The US Will Re-Open Massive Philippine Bases Not Occupied Since The Cold War. Why Philippines Stands Up to China. Last month, I wrote a column for Global Times in which I observed that a dominant Chinese Navy lets China’s leadership deploy unarmed surveillance and law-enforcement vessels as it implements policy in the ongoing stand off at Scarborough Shoal.
It can flourish a small, unprovocative seeming stick while holding the big stick – overwhelming naval firepower, and thus the option of escalating – in reserve. That, I wrote, translates into “virtual coercion and deterrence” vis-à-vis lesser Asian powers. If weak states defy Beijing, they know what may come next. Global Times readers evidently interpreted this as my prophesying that Southeast Asian states will despair at the hopeless military mismatch in the South China Sea – and give in automatically and quickly during controversies like Scarborough Shoal.
Not so. Military supremacy is no guarantee of victory in wartime, let alone in peacetime controversies. That the weak can vanquish the strong is an idea with a long pedigree. Regional Snapshots. The Philippines is on the verge of an AIDS crisis.
Without political will from the Aquino administration, it will get worse. By John Schellhase for The Diplomat June 15, 2011 Facebook0 Twitter0 Google+0 LinkedIn0 While HIV infection rates have dropped globally over the last decade, recent predictions warn that the Philippines will see a five-fold increase in infections before President Benigno Aquino finishes his current term. A Conversation on Counterinsurgency as a Strategy with George Friedman and Robert D. Kaplan. Deadly Drone Strike on Muslims in the Southern Philippines. Early last month, Tausug villagers on the Southern Philippine island of Jolo heard a buzzing sound not heard before.
It is a sound familiar to the people of Waziristan who live along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, where the United States fights the Taliban. It was the dreaded drone, which arrives from distant and unknown destinations to cause death and destruction. Within minutes, 15 people lay dead and a community plunged into despair, fear and mourning. The U.S. drone strike, targeting accused leaders in the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah organisations, marked the first time the weapon has been used in Southeast Asia. The drone has so far been used against Muslim groups and the Tausug are the latest on the list. Just as in Pakistan and other theatres of the "war on terror", the strike has provoked controversy, with a Filipino lawmaker condemning the attack as a violation of national sovereignty.
Sulu Sultanate 'Special provinces' Mediation needed.