The ‘wise men’

On his first tour of duty in the battlefield, the young Marine officer contracted malaria, hepatitis and mononucleosis. On his second tour he was wounded. He and fellow soldiers complained of cheap buttons on their cheap uniforms, of cheap boots that came apart quickly. He was issued a pair of boots a half size bigger.

The guerrilla war, the soldier would later tell an interviewer, "taught me not to accept things on face value, and not to accept political objectives as a given, and to question those… especially if I ever achieved a position of senior leadership, to make sure I did right by my subordinates and I did right to question my superiors in what they committed to us."

No, that’s not one of the Makati mutineers, whining to the nation about every imaginable complaint, dreaming of saving the world. That’s Anthony Zinni, reminiscing about his days in Vietnam. Zinni rose to become a general and the sixth commander-in-chief of the US Central Command, with jurisdiction over US military operations from Africa to Central Asia. He oversaw the US troops’ withdrawal from Mogadishu in 1995, immortalized in the movie Black Hawk Down.

Zinni has seen the horrors of war first-hand, which makes him a credible broker of peace. Last year US President George W. Bush picked Zinni as his special envoy to pursue a road map for peace in the Middle East. This year Zinni helped broker peace in Aceh, Indonesia.

Now Zinni is in town as part of a team working under the aegis of the US Institute of Peace to serve as "facilitators" of the Philippine government’s peace initiatives with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The team, which includes former Ambassador to Manila Richard Murphy as well as Harriet Hentges and G. Eugene Martin of the Institute of Peace, visited Cotabato the other day for the inauguration of a solar-drying facility for corn.

Meeting a small group of journalists in Manila yesterday, the team seemed optimistic about the prospects for peace in Mindanao.

"If you’ve seen war you certainly see the value of peaceful resolution," Zinni told us.

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In Aceh Zinni and the peace facilitators were called the "wise men." What’s George W’s special peace envoy doing in the Philippines? Washington has emphasized that the US will merely play a "supporting role" in the peace talks, which will be hosted by Malaysia. But the Americans have dangled a $30-million aid package for Mindanao that will be released if a peace agreement is signed.

The Institute of Peace, which Murphy said is federally funded but not federally controlled, was asked by the US State Department to help in the Philippine peace process shortly after President Arroyo’s state visit this year to the United States. The institute calls in experts on a need basis. For Mindanao the institute invited Zinni, Murphy, former US Ambassadors to Manila Nicholas Platt and Frank Wisner, and Chester Crocker, a former assistant secretary of state.

Among the areas where the institute has a presence are Iraq and Afghanistan. How does the institute pick the places where it should "facilitate" peace? If "the sides haven’t bled enough to want us to come in," Zinni said, then the institute stays away.

Yesterday marked the team’s fourth day in the Philippines, assessing how the institute can help promote peace.

"We hope to build on the desire for peace and the fatigue for war," Murphy told us.

Has that point been reached in Mindanao? "We have no conclusions. We certainly feel that we don’t have all the facts yet," he said.

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A component of peace is a military that inspires public confidence and the rebels’ trust. How can this be possible when the coup culture is back in the Armed Forces of the Philippines?

Zinni has been touching base with AFP officers. He had no direct comment about the circus in the aftermath of the Makati mutiny, but he pointed out that all soldiers are constantly griping. American soldiers, however, have a commitment of loyalty not just to their commander-in-chief or constitution or flag, but to American ideals and way of life, he said. And they have discipline. Which is why they don’t stage coup attempts, no matter how dissatisfied they become about cheap boots and lousy commanders.

"Where your ethos lies, that’s where your (military) oath lies," Zinni said.

After a lifetime devoted to the ways of war, Zinni is now waging a battle for peace in the name of his country.

A few months before 9-11, he sat down with Harry Kreisler of the Institute of International Studies at the University of California in Berkeley, where he reminisced about his days in Vietnam and discussed the role of a modern global power that must deal with terrorism.

The United States is promoting peace around the world, Zinni said, "because it’s in our interest. If you lack peace and stability in most parts of the world, it affects our way of life and our economic well being and other things. I mean, this isn’t a purely altruistic drill out there."

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That’s why Zinni and the Institute for Peace are in Mindanao. "There is no military solution to this," he told us yesterday.

The team isn’t too worried that another group might break away from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front as soon as a peace pact is forged, to organize yet another separatist or terrorist group. There will always be rogue elements, they said.

"I think it’s important for us to focus on the possibilities, the opportunities," Hentges said.

What the group wants to clarify are reports that the MILF continues to maintain ties with terrorist groups, particularly the Jemaah Islamiyah.

The institute is also promoting a peace package that will have a working post-conflict component — something that was lacking in the peace pact forged with the Moro National Liberation Front.

While the peace agreement is still in the works, the institute is helping build "indigenous capacity" in Mindanao. Perhaps Zinni and Murphy, himself a former Army officer, can include programs to end the coup mentality in the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

"I think the people want this," Zinni said, referring to peace in Mindanao. "That doesn’t mean the road is not going to be rocky."