| Von: <sipila@kominf.pp.fi> An: <kominform@lists.EUnet.fi> Betreff: Philippines: tripwire to a new Vietnam? Datum: Mittwoch, 30. Januar 2002 17:43
A tripwire to a new Vietnam? By sending 650 US combat troops, including 160 Green Berets and Navy Seals, with the approval of the puppet Macapagal regime, into a battle zone in Southern Philippines, U.S. imperialismis deliberately setting up a tripwire to a new Vietnam. The lame excuse is a joint military operation, dubbed Balikatan Exercise, against the CIA and AFP creation, the Abu Sayyaf group. The interventionist troops will be using live bullets, staying for six months up to a year, and authorised to fire back in so-called self-defence.
In their arrogance, U.S. imperialism and the Macapagal regime trample on the Manila Government s own constitution that forbids the entry of foreign troops except when a treaty allows it. The puppet Macapagal regime cites the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) as the justification for the entry of the US combat troops. But the VFA, even under the Manila Government s standards, cannot be regarded as a treaty. The US Senate has not ratified it. Moreover the VFA does not allow US troops to join combat patrols. For the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the ominous presence of the US interventionist troops is a flagrant violation of the national sovereignty of the Filipino people and the territorial integrity of the Philippines. The broadest united front of patriotic and progressive forces in the Philippines and in the international community must be mobilised to vigorously oppose and resist this latest US intervention in the Philippines that threatens to become a US war of aggression against the Filipino people. The American people and their anti-imperialist and progressive organisations, just as during the Vietnam War, must stand up and defy this US imperialist intervention against the Filipino people. Our history is filled with lessons about US imperialist treachery and aggression. On February 4, 1899, the U.S. started the Philippine-American War by initiating an encounter with Filipino revolutionary forces. It used the false allegation that Filipino troops would start killing all foreign residents in Manila on February 15, 1899. US imperialism sent more than 126,000 troops to pacify the Filipino people and caused the death of up to 1.4 million Filipinos from 1899 to 1913. A great number of the Bangsamoro were also killed in Mindanao. US intervention in Vietnam started with the sending of advisers and trainers, followed by combat troops. In the Philippines all these are coming in one go. The US manufactured the Tonkin Gulf Incident to justify its war of aggression. Now it uses the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US to wage a so-called global war on terrorism. The Abu Sayyaf group, their own creation in collaboration with their
assets in the Philippine military, is their convenient excuse to intervene Luis Jalandoni Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel (This is a slightly abridged version of an NDFP press statement issued on January 19, 2002)
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