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2 IN THE
DRAGON'S LAIR US prowls for China in the
Philippines By Herbert
Docena
services, and port services.
"Construction and use of temporary structures" is
also covered.
In other words, through the
MLSA, the US has secured for itself the services
that it would normally provide itself inside a
large permanent base but without constructing and
retaining large permanent bases - and without
incurring the costs and the political problems
that such bases pose.
Forward operating
base Finally, the United States has
succeeded in indefinitely stationing a US military
unit in the country. Since 2002, a unit now called
the
Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines
(JSOTFP) has been deployed to the southern
Philippines. Contrary to the US and Philippine
governments efforts to present the troops
belonging to the unit as part of temporary
training exercises, this unit has maintained its
presence in the country continuously for the last
six years. With the Philippine government not
setting an exit date, it will continue to be based
in the Philippines for the long haul.
The
unit, which is composed of about 100-500 mostly
Special Forces troops, is headquartered inside a
Philippine military camp in Zamboanga City, but
its "area of operations", according to a US
military publication, spans 8,000 square miles,
covering the entire island of Mindanao and its
surrounding islands and seas. With various
military facilities now being constructed for
their use, members of the unit refer to their
bases in Mindanao as "forward operating base-11"
and "advanced operating base-921".
Though
US and Philippine government officials have
consistently claimed that the unit is not involved
in actual combat, US troops themselves describe
their mission as "unconventional warfare" and
"counter-insurgency" operations in the country.
They have confirmed that they join Filipino troops
on patrol, provide them with intelligence, and
assist in various aspects of their operation.
Eyewitnesses claim to have seen them in the
vicinity of operations. Most recently, US troops
have been accused of joining Filipino soldiers
when they perpetrated what was described as a
massacre of innocent civilians in Sulu.
In
terms of profile and mission, the JSOTF-P is
similar to the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of
Africa (CJTF-Horn of Africa) - which was
established in Djibouti in eastern Africa in 2003,
also composed mostly of Special Forces, and which
has been described as the "model for future US
military operations".
Greatest
potential competitor Taken together - the
increasing troop deployments, the construction of
more and more infrastructure to guarantee US
military mobility, the designation of facilities
as "cooperative security locations" to be used by
the US military when needed, the assurance of
support services in case of operations, and the
indefinite stationing of US troops in the country
- have significantly improved the US ability to
operate in and from the Philippines, thereby
locking the country firmly within the US global
posture.
The determination to ensure and
strengthen this ability cannot be adequately
explained by the supposed threat posed by local or
regional "terrorist" groups in the Philippines and
in Southeast Asia. As brutal or as violent as the
deeply splintered Abu Sayyaf Group has been in its
operations, for example, the threat that its
remaining 300 or so members pose to the US is
quite low and cannot explain the magnitude, the
form, and locations of US presence in the country.
Not only doesn't the Abu Sayyaf pose an
existential threat to the US, neither does it
affect US strategic interests or limit its freedom
of action in country or beyond. Nuisance does not
a national security threat make.
Rather,
the US military presence in the Philippines
appears to be part of the US drive toward global
military dominance in general, and, in particular,
of the emerging US strategy towards China - the
one power that has now been officially identified
by the US as posing the greatest challenge to its
global supremacy. As indicated by the series of
provocative pronouncements by US officials against
China in the past years, the actual US moves to
encircle it with military bases and other forms of
military presence, and its ongoing efforts to
enlist various countries on its side and assemble
a de facto anti-China coalition in Asia, US
military basing in the Philippines appears to be
part of what its advocates have proposed as a
strategy for preserving US lone-superpower status
by preventing the rise of potential rivals.
Location, location, location If
such a strategy is indeed being put into action,
the Philippines appears to be of crucial strategic
importance. Since the late 1990s, a growing chorus
of US military strategists and foreign policy
thinkers concerned with China's rise have warned
about the deficiencies in the US military presence
in Asia, particularly in Southeast Asia. In their
recommendations for addressing this, the
Philippines has since been repeatedly explicitly
singled out as among the countries in which the US
must move decisively to regain its presence. As
various studies have concluded, in any possible
face-off with China - whether in a long-drawn out
competition or in an outright confrontation - the
Philippines, by virtue of its location, can be
pivotal.
At the same time, the US does not
have many other choices. Other countries in the
vicinity of China are either geographically less
than ideal, or else, have proven to be unwilling
to consent to US requests for basing or access.
While Singapore, for example, has proven more
accommodating to the US than others, its small
size is seen as limiting US options. Indonesia and
Malaysia, on the other hand, have not only openly
castigated US actions in Iraq and Afghanistan,
they have also rejected US demands to station in
and operate from their countries. Even Thailand,
which is a close US ally, has actually rejected US
overtures to be allowed to station ships in or to
deploy troops to its territory. Regardless of
their attitudes toward the United States, most
countries in the region simply do not see China as
a threat and have therefore refused to go along
any strategy that could antagonize it.
Hence, the United States finds that it
needs the Philippines more than ever. Not only is
it ideally located geographically, its government
has so far stood out among its neighbors for being
far more willing to align itself with US demands.
But with China also aggressively courting Filipino
leaders, this too could change. As the ensuing
geopolitical competition heats up, the Philippines
could tip the balance one way or the other.
Herbert Docena is a contributor
to Foreign Policy In Focus (www.fpif.org) and a
research associate at the Bangkok-based Focus on
the Global South.
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