| Obama�s Vietnam
By Antonio C. Abaya Written Apr 01, 2009 For the Standard Today, April 02 issue During the 2004 presidential elections in the US, the Democratic candidate, Sen. John Kerry, often lashed out at the Republican incumbent, George W. Bush, for losing his focus on Afghanistan and being distracted by and diverted to Iraq. Indeed, when the US struck at the Taliban in Afghanistan in, I believe, December 2001, for giving sanctuary to Osama bin Laden, the acknowledged culprit in 9/11, world public opinion supported the Americans as they rightfully sought to exact revenge for the unspeakable outrage that had been visited on them by Bin Laden�s Muslim extremists. The Americans supported a group of anti-Taliban rebels that called itself the Northern Alliance as it rolled down around the Hindu Kush mountains and eventually into Kabul and Kandahar, while American special forces went from cave to cave in and around Jalalabad in the southwest in an effort to smoke out Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda. But it became a half-hearted effort as preparations were made in 2002 to invade Iraq. Men and materiel and strategic planning were diverted to Iraq, on the grounds (which later proved to be groundless) that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and that Iraqi secret agents had coordinated with al-Qaeda terrorists for the 9/11 attack. In truth, the neo-conservatives, led by Dick Cheney (who later became Bush�s vice-president) had decided as early as 1997 that the US should use its pre-eminence as the sole super-power to establish military control of the Middle East, and Paul Wolfowitz (who later became deputy of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, both neo-cons) was tasked with preparing plans for the invasion of Iraq, years before 9/11. The neo-cons realized that their plans would be a hard-sell to the American public. They stated in their white paper of September 2000, one year before 9/11, that they would need �another Pearl Harbor� to justify a massive military intrusion into Iraq and the Middle East. Fortunately for them, Bin Laden obliged by launching his attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in September 2001, providing them with the �Pearl Harbor� pretext to launch in March 2003 the invasion plans that Wolfowitz (a..k.a. Wolfowitz of Arabia) had drawn up years earlier. Thus Afghanistan became a mere sideshow with less than 20,000 US troops, as more than 150,000 and billions of dollars worth in equipment and supplies were poured into Iraq. The unspoken rationale, of course, was to control the vast oil resources and reserves, not only in Iraq but also in the whole region. By contrast, there is not a drop of oil in Afghanistan. The other unspoken rationale was to guarantee security for the state of Israel, always a major factor in American domestic politics, which was threatened by an Iraq allegedly armed with weapons of mass destruction. By contrast, Afghanistan was too far to threaten Israel. (See my article War for Oil and Israel, Jan. 30, 2003, written more than a month before the actual invasion.) A third element in the decision to invade Iraq was the political support of the Christian Evangelicals, George W. Bush�s biggest support base. The Evangelicals believe that war in the Middle East is foretold in the Book of Revelations and will result in the destruction of Israel, except for 144,000 male Jews who will convert to Christianity, which will be the signal for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. By contrast, the Biblical prophecies make no mention at all of Afghanistan or its ancient incarnation, Bactria. In his successful campaign to win the presidency, Barack Obama promised a phased withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, an advocacy that found resonance among the war-weary American public, except among the Christian Evangelicals who, like the neo-cons but for different reasons, want perpetual war in the Middle East. President Obama has promised withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq by mid-2011, but amended his campaign rhetoric to allow 50,000 �non-combat� troops to remain, as in Japan, South Korea and Germany. Instead he wants to send 17,000, and then another 4,000, additional troops to Afghanistan, which has now widened to become a bad-news Afghanistan-Pakistan theatre of operations. Almost every week, suicide bombings and other, increasingly more daring attacks on both Afghan and Pakistani government targets, and even on fellow Muslims attending Friday prayers in their mosques, remind us of the endless �war on terror.