fallujah: winning the battle, losing the war

the united states’ military victory in fallujah is an example of winning the battle while going deep in the quagmire of losing the war.

here is why the pentagon believes they are on top of things in fallujah:

american marines and soldiers who fought in fallujah faced the toughest warfare possible and did magnificently, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said nov. 23.

air force gen. richard b. myers told greta van susteren on the fox news channel that the marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen did very well in the urban- warfare environment in the embattled iraqi city.

he said the troops are working well with iraqi allies. the chairman said the iraqi forces that fought against insurgents in fallujah did very well. this bodes well for the future of the country, he said.

this is how al jazeera views the recent battle of fallujah:

in the strictest terms of a tactical scorecard, the body count of casualties would appear to support that claim. an estimated (but unverified) total of 1200 fighters were reported killed so far, while the us military admits that their own forces suffered fewer than 50 battlefield fatalities.

rarely reported by the pentagon is the nearly 300 severely wounded american casualties and a similar number of lightly injured. when one factors in the lack of fighters' medical facilities, their willingness to die in battle, and the recently exposed manner in which us soldiers "dispatch" wounded iraqi prisoners the casualty figures no longer appear so heavily one-sided.

nevertheless, the discrepancy in the death count also illustrates clearly the overwhelming technological superiority enjoyed by the us forces over the lightly armed fighters -something which was never in question.

proponents of the “just war” theory usually try to qualify why a war is justified—that is, winning the peace ought to be the end-result of war.

from the point of view of the iraqis, peace means experiencing salam. salam is not just the absence of conflict. genuine peace is the presence of justice.

there is no salam in fallujah, iraq; hence, there is no real victory in this war.

how the bush reelection is perceived in mindanao

the bush re-election spells more trouble for mindanao. this is the assessment of bishop felixberto calang of initiatives for peace in mindanao or in-peace during an interview with mindanews:

"the reelection of mr. bush means the burgeoning in the number of american troops conducting so-called joint military exercises in mindanao. we believe that these joint exercises will graduate into joint military operations, a clear violation of the national sovereignty and other [philippine] constitutional provisions. we foresee that the balikatan [military] exercises will be held more frequently, cover more extensive areas, and deployed in greater numbers," he said.

for the past one hundred years, the americans have been intervening in mindanao because of their economic and military interests in the region. along with the peace workers in mindanao, i believe that the peace process should be left between the government of the republic of the philippines (grp) and the moro islamic liberation front (milf). war monies given to the grp by mr. bush's "war presidency" fuel more armed conflicts. these war monies are a major graft and corruption factor that led to a major investigation of alleged financial corruption among grp's military generals.

for many workers—both fulltime staff and volunteers—who are involved in the peace process, the following four years of highly militarized american intervention in mindanao will not be easy.
the religious right in america chose this president to protect "the biblical truth" against secular cultural influences. it is sad that they seem to have forgotten that it is not by might or by power that the truth, justice and righteousness of god will be preserved or advanced in this world; it is through the spirit of god. the advancement of the truth of god does not need a war president who endangers the lives of millions of people around the world, even if he claims to be a "born-again christian."

may god help those peace workers in the field who will be facing more guns and war materiels, courtesy of the american taxpayers and the american military-industrial corporations.

a filipino diplomat is still being held hostage in afghanistan with two other u.n. personnel

let everyone know...

annetta flanigan of northern ireland, filipino diplomat angelito nayan and shqipe habibi of kosovo are still being held hostage in afghanistan. they helped organize the october 9 election. a group of armed men snatched them from a u.n. vehicle on a busy kabul street last thursday.

this is an unjust and desperate move of a taliban breakaway group as they attempt to put a brake on the country's post-taliban recovery. this is also a lame attempt to overshadow the crowning of u.s. favorite hamid karzai as its first democratically elected president. i condemn the action of this breakaway group. taking hostages to make a political point is always a cowardly act.

at the same time, i also see this is as a result of a wrong socio-cultural understanding among western powers that western-style democracy can be imposed on a nation by political and military force. democracy cannot be enforced from the outside to the inside—in this case, from the united states to the people of afghanistan. this is one reason why i am skeptic about george w. bush’s policy of enforcing western democracy by using american political-military machineries. democracy cannot be imposed through the barrel of the gun!

anyway, we, the people of the philippines, must unite our hearts and minds towards the freedom of our brother, angelito nayan, and his colleagues, annetta flanigan and shqipe habibi.