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Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Bringing the Mindanao conflict to Los Angeles
By Edwin G. Espejo
FOR American activist Preston Wood, many may view the Mindanao conflict involving the Moro people and the Philippine government as just an internal issue.
But concerns over the growing involvement of the Bush administration in the ongoing peace talks between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Philippine government amid the West's "war on terror" campaign, have reached levels that these have warranted the conflict's inclusion in the agenda of the huge September 24 rally scheduled for September 24 in Los Angeles.
Wood is among the organizers of the demonstration that promised to mobilize hundreds of thousands in a protest action against the American government's increasing intervention in the affairs of other countries, especially in Iraq, Palestine, Venezuela and Mindanao.
He said the Bush administration have lied to the American people when he invaded Iraq under the pretext of destroying Saddam Hussien's "weapons of mass destruction".
"People were told that Iraq was a threat to the security of the United States. That the Iraqi government had nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction and that it is linked with Al Quaeda terror organizations. And all of that has been proven to be untrue by insiders of the Bush administration," Wood told this writer in an interview just across the East Asia Hotel arcade where an international conference that aims to forge unity among Christians and Muslims in Mindanao is being held.
More than two years after the "coalition of the willing" invaded the Middle East country and drove Saddam Hussien out of power, the United States is still stuck in the area with President George Bush Jr. saying late last week that it is not leaving Iraq until the Iraqi people are capable of defeating the insurgents.
Also last week, the Bush administration announced it is sending 1,500 more US troops to Iraq, bringing its total forces to the area to over 140,000.
No end on sight
But the war in Iraq has taken a turn for the worse over the last few months.
Close to 2,000 US soldiers have already died since the Iraqi "insurgents" stepped up their attacks, way more than the "over 100 casualties" the US suffered in the 21-day actual invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The Iraqi insurgents have also become more lethal in their attacks lately and in fact brought its war of attrition when it ambushed the Iraqi police right in the heart of Baghdad, Iraq's capital city.
Amid growing concerns over increasing involvement of its government, more and more Americans, over 50 per cent according to a recent poll, think it is not to the best interest of America that its forces remain in Iraq.
Some members of the Republican Party, Bush's own political party, have even expressed anxiety over the drawn out war in Iraq.
A senior Republican senator, Chuck Hagel, has said publicly that the war in Iraq is starting to look like that in Vietnam.
Indeed, it is the thought of Iraq becoming into another Vietnam that is driving many Americans to question their government's ultimate goal in the said Middle East country.
Wood, a member of Act Now to Stop the War and End Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R) that is organizing the Los Angeles rally next month, said it has become clear to him that the Bush administration has set its sights at controlling Iraq's vast oil reserves and maintaining "US hegemony over the region."
"The bottom line is oil and hegemony over the region," Wood said.
A mother asks
Wood said next month's protest rally would be the biggest in years.
Organizers said many were inspired by Cindy Sheenan, a mother whose son was killed in Iraq.
According to an article in the BBC website, "Ms Sheehan, 48, has become a focus for anti-war sentiment since her protest began in Crawford 10 days ago.
"She has vowed to stay put during the president's month-long holiday at his ranch until he agrees to meet her.
Ms Sheehan, whose eldest son Casey, was slain in action in 2004, has pitched camp outside President Bush's Texas ranch, vowing not to lift her protest until the president meets her.
Bush has, however, declined to give Ms. Sheenan an audience.
In Ohio, home to a Marine unit that had 13 of its members killed in an ambush early this month, parents have also been asking why their sons have died in a faraway place.
Indeed, this growing anti-war sentiment is providing organizers of the September 24 demonstration a rallying point.
While Wood says the level of demonstrations and the number of people joining them have not yet reached the anti-Vietnam War protest era, today's activist in the United States are gathering momentum.
"It took years before the anti-Vietnam war protest peaked. But that is beginning to happen (now)," Wood explained.
He says, this summer (in the United States) has been "very bad for the Bush administration.
"More and more ordinary members of the working class are beginning to ask the Bush administration what is happening in Iraq," he explained.
He also said that it would not have mattered if John Kerry, a Democrat, won the 2004 US presidential elections.
"Kerry and the Democrats supported the war in Iraq. I don't think it would have mattered. It is a long policy of the American government to maintain control over the Middle East," Woods says in further indicting his government.
He, however, calls Bush an "arrogant monster."
Solidarity
So what is an American activist like Wood doing in Mindanao?
Wood said it is important to forge links and establish solidarity among peoples in areas where the United States' interventionist policies are being carried out.
Although he has only gone to a few places during his stay here, Wood says although Iraq and Mindanao are several thousand miles away, the US maintains the same policy.
"The US is not happy that it had to pull out its bases here. It still wants to maintain a strong military presence in the Philippines," he explained.
When told that General Santos is one of the many R&R jaunts of US military servicemen doing covert and overt activities, he was awed and surprise.
Of the enlisted servicemen, Woods says he is willing to meet and talk to them.
"Majority of them are members of the working class who joined the military simply because they could not find any job," he rationalized.
But he also said it is wrong for his government to continue to intervene in the Philippines.
During the weeklong international Muslim-Christian Solidarity conference held at the East Asia Royale Hotel, he heard many accounts of government atrocities in the region.
Amirah Ali Lidasan, secretary general of the Moro Christian people's alliance, one of the organizers of the international solidarity conference, says the US government wants "to boxed" the Moro people into towing the "democratic Islam" concept as "defined by the United States."
"We have become victims of the Islam phobia fostered by the Bush administration," she said during a press conference.
Wood agrees.
Muslims, he says, are targeted and demonized by the Bush administration.
The situation in Mindanao should not escape scrutiny from the American public, just as they are trying to rally people behind their campaign to end US intervention in Venezuela where a left-leaning president is instituting democratic reforms aside from opening up closer ties with the American government arch-enemy in the region, Cuba's Fidel Castro.
"These are key areas (Iraq, Venezuela and the Philippines) in the world where we felt the struggles of their peoples should be brought up before the American public," Wood explained.
"We feel that is our responsibility as a US-based anti-war organization to talk about issues about the Philippines especially in Los Angeles where quite a number of Filipinos live."
A.N.S.W.E.R, he added, is a multi-racial and multi-denomination coalition of anti-war activists that is opposed to US interventionist policies around the world.
He said they don't mind working and forging ties with left-leaning organizations around the world just to bring a halt to existing US policies.
"We don't want Muslims and foreigners living in the US being raided in the middle of the night because of the government's war on terror policies," he added.
He said every one's bill of rights should be respected and upheld, even in countries like the Philippines.
Many US-based Filipino activists will surely find A.N.S.W.E.R's September 24 protest rally in Los Angeles an opportunity to further their cause.
Well, if an American can manifest sympathy to the plight of our Moro brothers, why can't they?
(August 29, 2005 issue)
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