� . More and more, Afghanistan-Pakistan is beginning to look and sound like Iraq. As Bush got bogged down in the old Iraq, so also, it seems, will Obama be in the new Iraq. And unlike in the old Iraq, there are no oil deposits, no guarantee for the security of Israel, no Second Coming of Jesus Christ, in Afghanistan-Pakistan to justify it to the various constituencies that supported war in the old Iraq. Nothing, in fact, but more serious problems. Such as what to do with Pakistan�s nuclear arsenal and facilities if and when Pakistan crumbles into the ruins of a failed state. The architect of the surge in Anbar Province in Iraq, which is said to have turned the tide in that war, has suggested that US forces form defensive quadrangles in various sites in Pakistan as nuclear technicians try to extricate fissile material from nuclear facilities, both military and civilian. But that is easier said than done when tens of thousands of unarmed but enraged civilians mob those defensive quadrangles screaming �Allahu Akbar!� and �Death to America!� The Americans continue to hit the tribal border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan using unmanned Predator drones armed with Hellfire missiles, on the prayer that they will one day score a lucky hit on Osama bin Laden and/or Ayman al_Zawahiri. But that is like hoping to win the lottery. Such tactics merely increase the risks of killing innocent civilians and destroying poor people�s mud huts. Which merely raises the hate level against the Americans and other foreign occupiers, and guarantees more recruits for the Talibans and al-Qaeda. Asymmetric warfare may find a more gruesome imagery in Afghanistan-Pakistan. In Vietnam, an arrogant super-power with B-52 bombers, F-4 Phantom jets armed with napalm jelly, Agent Orange defoliants to destroy jungle hide-outs, thousands of Huey gun-ships and Jolly Green Giant helicopters, limitless supply of tanks and armored vehicles, and more than half a million troops at max strength�was fought to exhaustion and withdrawal by a ragtag army of guerillas in black pajamas, aided eventually by North Vietnamese Army regulars. In the evolving asymmetric warfare in Afghanistan-Pakistan, Obama�s possible Vietnam, that same super-power could be brought to the breaking point by a mere 8-inch kitchen knife. The Talibans are, literally, Koranic scholars. But unlike Biblical and Talmudic scholars, the Taliban Koranic scholars know how handle AK-47s and Kalashnikovs, fire recoilless rifles, set up improvised explosive devices, assemble suicide belts, and operate T-61 Soviet-made tanks. They also know how to decapitate people, especially infidels. Last week, I received video footages of Taliban warriors beheading seven individuals, one after another, apparently fellow Afghans and fellow Muslims.. The victim�s hands are tied behind his back and his two feet are held firmly by two Talibans, while the executioner, holding the victim�s jaw, calmly and matter-of-factly slits his throat. While blood and other bodily fluids spurt from the victim�s neck, the executioner hacks through flesh and bones with his 8-inch kitchen knife, as if he were cutting through a goat or a sheep, until the head is severed, which is then plunked down on the victim�s stomach. It takes less than two minutes to finish one decapitation. The videos do not record the victim�s screams and gurgling resistance. Instead the chanting of what seem to be Koranic verses accompany the grisly ritual. Allahu Akbar! The Americans never faced this kind of response from the Vietnamese. They may face it in Afghanistan-Pakistan. The Americans suffered 55,000 dead in Vietnam before they decided to call it quits. How many decapitations on YouTube of captured Americans will the American public tolerate before they demand that their fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters be extricated from the intimidating presence of the Talibans? One hundred? Fifty? Twenty? Ten? Five? Two? Obama�s Vietnam. ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles in acabaya.blogspot.com. Tony on YouTube in www.tapatt.org. To subscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Subscribe. To unsubscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Unsubscribe. . OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �Obama�s Vietnam� More Reactions to �Sinking Fast� More Reactions to �Philippine-US Relations� Want to be President? Here�s your last chance. This is why I have always held the belief that America can no longer win a war given even their superiority in arms, ammunition, tanks, aircraft, intelligence, bombs. What I considered the last and closest alliance with them in action was a brief intimidation flights to save the Cory government from certain defeat as Honasan and his troops closed in on Malacanang. The 2nd World War was America's last taste of victory - with the allies against Germany, and against the Japanese in the Ppacific theater. The Korean War saw them get tired of having to die in foreign soil and learning lessons in winning and then stopping to recognize their