23 dead soldiers? Where are the dead Abus?

I’m glad that Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) got to listen to her critics especially Sen. Rodolfo Biazon who asked the President to prioritize the upkeeping and upgrading of the three remaining Lockheed C-130 Hercules in the Philippine Air Force (PAF) rather than spend P1.2 billion for a brand new Presidential Jet. Though I must say that the aging Fokker F-28 which was used during the Presidency of Fidel V. Ramos needs refurbishing just as badly. But our military needs the heavy lift capability of the Hercules for combat operations against the Muslim insurgents in the South.

Talking about the Muslim insurgency, it was truly a depressing news when we heard that 23 soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) died in that firefight against the Abu Sayyaf and rogue elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that call themselves the Bangsa Moro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF). What is even more depressing for me is that, we get news footages of the grieving families of the dead AFP soldiers, while we have no news about the supposedly 31 dead Muslim insurgents. If our soldiers killed 31 Muslim insurgents, how come we don’t see photos of grieving Muslim families? Surely those dead Muslims have families of their own?

Now Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) has demanded the “rapid annihilation of the Abu Sayyaf”, but it is merely a knee-jerk reaction to the massacre of our 23 AFP soldiers. I’m sure that Defense Secretary Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. has passed on his orders to the field commanders. It’s widely known that Sec. Teodoro is eyeing the Presidency, so the outcome of the coming military operations would make or break his Presidential ambitions!

I submit that I’m an armchair historian and I’ve read many famous World War II battles, a few about the US Civil War. We must warn the President and Sec. Teodoro not to make rash decisions because they are both emotionally stressed! They must first take stock of what’s keeping our soldiers from winning those small pocket battles?

First off, we must reconsider our country’s unilateral decision for a “Suspension of Military Operations” (SOMO) against the Muslim rebel group. Why are we having this SOMO, so that peace will prevail between the MILF and the AFP? Well, since that SOMO was put in place, there has been no peace in Mindanao, so that SOMO is useless!

Call me a war-monger if you wish but I believe that there is a time for peace talks and a time to fight our battles. Surely by now the Philippine government must have learned its bitter lessons from having all those so-called peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP) and its bloodthirsty wing, the New People’s Army (NPA) that the latter have used to the hilt to their military advantage. In the end, those peace talks only strengthened the NPA and emboldened them to fight our military.

The same is true with the MILF, who thanks to the SOMO goes around brandishing high-powered firearms. But instead of helping the AFP track down and kill the Abu Sayyaf, they have only helped the Abu Sayyaf kill our unsuspecting soldiers. History has shown us that if the military is curtailed or prevented from attacking those who help the insurgency, we would be on the bitter losing end.

A case in point is the Korean Conflict in the early 50s. When US Gen. Douglas MacArthur realized that the United Nations (UN) forces under his command was already fighting Chinese regular soldiers who crossed the Yalu River, he immediately decided that the end of the conflict in the Korean peninsula was to bring the war to Peking (now, it’s called Beijing). Of course, Pres. Harry Truman dismissed Gen. MacArthur for insubordination by suggesting to expand the war into China. But Gen. MacArthur was a military strategist and he knew that it is China that has kept North Korea afloat.

Today, North Korea still threatens Asia’s security, largely because China continues to support North Korea. Thus this conflict continues to rage because the US President refused to listen to his general. In frustration, Gen. MacArthur quipped, “We should never leave the strategies of battle to the temporary occupants of the White House!”

Perhaps we should learn some quotes from Gen. MacArthur. First, when he said, “In War, there is no substitute for victory!” Gen. MacArthur also said, “It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it!” 

So, should we escalate this war to include the MILF? I think we should! We haven’t gotten any moment’s peace in allowing the MILF to keep their arms. This has only resulted in the unnecessary deaths of our soldiers. So let’s annihilate the Abu Sayyaf and if the MILF will fight our soldiers, then they too must be annihilated! When those armed groups are gone only then can peace truly reign in Mindanao!

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