Terrorism blame game

Erick San Juan

ONCE again, our country is in the limelight due to the unfortunate Marawi City siege orchestrated by the local terrorist Maute clan/group  and supported by the international terror network of Isis. And it happened while President Rody Duterte is out of the country–in Russia.

While the region was distracted by the missile launching of North Korea, there was far greater problem happening right here in our home, a symbolic move by Isis from the Middle East to East Asia. But it has been a while now that President Duterte has been warning that the Isis terror group is already in Mindanao, and the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police should be ready.

Was the government caught unaware that such group will attack sooner than had they expected? Some believe that timing is suspect and that the country is ripe for a regime change. Why is this so?

Remember that Duterte is very vocal (and can be read also) through his actions that he is gradually pulling away from the claws of Uncle Sam. He also gained several international critics on his war on drugs that his men in uniform (allegedly) are engaged in extrajudicial killings (EJK).

Some pundits believe that there are several financiers backing the operation in the Marawi siege, both local and international. It could be some narco-politicians and drug lords and those hurt by the President’s harsh words and comments.

Tony Cartalucci, in “Isis Touches Down in the Philippines,” writes: “Both the Maute group and Abu Sayyaf are extensions of Al Qaeda’s global terror network, propped up by state sponsorship from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and fed recruits via a global network of likewise Saudi and Qatari funded ‘madrasas.’ In turn, Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s state sponsorship of global terrorism for decades has been actively enabled by material and political support provided by the United States.”

This arrangement, Carlucci added, provides Washington both a global mercenary force with which to wage a proxy war when conventional and direct military force cannot be used, and a pretext for direct US military intervention when proxy warfare fails to achieve Washington’s objectives.

This formula has been used in Afghanistan in the 1980s to successfully expel the Soviet Union, in 2011 to overthrow the Libyan government, and is currently being used in Syria where both proxy war and direct US military intervention is being applied.

Maute and Abu Sayyaf activities fit into this global pattern perfectly.

The Philippines is one of many Southeast Asian states that has incrementally shifted from traditional alliances and dependency on the United States to regional neighbors, including China as well as Eurasian states including Russia.

“The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, cancelling his meeting with Russia is a microcosm of the very sort of results Maute and Abu Sayyaf are tasked with achieving in the Philippines. Attempts by the US to justify the presence of its troops in the Philippines as part of a wider strategy of encircling China with US military installations across Asia would also greatly benefit from the Islamic State ‘suddenly spreading’ across the island nation.

“Likewise, violence in Malaysia and Thailand are directly linked to this wider US-Saudi alliance, with violence erupting at each and every crucial juncture as the US is incrementally pushed out of the region. Indonesia has likewise suffered violence at the hands of the Islamic State, and even Myanmar is being threatened by Saudi-funded terrorism seeking to leverage and expand the ongoing Rohingya humanitarian crisis.”

That reported US-Saudi sponsorship drives this terrorism, not the meager revenue streams of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, goes far in explaining why the terrorist organization is capable of such bold attacks in Southeast Asia even as Russia and Iranian backed Syrian troops extinguish it in the Middle East.

“With US President Donald Trump announcing a US-Saudi alliance against terrorism – the US has managed to strategically misdirect public attention away from global terrorism’s very epicenter and protect America’s premier intermediaries in fueling that terrorism around the world.”

The Philippines would be unwise to turn to this “alliance” for help in fighting terrorism both the US and Saudi Arabia are directly and intentionally fueling, said Carlucci.

Instead, for Southeast Asia, joint counter-terrorism efforts together would ensure a coordinated and effective means of confronting this threat on multiple levels.

By exposing the deep military industrial complex role in regional terrorism – each and every act of terrorism and militancy would be linked directly to and subsequently taint the “plotters” in the hearts and minds of Southeast Asia’s population.

This paves the way for a process of exposing and dismantling state-sponsored funded fronts, including Saudi-sponsored madrasas and some international funded NGOs, both of which feed into regional extremism and political subversion. As this unfolds, each respective nation would be required to invest in genuine local institutions to fill sociopolitical and economic space previously occupied by these foreign funded fronts.

Until then, Asia should expect the plotters to continue leveraging terrorism against the region. If unchecked, Asia should likewise expect the same progress-arresting instability that has mired the Middle East and North Africa for decades.

When the Intel Center, a global organization of top intelligence and geostrategic experts, leaked to the international media that our country is now the 7th failed state, I know that the globalist program is on.

This is the best time to give our support to our President because no matter what, he needs more prayers and moral support than ever to get through this crisis.

Who wants to be part of collateral damage? Let’s get our act together. God bless our country.