limits . And the general who went on was fired for disobeying. Vietnam gave them their first defeat in such a humiliating way (one glimpse of that photo showing them scampering into their Hueys said it all ) . and their luck never came back. They go in as advisers, get deeper and involved, then told to quit by their own people. And rightly so, because they shouldn't have gotten in there in the first place. There was, during the Vietnam conflict, the �domino theory� that pushed the strategists into a frenzy of build-up and a campaign to gain support from Asean neighbors. And then again this decade a repeat of a phantom cause for war came in the form of WMDs, and onward the Americans drove into Iraq. and now, years after their "justified" war, they are talking about pulling out. Victor Ma�alac, (By email), April 03, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi Tony Yes this is very disturbing that instead of seeking more understanding the opposite is happening. The article is well written as usual. As they say "war is good business" but I submit this is a simplification even at this time of global recession. The powers are throwing good money away by all these bailouts with no end in sight It just keeps the haves happy. Why not pour that money in terms of directed investments in the countries where the issue is poverty due to lack of education and livelihood. It�s because of the greed of a few families in power, politically and commercially that ruins democracy. Look at our country where just 500 families control over 90 million Filipinos. Peace is a resultant of justice. The fullness of life cannot happen if injustice and inequality is non existent. Peace!! Eric Manalang, (by email), April 03, 2009 Ang Kapatiran Party wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, Your description of the Taliban slitting the throat of the Afghan/Muslim as blood spurted out while two Taliban held his legs, made me retch. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should never ever allow any Filipino OFW to go there- Afghanistan or Pakistan, even if they can get huge salaries and want to escape poverty and corruption in the Philippines. And may God bless US President Barack Obama and the American soldiers for tackling the terrorism problem there before it gets in a worse way to us. Cita Abad-Dinglasan, (by email), April 03, 2009 Dual Citizen and OFW wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Lots of insight in observation and assessment. Ben Oteyza, (by email), April 03, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The Taliban and other Islamic extremists are under the impression that they can use an old-school sure-shot method of intimidating a stronger opponent by doing unspeakable brutality like beheadings and suicide-bombings. I guess they figure it is their version of shock-and-awe. The cold reality is that it hardens the modern Western reaction. It is because of Islamic extremism that there is a world-wide rage against it. In the end, religious extremism will be met by a much more powerful reaction to it. And hopefully 'Good' will prevail over 'Evil'. And there's no lack of evil amongst those who profess to be doing these deeds in the name of Allah. If Allah could really speak, He would choke on his tears for the stupidity of His children. Mitch Gingras, (by email), .Ottawa, Canada, April 03, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Bin Laden is dead - killed in the first two weeks of the war. The CIA has manufactured evidence that he is still alive. Mike Brost (by email), April 03, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The real objective for America is to have a stronghold in Pakistan to subvert China's west. Pakistan is just next door to China. US purpose has always been for encirclement. Besides, right now Pakistan is a counterweight to India. If Pakistan is also taken, the chain is connected. However, USA cannot just bomb China without encountering China's 5th generation fighter jets called Jian-11 and the guided missiles. As for pretext, that's America's strong point. They will always justify when they act. Remember, majority of their politicians are lawyers. That's what they are good at. Bernardo Chua, (by email), April 03, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww It's much easier to develop that stronghold via India. Besides, it's very expensive in dollars and lives to go through Afghanistan if only for that purpose. Carlos H. Castro, (by email), April 03, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Yes, this isn't going to work...plus giving the Pakistanis $1B/yr for 5 years too is a waste. The only short term solution is to kill all the known terrorists....but they will all regroup in a few years....there's just too much poverty/fundamentalism and no yearning to better themselves They have no resources