The United States will send more than 1,700 troops to the Philippines in the next few weeks to fight Muslim extremists in the southern part of the country, opening a new front in the fight against terrorism, Pentagon officials said Thursday. A six-month training mission in the Philippines last year limited 1,300 U.S. troops, including 160 special forces soldiers, to an advisory role. But this mission will be a combat operation with no such restrictions on U.S. and Philippine troops serving side by side, military officials said.
| They've had a year to work out the details of cooperation. Last time it was a hurried thing, spurred by Afghanistan and the Abu Sayyaf festivities. I hope they're going to hit MILF this time. |
Under the plan, about 750 ground troops, including 350 special operations forces, will conduct or support combat patrols in the jungles of Sulu Province. In addition, about 1,000 Marines, supported by Cobra attack helicopters and Harrier AV-8B attack planes, will stand ready aboard two ships offshore to act as a quick-response force and provide logistics and medical support. The first troops are expected to arrive within days, officials said. Maj. Gen. Joseph Weber, commander of the Third Marine Division, will lead the U.S. force. The operation will last as long as necessary "to disrupt and destroy" the estimated 250 members of the extremist group Abu Sayyaf, one official said, adding that it marks a sharp escalation in the war against terror as the United States builds up for a possible war with Iraq and continues to hunt Al-Qaida in Afghanistan. Philippine and U.S. officials said they agreed to begin the joint offensive now for several reasons. Negotiations between the countries have been on-going for months.
| Toldja so. And Abu Sayyaf remnants have largely folded into MILF in the last year. Likewise the Pentagon gang. That's where both came from in the first place... |
But Abu Sayyaf's repeated attacks and the bombing death of an American Green Beret last October spurred Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to work out an aggressive plan.
| That means our guys get to shoot Bad Guys, too. Lord knows, there are enough of them to go around. |
Dispatching U.S. commandos to the southern Philippines comes at a convenient moment for Pentagon officials, who have sought to show that the U.S. military can fight a war with Iraq and still carry out a global hunt for terrorists. Arroyo has walked a political tightrope at home on the sensitive issue of welcoming U.S. military help to defeat a deadly foe. She has said she is not running for reelection, which some diplomats said will make it easier for her to weather the political fallout from what is sure to be a contentious issue in the Philippines. The Philippine constitution prohibits foreign troops from carrying out unilateral combat missions, but U.S. forces will technically play a supporting role in the Philippine-led operation, a distinction that may allow Arroyo and her supporters to skirt the legal issue. "It's something they will have to finesse," a senior U.S. official said.
We're just advisors, what could go wrong?
| There's definitely that danger. The Philippines situation and the terrain both bear unpleasant similarities to Vietnam. On the other hand, we dealt with the Moro rebels a hundred years ago under the same conditions and with much more primitive equipment. |
The combat operation, which goes well beyond an ongoing set of training missions, reflects the Pentagon's growing concern that militant Islamic networks pose an increasing threat to Americans and U.S. interests in Southeast Asia. "The Philippines have a terrorist problem and we have offered our assistance," a senior Pentagon official said Thursday. "Over time, that assistance takes different shapes and forms. The Philippines have invited us to expand our role with them."
| The PI government doesn't want to admit publicly that the problem includes MILF (and MNLF, which is hopefully a spent force after Misuari's fiasco last year)... |
A military assessment team, the vanguard of the larger combat force, is expected to arrive in the Philippines in the next few days, and the full force could be conducting combat operations against the Abu Sayyaf group within a month, a Pentagon official said. As they have for months, the U.S. Navy will continue to fly regular P-3 reconnaissance missions over the Sulu Archipelago to provide badly needed intelligence to Philippine army forces and U.S. forces. Philippine officials will ultimately be responsible for the timing and scope of operations, but U.S. officials are expected to play an influential role in those decisions.
The Philippines are old friends with which we have had a minor falling out the past decade. Time to kiss and make up. |