Amerika slanders the CPP/NPA as "terrorist organizations"

The height of hypocrisy

 

In his announcement declaring the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and New People's Army (NPA) to be "foreign terrorist organizations" U.$. Secretary of State Powell claimed that the NPA "has killed U.S. citizens [in the Philippines]." This was apparently a reference to the alleged NPA assassination of Col. James Rowe of the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG) more than a decade ago. The JUSMAG trains Filipino officers in counter-insurgency tactics.

 

Powell should take a cue from the Bible and take the log from his own eye before removing the supposed speck from his neighbor's. The United $tates has a long history of killing Filipinos, from the millions killed during the Filipino-Amerikan war at the turn of the last century to the tens of thousands killed and tortured under the U.$.-backed Marcos dictatorship and its so-called democratic successors. The Philippine military's abuses of combatants and non-combatants in its recent campaigns against the Abu Sayaaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front caused even the New York Times to question whether the United $tates was supporting the real terrorists by committing to "train" Philippine soldiers.

 

Thus, according to the most proper definition of "terrorism"--the killing of civilians to spread fear with the purpose of achieving a political goal, in this case the preservation of a corrupt government favorable to U.$. business interests--the United $tates is the biggest supporter of terrorism in the Philippines.

 

The CPP and NPA are working to overthrow the corrupt semi-feudal and semi-colonial system in the Philippines using the strategy of protracted people's war. People's war is targeted at police and military forces, not the general civilian population; hence, people's war should not be counted as "terrorism."

 

In a Maoist people's war, whether it is in Peru, Nepal, the Philippines or anywhere else, the use of force does not have the design to produce fear and hence a change of policy. Rather the strategy of people's war is to wear down an imperialist invader or overthrow a regime that is opposed to the toiling workers and peasants. Quite the contrary to producing fear, a People's War only succeeds if it garners popular support, not fear, because the governments People's Wars oppose historically--in China, Peru, the Philippines etc.--all have technologically superior weapons and financial backing from U.$. imperialism. Without popular support, the People's War would have a severe disadvantage against any invader or lackey regime of imperialism.

 

We laugh in the faces of Attorney General Ashcroft, President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell when they accuse Maoists of having a "philosophy of violence." Ashcroft, Bush and Powell also have "philosophies of violence" as proved by their actual use of violence.

 

All the hype about "terrorism" merely serves to cover the United $tates true interests in sending troops to the Philippines: preserving an important military base and neo-colony.

 

Note: MIM Notes 266, 15 Sep 2002.