that we could "steal". to stock our coffers Unless we are prepared to offer them a welfare state, if we are not bankrupt before then, life as they know it will go on....remember ROME....the cynic inside me is alive today! :) Ken Alleyne-China, (by email), April 03, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww With a volunteer armed forces of mostly poor Americans and immigrants, and now students and their middle-class parents out of the way who would otherwise be out there on the streets protesting just like they did against the Vietnam War, it is no longer that easy. Unchallenged by this most vocal faction of the American society, the industrial-military-oleo-Judeo complex is calling the shots and Obama can't really do anything about it. As this unelected block wishes, he has to keep the scores of super-fortresses already built in Iraq fortified by at least 50,000 troops even when he says he's bringing all our troops home as he promised in the election. Now, that ain't bringing all our troops home. The South Koreans, the Germans, the Japanese who all did not win had no choice, but Iraqis have not lost the war and will not tolerate that bs. So the war in Iraq will continue indefinitely until the last American troop has left, or when we are totally bankrupt as Ken said. In the meantime our exclusively volunteer army will grow in strength unchallenged, and to keep it alive, it must always be fed with more wars here and more wars there, and all over. What could happen in the US would be a military takeover by this new military caste. This happened in Egypt when the rich and the middle class sourced out (privatized as the neo-cons love to call it) their military to the alien slave Mamluks who eventually gained all the weapons, technology and expertise, and finally seized power and ruled Egypt for several centuries under a military dictatorship. Louie Fernandez, (by email), New Jersey, April 04, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony: Yes, indeed, the war on terror in Afghanistan is now Barack Obama's war. One complication is that this war has now to be pursued both in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Still another scary complication is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons, which could potentially fall into the hands of terrorists, considering that Pakistan appears to be in a "downward spiral." George W. Bush and his band of arrogant but starry-eyed neo-cons led by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz made the terrible mistake of believing that decimating the al-Qaeda and their leader Osama bin-Laden would be quick, easy and cheap. Which is why they diverted U.S. military forces and resources to invading and occupying Iraq, albeit on inadequate and even "doctored" intelligence. There they made the other terrible mistake of believing likewise that the U.S. invading and occupying forces would be welcomed as "liberators," their paths strewn with flowers! As it turned out, George W's "Iraq Folly" has gone on for well over seven years now. There he squandered the lives of some 4,200 U.S. troops, with another 30,000 more injured. There is no accurate count of the number of Iraqi civilians killed and injured, including women and children; the total must be in the tens of thousands. The Iraq war has cost the United States over $1 trillion in direct and indirect costs, adding quite a bundle to the U.S.'s National Debt. Afghanistan has been rightly called "the graveyard of empires." Alexander the Great could not subdue it. Great Britain failed to conquer it. Russia invaded Afghanistan and had to suffer a humiliating defeat. Now the United States--with token help from NATO-- is trying its hand in an asymmetrical war that could go on interminably, but probably only until that day when the American people, sick and tired of a war that is unwinnable, and after the expenditure of thousands of lives and treasure, collectively decide to just stop it. Mariano Patalinjug (by email), Yonkers, NY, April 04, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony: The specter of American ground troops becoming bogged down in the quagmire of a Vietnam-type protracted guerrilla war in Afghanistan is too gruesome and horrifying too contemplate. There has to be solution, stressing national development, construction, rehabilitation, reconciliation, negotiation, dialogue, reparations/compensation, and a UN Peace-Keeping force. I was deeply involved in the peace and justice movement against that imperial war in Vietnam, including Laos and Cambodia, the rest of Indochina. This resistance also included my participation in war tax resistance through my consistent involvement in Philadelphia War Tax Resistance Organization, inspired by Henry David Thoreau, the great American literary writer and essayist, who promulgated war tax resistance as