Access, not bases

We need not worry about a "temporary basing" arrangement for US troops in the Philippines, as planned by US officials. Since President Arroyo committed the nation to the US-led war on terror, such an arrangement has already been in place here.

It’s not called basing but access. It’s a different approach to a different type of war. The approach is so new even our Constitution lacks specific provisions to guide policy-makers on the Philippines’ response.

Since the shutdown of the US bases in the country, Philippine politicians have become allergic to anything that remotely smacks of basing arrangements for US troops. In case you haven’t noticed, however, Zamboanga has not been without US troops since the weeks leading up to the first Balikatan joint military exercises last year. This is also true in Basilan, where a small contingent of Americans has remained since the end of the first Balikatan, doing mostly medical and civic work.

Today Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander-in-chief of US forces in the Pacific, is arriving in Zamboanga to meet with Philippine military officials and visit a small group of US Special Forces there.

What are the Special Forces doing in the city? It’s not your ideal place for soldiers’ R&R. Are they looking out for al-Qaeda’s cohorts in Jemaah Islamiyah (JI)?

A reliable senior US official told me yesterday they are still trying to determine the "exact linkages" between al-Qaeda and JI. The official was careful not to link the two groups to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which The New York Times reported recently controlled marshy areas in Mindanao where Islamists have been undergoing terrorist training for several months now. Earlier, the official had also told me they were not interested in fighting the MILF.

"The exact linkages between al-Qaeda, JI and other groups in Southeast Asia are still developing. As more arrests are made in the region and through greater ongoing intelligence cooperation, the exact linkages will become more clear over time," the US official told me.

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As the reception accorded President Arroyo in Washington indicated, the Americans are happy with the access their troops are enjoying in the Philippines. This is the type of temporary arrangement the United States wants around the world.

"What we seek is continued access for training and logistics such as we have in the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand," the US official told me.

US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz had disclosed that they were planning a realignment of their troops in Asia to improve American response to "less predictable" security threats.

The realignment, Wolfowitz announced in Seoul last Monday, would start next year with the redeployment of an initial 15,000 members of the US 2nd Infantry Division currently stationed at the border between the two Koreas. US troops based in South Korea also announced last weekend a three-year plan to build up their war capability at a cost of around $11 billion.

The plan, the US official told me yesterday, does not involve moving their Marines from Okinawa to Australia, as speculated by some quarters following a recent report in the Los Angeles Times. Neither do they intend to establish bases "anywhere in Southeast Asia," the official said.

"The Pentagon is doing a study on possible realignment of US forces throughout the world to enhance our commitments to friends and allies. But before any decisions will be made, we will consult with our friends and allies in this region," the official told me.

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Meanwhile, Balikatan ’03-1 will start as soon as the terms of reference (TOR) – expected to be similar to the one that governed the war games last year – are approved by both sides.

Yesterday President Arroyo announced in Seoul that she was sending her chief legal adviser Avelino Cruz to Washington to hammer out the final TOR. It’s intriguing that the President is sending her top legal adviser to finesse a military agreement. I don’t think Nonong Cruz simply wants a free trip to Washington, DC – he certainly can afford an American vacation on his own.

One reason for sending Cruz could be continued resistance from some US officials regarding Manila’s insistence that there should be no combat role – at least on paper – for US troops posted here.

The Americans, as one blabbermouth in Washington disclosed, want to make it clear that if they are going to put their soldiers in harm’s way in the jungles of Mindanao, the troops (and American taxpayers) should be fully informed of what the GIs are allowed to do – meaning, engage the enemy in combat.

Philippine officials, on the other hand, want to make it clear that the only shooting US troops can be allowed to do is in self-defense. The Americans can only play a supporting role to Philippine troops.

This can be tricky when your life is at stake. Remember the movie Black Hawk Down? There was one scene where a US soldier asked another, as the Americans came under heavy enemy fire, why the soldier wasn’t opening fire. The second soldier replied that the enemy still wasn’t shooting at them. How did he know, the first soldier asked. Because enemy forces were so close they couldn’t possibly miss if they were firing, came the reply.

At any rate, in the jungles of Sulu, who can say who fired first? Not the Abu Sayyaf. But there were insinuations in some reports from Washington that US officials were unhappy about the prospect that they may have to lie about the real role of their troops in Mindanao. Did Philippine officials want the Americans to lie?

Anyway, since the flap over the combat role for American troops in Sulu, US officials have made noises about doing Balikatan in accordance with the Philippine Constitution. The arrangement gives soldiers of both countries an opportunity for training and gives US troops continued access to the Philippines.

This arrangement is consistent with American moves in recent years to reduce their permanent military presence around the globe. Advances in technology are making permanent bases for the US increasingly unnecessary. Now they are aiming for access to nations from where they can launch "shock and awe" offensives and "decapitation attacks" and temporarily house their troops.

We are already providing a form of this access.