which is why he’s better known in this country), used to say that it is a happy nation which has a short history. He didn’t mean that a happy nation was short-lived: He wanted to point out that when the History Book written about a nation is thin, not thick with pages, it’s clearly because that nation was engaged in very few wars.

Sus, every great nation won its liberty and identity with at least one great Revolution, punctuated by scores of rebellions, and an occasional great Civil War. Of course, as even the Bible says, we cry "peace, peace" – but there is no peace. How many people have tried to "beat swords into ploughshares," then, afterwards, have to beat them back into swords again. Why, most countries nowadays even beat swords into market shares – only to find in the present worldwide recession that their market shares are falling.

What I’m trying to say is that prayers and hopes for peace are admirable and necessary, but wars will and sometimes, must be waged. It’s true that all wars are "immoral". It’s also true that they bring suffering, death, and heartbreak to the innocent. This is how it’s always been. There are times when wars are inevitable. There are times when wars are also necessary. In the latter category are those wars fought in self-defense.

There are many critics of our "war" in Mindanao. Some of their arguments are correct. Most though are spurious and hypocritical. Let me say it again: We fight rebellion because, as a Republic of free men and women, we must defend ourselves. Naturally, thousands of civilians, non-combatants, men, women, children, and babies suffer, and even die. As a journeyman journalist and correspondent, this writer has covered wars, in Luzon and Mindanao, and in several other countries from Asia to the Middle East, as well as encountered worse suffering, privation, starvation, death and even massacre. Nobody ever grows inured to the terrors of combat or the horrors of conflict. But every suffering nation endures.

Those who cry peace and in the same breath condemn those who soldier for our Republic as criminals, savages, warmongers, and destroyers of the peace do our fighting men a grave injustice. They bleed for us, yet we repay them in the coin of scorn. Not every soldier can be heroic at all times. Armies have their ruffians as well as their brave men and women. There are those who’re criminal in their intent. But our military and police are there as the guardians of our country. Will the rebels, either ideological (like the New People’s Army) or religiously fanatic (like the MILF, MNLF, the Abu Sayyaf, and other "Lost Commands") treat our population with more humanity if they win?

Just as a house divided cannot stand, a Republic cannot survive if discordant voices tear it apart, and hypocritical hands dismantle it for selfish political ends. We are our own worst enemies.

During the Spanish Civil War, when one city – beleaguered on four sides by attacking columns – seemed impervious to the assaults, the attacking general remarked: "Don’t worry, my Fifth Column will bring the city’s defenses down." This is what happened. That’s the origin of the term, "Fifth Column". The besieging forces’ agents and saboteurs inside the city forced open the gates from within to the four columns which were pushing in from outside.

Oh. Oh. Let me say it myself, before some smart reader does. This is not intended to be a Fifth Column. It’s just me that’s speaking.

* * *

I watched a television panel discussion in which Vice President Teofisto "Tito" Guingona roundly assailed America’s military intrusion into the Philippines. Yep, the same Veep of ours who linked arms with Iraq’s Chargé d’Affaires Samir Bolus in the rally against America’s George "Dubya" Bush and the US "war" on Iraq. Have you stopped to think about it: If anything ever — God forbid – happened to President GMA, Tito would become President and our foreign and domestic policies would make a sudden U-turn.

I haven’t asked my old schoolmate yet, but would Tito Guingona, if he became Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief, send our armed forces, meager though they may be, to defend Saddam Insane instead? That might be siding with the Thief of Baghdad (just as Kuwait), or worse, ganging up along with the Forty Thieves on Ali Baba. Susmariosep, perhaps the Presidential Security Command might even be sent to crash through the gates of the US Embassy and take Francis Ricciardone – incidentally one of the USA’s foremost experts in Iraq, Turkey and the Kurds (what’s he doing here?) – hostage.

Just kidding, Tito. But what are we to think, judging from your public appearances and utterances?

* * *

On the same forum and elsewhere, former Senate President Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel accused Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes of "treason" for turning the Philippines into a laboratory for the testing of the tactics of US troops and the effectiveness of their weaponry.