a creative non-violent method of non-violent civil disobedience against war and oppression and who published an historic essay on it. He was inspired by Leo Tolstoy, the great Russian literary writer. I also dressed up as a specter of death at the local Philadelphia draft board in 1970 to protest the imperial war in Vietnam and the covert imperial wars in Laos and Cambodia. Now we are facing the horror of a specter of death in Afghanistan , Pakistan, Palestine, Lebanon, Israel, and Iraq. The struggle never stops! How many more Noam Chomskys, Ed Hermans, Judy Chomskys, Gilbert Achcars, Tony Avirgans, Martha Honeys, Richard Falks, David Dellingers, Thomas and Marjorie Melvilles, who exposed the holocaust in central America, Fathers Daniel and Philip Berrigans, Reverend David Gracies, Tran Van Dinhs, Francisco Gomes de Matoses, Evelin Lindners, and Joe Millers do we need to put an end to this ongoing madness war, famine, pestilence, and death - "THE FOUR GALLOPING HORSES OF THE APOCALYPSE?" Shalom, George Bradford Patterson II, (by email), Quezon City, April 04, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi Tony, I believe you. This would be another Vietnam and I do not know where Obama would get his money to maintain them. The Americans already owe the Chinese so much, that the ordinary Americans are now complaining. In fact, they have a planned demonstration on April 15, 2009 on this, organized by what they called TEA, hence a TEA rally. TEA stands for Taxed Enough Already, as the payment of this borrowed money is to be taken from the domestic taxes imposed on the Americans and their children's children in the future. With regards to the beheading that you saw, there are no screams and gurgling resistance as the prisoner or the one to be beheaded actually is drugged. I have personally seen an actual decapitation, being an OFW in the Middle East. There or in any Muslim country doing this kind of punishment, normally do it on a Friday after the noon prayers, hence they shout "Allah al Akhbar". The subject that was to be beheaded at that time was a Filipino. The police invited/dragged any Filipino they saw on the streets to watch, probably to scare or give us a lesson. Thanks and more power! Bert Celera, (by email), April 04, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww It was indeed a big blunder for the war freak Bush-Cheney tandem to relegate Afghanistan and as you put it "in a half-hearted effort" after deciding to invade Iraq. Pres. Barack Obama's decision to pursue military operations in Afghanistan was based on the recommendation not only of the Pentagon but from the commanders in the field and we don't see or hear any large outcry on this because many Americans believe that, unlike Vietnam, the threat to American way of life is real and those planning to wreck havoc on United States are mostly in the Afghanistan-Pakistan area right now. The old Bush, George H W, also made a big blunder when he decided not to remove Saddam Hussein from power after Iraq's defeat in the Gulf war of 1991 and also for failing to help the Kurds and the defecting Iraqi soldiers from the Republican Guard which had air and armor support. According to Gen. Norman Schwarzkofp who was the military commander of the Coalition Forces for Operation Desert Storm, there was no strategic objective given. This would have come from Gen. Colin Powell, Bush's National Security Adviser who was the link with the White House. Gen. Schwarzkofp also believed that Saddam and the Republican Guard must be destroyed, being the two centers of gravity and following the theory of Center of Gravity by the famous Prussian military theorist and historian Carl von Clausewitz, " if the center of gravity is destroyed, it will destroy the will of the enemy to fight. " They failed to accomplish this because Powell wanted the war ended on the 5th day and was quoted to have said: "Hey, this is a five day war and up until now everybody has said, you know, the Six Day War was the greatest and most rapid victory there was and now, all of a sudden, we have a five day war!" But Saddam stayed in power and was perceived as a threat and so George W Bush had to finish the job by eliminating the center of gravity through the 2003 invasion of Iraq resulting to more casualties. Narciso Ner, (by email), Davao City, April 04, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hello, Tony, The US cannot extricate themselves from the Middle East as long as they tilt their foreign policy towards Israel. I think Obama is right in focusing on Afghanistan but it is too late. The US (with EU) should plan to pull out and use diplomacy with Arabs and Jews and treat them evenly. Regards, Marvin Valido, (by email), Pasig City, April 05, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, The American involvement in Iraq is a shadow of the American