Tag: Philippines

Philippines, Japan, Australia–Oh My

Meanwhile back at the South China Sea.

The US is paranoid about the South China Sea and has set aside billions for Taiwan and the waters around the island.

The US held a meeting and made a new pact…..

The US has been working to increase military cooperation with the Philippines, Japan, and Australia as part of its strategy against China in the Asia Pacific, a grouping Pentagon officials privately call the “Squad,” Bloomberg reported on Friday.

The defense chiefs of the US, the Philippines, Japan, and Australia met in Hawaii on May 2 and issued a joint readout that used harsh rhetoric against China’s claims to the South China Sea and the East China Sea, two areas where the US has vowed to intervene if the maritime disputes turn into shooting wars.

“The Ministers and Secretaries expressed serious concern about the situation in the East and South China Seas,” the readout said. “They strongly objected to the dangerous use of coast guard and maritime militia vessels in the South China Sea. They reiterated serious concern over the PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) repeated obstruction of Philippine vessels’ exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and the disruption of supply lines to Second Thomas Shoal, which constitute dangerous and destabilizing conduct.”

They also vowed to increase military cooperation, including in the South China Sea. “The Ministers and Secretaries discussed opportunities to further advance defense cooperation, including through continued maritime cooperation in the South China Sea, enhanced procedures to enable coordination and information sharing arrangements, as well as strengthening capacity building,” the readout said.

(antiwar.com)

The US has repeatedly vowed that the US-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty applies to attacks on Philippine vessels in the South China Sea. Similarly, the US has affirmed that the mutual defense portion of the US-Japan Security Treaty would apply to the Senkaku Islands, Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea that are also claimed by China.

I have to ask….does that Mutual Defense thing about Filipino vessels extend to derelicts?

I ask that simple question because of something I read……

Earlier this month, President Biden asserted that US support for the Philippines is “ironclad.” A new story in the Washington Post explains how that promise might be tested in the not-too-distant future thanks to a rusting warship.

  • The ship: The BRP Sierra Madre belongs to the Philippines, which deliberately ran it aground on the Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 in order to stake its claim to an outpost in the disputed South China Sea. The ship is no longer seaworthy, but Philippine military vessels routinely bring supplies out to the Filipino marines aboard.
  • ‘Asia’s next war’: Chinese military ships harass the Filipino supply ships with water cannons, and it’s a dangerous tactic, as videos show. If things escalate, or a Philippine service member is killed, that could trigger a US response under a 1951 mutual defense treaty, per the Post. The story describes the ship as a flashpoint that could lead to “Asia’s next war.”
  • Days numbered: The ship is destined to succumb to the elements, and it could be a matter of months, not years, according to an analysis in the Guardian. China accuses the Philippines of trying to rehab the ship to make it a permanent fixture on the atoll, which the Philippines denies. China maintains an outpost on the nearby Mischief Reef, and would likely try to claim Second Thomas Shoal as part of its ever-expanding dominance of the sea.
  • One proposal: The Philippines and the US should act before the ship disintegrates, writes Blake Herzinger at War on the Rocks. “The Philippines should remove the Sierra Madre and replace it with a permanent structure manned by combined rotational forces from both the Philippines and the U.S. Marine Corps,” he writes. “Such a forward operating base would be a powerful signal of commitment to the alliance for both nations.”

Cool!  We could actually go to war over some piece of junk stranded on an atoll because some country wants to clai8m it as theirs….is that about right?

This is just sick!  Nay it is DISGUSTING!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Jump On That Gravy Train

The US has stated that it will defend Europe, through NATO, if attacked….now we will fund the Ukraine efforts to expel the Russians….then we will defend South Korea from aggression from the North and Taiwan from any moves by China and now a new ‘needy’ nation is on the payroll…..the Philippines.

The US has promised to support the nation if problems arise.

President Biden hosted Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the White House on Monday amid heightened tensions with China and told him that the US commitment to defending the Philippines is “ironclad.”

In comments ahead of a meeting with Marcos, Biden said the US “remains ironclad in our commitment to the defense of the Philippines, including the South China Sea, and we’re going to continue to support the Philippines’ military modernization goals.”

Marcos told Biden that the Philippines was located in “arguably the most complicated geopolitical situation in the world right now.”

“And so, it is only natural that — for the Philippines to look to its sole treaty partner in the world to strengthen and to redefine the relationship that we have and the roles that we play in the face of those rising tensions that we see now around the South China Sea and Asia-Pacific and Indo-Pacific regions,” the Philippine leader added.

…

Biden and Marcos agreed to take other steps to strengthen the military alliance. According to the White House, the US will transfer military equipment to the Philippines’ armed forces, including “two Island-class patrol vessels, two Protector-class patrol vessels, and three C-130H aircraft.”

According to the White House, Biden underscored that “an armed attack in the Pacific, which includes the South China Sea, on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft, including those of the Coast Guard, would invoke US mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.”

The White House said the two countries have also adopted “Bilateral Defense Guidelines that institutionalize key bilateral priorities, mechanisms, and processes to deepen alliance cooperation and interoperability across land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace.”

(antiwar.com)

This ought to keep the War industry stocks strong…..and that is a great reason for all this adventurism.

Who will be the next nation to get on the US gravy train?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

An Unknown ‘Hero’ Or A ‘Mad Man”?

It is Black history month and I try to bring some black history that has been missed in your education.

Have you ever heard of David Fagen?

The year is 1899 and the place is the Philippines.

You won’t find this story anywhere else for Black History Month, but you should! By the mid-1900’s, a “Buffalo Soldier” named David Fagen was virtually a household name, particularly in the African American community. Fagen’s story makes myth of the false contention that African Americans offered little resistance to institutionalized racism from the Civil War until the end of WWII.

Was Fagen a hero or “a mad dog”?  The answer is rooted in whether you believe that fighting against U.S. colonialism/imperialism in 1899, in this case the U.S. war of Philippine conquest, is righteous and worthy of giving rise to a true hero, martyr and courageous Buffalo Soldier, who deserted the U.S. side and joined the Philippine Revolutionary Army. The PRA was fighting to establish their own independent republic after the Spanish were kicked out.

In diaries and letters, Black soldiers posted in the Philippines. recounted how racism was endemic in the U.S. military, describing the racist abuses suffered by both African Americans and Filipinos.

Fagen was a native of Tampa, Florida, the youngest of 6 children of former slaves. He grew up where Jim Crow racial segregation laws prevailed. With the specter of lynching, race riots and the chain gang looming over Tampa’s Blacks, Fagen “lived in dread at all times.” Searching for any escape from Jim Crow, Fagen enlisted in 1898, being assigned to the 24th Infantry Regiment, a unit of so-called Buffalo Soldiers.

Expansionist USA, intent on developing a global commercial empire, dispatched 6000 African American soldiers, including 2100 of the famed Buffalo Soldiers, to the Philippines islands per President McKinley’s assessment that the racial inferiority of Filipinos justified denying them sovereignty and engaging in a bloody war of conquest. Fagen, now on the battlefield, detested his white commanding officer Lt. Moss, a West Point graduate. Moss and Fagen clashed repeatedly, with Moss eventually fining Fagen more than a month’s pay and sentencing him to 30 days of hard labor. Life was immutably altered when Fagen, after  a few months of battling Filipino rebels, turned his back on the U.S. army and joined Filipino revolutionaries who were actually fighting against American invaders.

Forgotten: an African American Soldier Turned Rebel Leader in the Philippines  

Regardless of what one thinks of his actions he is still a person from history and his life and actions should be studied.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”