Pimentel declared that if Reyes has sold out to the Americans by letting them assume a combat role in Sulu, then he should be called no less than a "traitor". We’re so fond of using extravagant language. (Must be our Spanish heritage. We lost the Spanish language, but retained the Spanish penchant for hyperbole. Olé!)

In any event, Guingona, Pimentel, and their band of super-nationalists will find occasion to condemn Reyes even more. He’s scheduled to leave for Washington, DC today to confer with US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Remember The Donald? Rumsfeld is the fellow who further outraged the French and the Germans by referring to them as "Old Europe", while hailing the "New Europe" – including many countries belonging to the former anti-American Soviet Bloc and the anti-NATO Warsaw Pact.

How the world has turned! The British, indeed, had a marching song when the British Army, bolstered by many thousands of Hessian (German) mercenaries, tried to crush the American Revolution of 1776. The song was The World Turned Upside Down. The French, urged on by the Marquis de Lafayette, who fought alongside George Washington, came to the help of the American continental army, assisting them in beating back the Brits and their German troops. (The French naturally hated the Brits, and still do.) Now the Brits are allied with America’s Dubya Bush, led by their doughty Prime Minister Tony Blair, while the French are on the opposite side (with their President Jacques Chirac leading the charge to the Bastille, while waltzing with Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe), in league with the Germans spearheaded by their Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of the Greens, who, incidentally, chairs the United Nations Security Council.

Truly, the world turned upside down.

Just goes to show, as I’ve said, that war is the natural condition of man. Former allies "war" on each other, even in wars of words.

Will the US and Britain, who’re drafting their proposal for a second UN Security Council resolution against Saddam, get it approved? How can they? Already the French and the Russians have announced they will use their "veto" to torpedo it.

Possibly, Bush and Blair want to get it on record that the United Nations has gone the way of the League of of Nations, formed after World War I to make sure that mankind never had to go through the trauma of such a Great War again. You know the rest.

Will history repeat itself? More precisely, will man repeat himself?

* * *

That was a startling banner headline yesterday in the International Herald Tribune which, by now, is fully owned and published by The New York Times.

The banner story confirmed what we all already knew It was reported from Washington, DC by Eric Schmitt of the NYT, and blared forth: "More US Troops Head to Philippines."

The first paragraph says it all: "The United States will send more than 1,700 troops to the Philippines in the next few weeks to fight Muslim extremists in the southern part of the country, opening a new front in the fight against terrorism."

Malacañang, ab initio, has been denying that the Palace and the DND had authorized the Americans to play a combat role in Sulu or elsewhere in Mindanao. But you know the drill. The US sent in "military advisers" to Vietnam, escalating their numbers in the 1960s. Then they virtually took the war away from the South Vietnamese. When they were in full operation, they abandoned the war – leaving the South Vietnamese stranded high and dry. This is not to demean the sacrifice of the American grunts in South Vietnam, most of whom fought valiantly and suffered mightily (58,000 Americans died in the fighting). But I submit: They must not take our "war" to preserve our Republic away from us.

I’ve seen it happen before, in other countries, with sad and tragic results for the "natives" and for the Americans, too.

Now a word about that aircraft carrier battle group, headed by the USS Essex which is allegedly bound to sail to the Sulu Sea, and be stationed off Sulu. If you’ll recall, this writer was the first to reveal such a plan last year – almost five months ago. I wrote that the USS Kitty Hawk with its battle group was being sent to the Sulu Sea.

The Americans immediately denied this. US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz roundly denied it categorically, then, in an aside, asked US Embassy staffers and defense attachés: "Who’s the sonofabitch who leaked that story to this guy Soliven?"

Well, if the USS Essex is really coming, here we go again.

Let’s face it, though. The Americans aren’t doing it for us. To begin with, they’re worried that Sulu, and elsewhere in Mindanao, might be utilized by al-Qaeda as a base, since old Osama lost his headquarters in Afghanistan. Secondly, they’ve got to have a "station" from which to guard the dangerous chokepoints of Asia, including the Straits of Malacca.

Perhaps they even want GenSan to use as a sort of "base".

Abangan.