armed intervention and eventual annexation of the Philippine Islands by President McKinley. A biographical account of Admiral George Dewey by Olcott makes reference to an order Dewey received from the Department of Navy to take over the Asiatic fleet in Japan. Before proceeding to his new assignment, Dewey, then Commodore, spent some time in Washington DC studying Philippine maps. These preparations for a military action on the Philippines were being made months before the suspicious explosion of U.S.S. Maine at Havana harbor, which started the war against Spain and justified the presence of American ships in Manila Bay, 10,000 miles away from U.S. mainland. Read my blog: <strong><a href="http://macapili-filipino.blogspot.com/2007/03/mckinleys-imperialist-policy-when.html"> McKinley's Imperialist Policy </a></strong> Yours very truly, Macario A. Capili, (by email), April 10, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, There have been two interesting "reactions", one about China's influence in the Philippines and one about the possibilities of cheating in computerized polls. About China, it has been mentioned that Chinese products made even squatters able to use electronic products like fridges, freezers, DVD player, TV etc. etc. But first of all, considering the amount of money needed to buy these products, what kind of squatters are these people? Rather people that just occupy any place which is owned by someone else and therefore "saving" the expenses to settle legally. But that is more like stealing than squatting out of poverty. Second, out of own experience, no matter that China is able to produce high quality, that what is available in RP on "cheap prices" is anything but not good quality. Goods that in Europe lasts 20 years and have 3..5 years warranty, are damaged, rusty and without spare parts in RP. So, for the same time, I need here3, 4, 5 new units and that is at the end much more expensive. Of course, it creates profit to the local seller and jobs to the Chinese factories. But to blame is the customer who accepts such goods, no business will produce a higher quality if it is not pressed for byno sales. Nowhere else I have ever found warranty limits of 6 months, 3 months, 1 month and down to 4 days, only in the Philippines.. And this for branded products which are sold in Europe with at least one year warranty which anyway in many countries is the minimum by law. Usually even 6 months warranty on repairs. So, there is not so much improvement to the poor with the often so low quality products from China. The same products exported to Europe are much better because there are strict warranty rules about repair and replacement. With low quality, the business could become bankrupt. The other response about possible cheating during computerized polls is very true. Who in the more far provinces, where many votes come from, is tech-educated enough to realize attempts of cheating? Not to mention that cheating and manipulating which is embedded in the machines anyway cannot be detected, except the same data is given to independent computers too. Just remember the Marcos - Aquino snap election. NAMFREL has been allowed to manage the elections, tallying and transportation of ballots. They tallied already more than six million votes pro opposition but delivered only data of less than a half million votes to COMELEC which is the real party for executing results. I also remember anti Marcos groups with trucks, showing empty ballot boxes said to be stolen and emptied by the military. Even it may be true, still it was surprising that they know the exact number of "lost" pro opposition ballots when the boxes never have been opened before. Cheating is always possible, no matter how polls are done. It depends on the people who execute and control the polls, the ballots and the votes. Look as an example at German elections. There are TV networks which are asking voters and predicting the results within 2 hours after closing time, at an error margin of less than one percent of the official result next day. No big cheating would be possible at the official results. That computers are not something safe anymore can be easily proved by the hacking of even the safe, encrypted data of governments, companies, NASA, even the Pentagon. And if all goes wrong with results, there are enough possibilities to activate a computer virus and destroy data, making the election a failure. The only way of control would be, if every voter would have a copy of his ballot and after elections, he would get a copy of that what is in the tallying computers for to compare. And even there it would be possible to cheat by tallying a fake copy but deliver the true copies to the voter. All it needs is to store the originals and the manipulated copies. So, honest and cheat-proof polls remain a dream that could come