The more Gloria Arroyo opens her mouth about North Korea, the more ridiculous she sounds.
Last Monday, she bested all Southeast Asian leaders in issuing a statement condemning North Korea’s nuclear test. Yesterday, she said North Korea’s nuclear test is a Damocles’ sword over Asia and underscored that the Philippines is “within striking distance” of a nuclear weapon fired from Pyongyang.
She's not ridiculous, Ellen. She's using the same playbook again to corral US support for her illegitimate and corrupt government.
Nagpaparinig lang siya sa US at kay Bush, to let them know that she’s still a “dependable ally” in the WOT, so that in return, the US won't abandon her or see her ouster via coup/people power as an "internal matter" for the Philippines.
Katulad nang sinabi ni JB Baylon last July, her statement "was directed more towards the White House than towards Pyongyang."
Dean Jorge Bocobo explains how Arroyo thinks:
(1) Despite her promises after 9/11, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has failed to secure an Anti-Terrorism Law in the Philippines, mainly because she has failed to make the case with the Filipino people and its Congress which she controls, to join in the Global War On Terrorism. I think this is because she is at heart, a politician, who saw GWOT just as a way into America's good graces. Sorry to let you know this, but she used you and she used our great nation, pretending to be our friend, when really all she wanted was to win an election in 2004, by hook or by crook, by golly or by Garci.
(2) Despite her promises to the Coalition of the Willing in Iraq, she negotiated with and capitulated to hooded terrorist kidnappers holding Filipino truck driver Angelo de la Cruz hostage. Spooked by the local antiwar Media and the Left, she gave in to the terrorists' demand and pulled out the Philippine humanitarian force.
(3) Despite fulsome support of the American people and the US Congress for her administration up until that point -- and indeed to this very day [sic!] -- Gloria then high-tailed it off to China to play that game of modern promiscuity that is the vice of Third World leaders who don't really want the Cold War to go away. It was always in pitting one Big Power against another during that long struggle, that the craftiest among them thought they found "an independent foreign policy." In my opinion, for Gloria this two-step process of abandoning the Coalition in Iraq and jumping into the Chinese-canopied bed in Asia was actually done in anticipation of a DEFEAT for the Republicans and George W. Bush in the 2004 US national elections. Analysis of the Palace's moves and statements in the crucial month before the November, 2004 polls shows that Malacanang was already betting on and backing a win by JOHN KERRY. Gloria did not believe you were going to win a second term, W.
Yes, Arroyo in the past liked to brag that the Philippines was one of the first countries to join the War on Terror and support the Iraq campaign... na we're one of the first countries in the world to offer more troops in iraq and that we were taking a LEADERSHIP role in Asian in fighting terrorism. (Hah! leadership role? pero walang maipasa na anti-terror bill during 2001-2005, when arroyo had the senate and House on her side? Hah!)
But we were also one of the first countries to pull out prematurely from Iraq when the going got tough.
(that was after "winning" her election in 2004 though, at hindi na raw niya kailangan ang supporta ng US dahil may "legitimacy" na siya, hwa hwa hwa...)
MORE from Ana Marie Pamintuan, of the pro-Arroyo Philippine STar (our version of North Korea's news media, in it's loyalty and devotion to the "Dear Leader"). The title of the article is "Unwavering Support":
MANILA, September 29, 2003 (STAR) SKETCHES By Ana Marie Pamintuan - It got little play-up here, but the spin of at least one American newspaper on the US visit of President Arroyo was that she was the first world leader to respond to a call from US President George W. Bush for more foreign troops to keep the peace in Iraq.
"We would like to send more (troops), and we hope that the United Nations can be more involved," the President told reporters at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan, according to the Washington Times.
Earlier, the President had told UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that the Philippines would send more troops to Iraq, in addition to the 86-member humanitarian team now in a camp south of Baghdad, if the UN would shoulder the expenses.
That’s one big if. Still, the Bush administration can use even a best-efforts pledge from a cash-strapped Third World ally when the US president’s call is ignored by the international community. Russian President Vladimir Putin wouldn’t make a commitment even after being feted by Bush at Camp David.
.....
President Arroyo has flip-flopped on many controversial issues throughout her incumbency. But in her support for the US-led war on terror, she has not wavered, even as US troops sink deeper into the Iraq quagmire and Bush founders in the surveys. A Malacañang official said President Arroyo’s offer to send additional troops was in line with efforts to remove any potential kinks in Bush’s forthcoming Manila visit.
Her unstinting support calls to mind another staunch ally of Uncle Sam. Ferdinand Marcos had addressed the United Nations General Assembly during his first term as president, and became the first world leader to express support for the "Tonkin Gulf" resolution. This was the resolution passed by the US Congress on Aug. 7, 1964, which the administration of Lyndon Johnson used to justify US military intervention in Vietnam.
The Johnson administration had reported that on Aug. 4, 1964, in the Gulf of Tonkin, North Vietnamese torpedo boats had attacked without provocation US destroyers that were feeding intelligence information to the South Vietnamese.
Johnson’s boys drafted a resolution, which the US Congress passed days later, authorizing the use of all necessary measures to repel attacks against US troops and defend US allies in Southeast Asia. There were debates on what the resolution actually authorized, but Johnson used it to send American boys to war in Vietnam, and Richard Nixon also used it to justify US military involvement in Southeast Asia. In 1970 the US Congress repealed the resolution.
North Vietnamese Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, in a meeting in 1995 with former US defense secretary Robert McNamara, said the torpedo boat attack never happened. In 2001, it was revealed that Johnson himself doubted that the attack took place.
Marcos, however, backed Johnson’s moves. In return, the Philippines received $200 million in US aid during Marcos’ first year in office. Shortly thereafter, we had troops in Vietnam helping Uncle Sam. * * *
Marcos got $200 million and Washington’s backing throughout martial law. What does Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo hope to get in return?
She will always say that she has only national interest in mind in her support for the US-led war on terror. Her critics, on the other hand, will always suspect that she wants Washington’s backing for her expected candidacy in 2004.
Interesting, interesting article.
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