true or not. Always the administration holds the keys as they finance, plan and manage it. [email protected], April 15, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww More Reactions to �Sinking Fast� (March 19, 2009) Has anybody wondered why Gloria Arroyo picked Congressman Romualdez, the son of the brother of Imelda Marcos, Alfredo "Bejo" Romualdez to handle the other Charter Change operation? Is it because the Romualdez money can supplement the bribe money? Or is it because the Romualdez properties in Portugal (including one in Angola if it's still theirs) are already in the hands of the Arroyos as part of their contingency plan? Narciso Ner, (by email), Davao City, April 08, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww More Reactions to �Philippine-US Relations� (April 02, 2009) Dear Mr. Abaya, On Revolutionary Transition: Why Not? A professor of mine in the post-graduate class in classical sociological theory once lamented that while Marx�s theory was revolutionary, he did not have a theory of revolution! I think unconsciously, this is the main concern of those who are ambivalent about the role of a revolutionary transition (violent or non-violent). And yet, I think in our case, we have a clue. The Harvard scholar Barrington Moore Jr., published a comparative analysis on the trajectory of revolutions asking why some revolutions led to capitalistic democracies, others to communism, and still others to authoritarian regimes. While he was primarily concerned with their outcomes, Theda Skocpol, a student of Prof. Moore, Jr., argued that the causes why revolutions happened had to be explained nonetheless. The result is her book: States and Social Revolutions. Focusing on the three great revolutions: French (1789), Russian (1917), and Chinese (1949), Skocpol reverses the Marxist idea of economic contradictions. She asserts that the classes appear not before but after a revolutionary transition---the French revolution cleared the way for large-scale markets and for the bourgeois class to appear in the 19th century, the Russian and Chinese revolutions created socialism and a mass of industrial working class. In other words, the main cause of revolutions is not primarily economic but political. Those involved in the power of the state constitutes a kind of social class who makes a living through military control and administrative appropriations. And this is the key---a revolution will not be possible as long as the military and state apparatus hold together. Skocpol�s thesis made a powerful impact because it answered why the communist revolutions of Russia and China did not lead to the withering away of state power as hypothesized by Marx. Both revolutions resulted in the consolidation of state power into totalitarianism! As the political structures move along, the factional battle between the conservatives and reformers or ideologues and pragmatists over how to improve the power of the state decided yet the radical transformation of their societies. It is in this political context that we understand i.e., the Russian�s glasnost and perestroika or the Chinese coup d'�tat of the Gang of Four and Deng Xiao Ping�s pragmatism. Today, the die-hard Marxists are surprised once more as their socialist economies are honing their economies to capitalism. What we learn from Skocpol�s argument is that revolutions are transitional. And for that sort of transition to be successful, it must ultimately have the support of the military with its internal relations to civic society. In the long run, a revolution will enable the state to do better what it had set out to do---to become more transparent, accountable, just, effective, as well as powerful politically. Efren N. Padilla, (by email), Hayward. CA, April 14, 2009 Professor of Sociology and Urban Planning California State University at East Bay wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Going through the myriad opinions sent to you, these are my observations. I. Do not give up on America. China has more imperialistic tendencies: Manchuria and Tibet serve as prime examples, and China lusts at Spratly Islands. The world trusts USA a lot more. 2. China will always have the better economic know-how and physical attributes for business success. They have the populace to creep into and take root wherever they gain access. The Philippines has been overrun with the natives having Chinese blood in their veins. Same is happening in most of Asia, USA, then Europe and the whole world. The Philippines may be accomplishing the same but smaller degree and lesser influence. 3. Better to trust Fr. Panlilio to lead the Philippines. He is learning governance skill in Pampanga, where he could do much more in reform, except that his hands are tied up by political goons. With the Philippine Army and Constabulary and the courts behind him, he will be more effective with the whole country's backing. He should be able to pick the best minds for the cabinet and executive branch, and if anyone does not deliver, then replace. Leave no room for the trapos to be running any barangay, municipal or provincial governments. Get them exposed and have the courts deal with them in fast legal trials -- not prolonged by shrewd and clever maneuvers. This is far better than a revolutionary government which may spawn a Castro, Chavez, or more chaos and vigilantes run amok. 4. Forewarned, Comelec cannot function as before. They must be accountable. The ballot boxes must be protected from tampering by taking steps for safeguard. Anyone who attempts to tamper must be tried and dealt with. 5. The Cojuangcos, GO, Tans, etc will continue to flourish because they have the capital, but can be overtaken with the playing field levelled. The rich must pay taxes -- the tax laws must be enforced to the fullest and cheaters pay the fines, with added penalties. The tax enforcers, where there are breakdowns must answer to the Tax Courts and be severely punished. 6. With law and order and playing fields even, investments and foreign capitals will flow and employment should rise. Tourisms should be promoted and private funds and government subsidies help developers and owner-entrepreuners encourage growths where potentials appear strongest for resort developments. AGAIN, increasing employment. Wages must be commensurate and equitable. Increase rice productions, Also other resources. 7. With increased revenues from taxes {private ownership pay the taxes or assets seized and redistributed by court-order and mandate, schools shall be fully-funded and literacy and good, productive citizenship shall ensue. Wages of governmenr employees shall be adequate to forestall corrupt practices, and dismissal and penalties meted equally for offenders. Landowners and employers also suffer consequences if tenants and workers are abused. These are some of what a reformed government can do. Justice must be swift and equal for all. Others can easily follow. A sound foreign policy is necessary as economy shall be global and a fiscally creditable government is essential to be a good trading partner. LET THERE BE PEACE IN THE WORLD. Ben Oteyza, (by email), April 14, 2009 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Forwarded to Tapatt by Nandy Pacheco) Want to be President? Here�s your Last Chance. ANG KAPATIRAN PARTY IS NOW ACCEPTING NOMINATIONS FOR PRESIDENT Ang Kapatiran Party (AKP), an accredited national political party with the Commission on Elections, is now receiving nominations for President of the Philippines for the 2010 elections, the deadline for which is April 30, 2009. AKP promotes a platform-based politics with clear and specific policy objectives - all aimed at enhancing the common good and promoting the politics of virtue and of duty, transparency and public accountability, stewardship and good citizenship. According to AKP president Eric B. Manalang, �this innovative approach or process enables both party members and the general public to nominate a candidate for President.� The proclamation of the AKP Presidential candidate is expected to be on or before the end of May 2009 following a selection process by the Party�s national electoral committee. For short listing purposes, a candidate to be nominated for President must possess the qualifications required by the Constitution; must accept the founding principles and platform of the AKP in whole without any mental reservation; must be morally upright, courageous, and competent individual; responsible citizen and parent; and a trusted leader; must have no previous conviction or pending criminal case in court, in the Ombudsman, or prosecutor�s office; must have a college degree; must accept and abide by the AKP Code of Conduct; and must not spend more than the law allows. The nomination shall be accompanied by the candidate�s most recent photograph. Meanwhile, AKP continues its nationwide search for local candidates starting from councilors who will run in the May 2010 elections. �We need candidates for councilors in every town and city under the MMX (2010) project This is the only way to prepare our youth for greater responsibility,� Manalang said. The rules for nominating candidates for other positions up to the Vice President will be announced later. For more details, please visit the party website at angkapatiranparty. org or email us at angkapatiranparty@ yahoo.com or fax one-page nomination letters to +632 -6342137 or text to +63917 5359702. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to [email protected]. To subscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Subscribe. To unsubscribe, send a blank email with the subject heading Unsubscribe. |
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