Waging Peace in the Philippines (U.S. makes headway in the war on terror)

"They'll slit your throat on Jolo," people told Col. Jim Linder, head of a U.S. military task force in the Philippines. He recalled the prediction as we buzzed toward Jolo Island in a helicopter. Linder, a 45-year-old South Carolina native who has the remnants of a Southern drawl, has led Special Forces operations in the Middle East, Central and South America, Eastern Europe and Africa for the past 20 years. His latest assignment is the remote 345-square-mile island at the southernmost edge of the vast Philippines archipelago. Jolo is a known haven for Al Qaeda-linked terrorist groups, including Abu Sayyaf, or "Bearer of the Sword," which has used the island for 15 years to train terrorists and to coordinate attacks.

Curiously, Jolo was also one of the first places where the United States ever battled Muslim insurgents. On March 7, 1906, less than a decade after the United States seized the Philippines in the Spanish-American War, the people of Jolo—known as Moros, after the Spanish for Moors—revolted, among other reasons because they feared that the American effort to enroll their children in schools was part of a plan to convert them to Christianity. The Moros, armed with little more than swords, launched an insurgency against U.S. troops.

"They chased a bunch of Moros up that old volcano and killed them," Linder said to me, pointing out of the helicopter window. Below, the island rose into a series of steep volcanic ridges, each one glowing a lush green against the silvered surface of the Sulu Sea. In the Battle of the Clouds, as the confrontation on Jolo 100 years ago is called, U.S. forces killed 600 to 1,000 people. "It was commonly referred to as a massacre," Linder added quietly.

All sorts of armed groups dominate a populace long neglected by government," she says. "Local rulers compete for legitimacy with armed rebel groups, bandits, Muslim preachers, Catholic volunteers, loggers legal and illegal, the Marines, the Army. In this sense, Abu Sayyaf was ripe for growth. Modern history has proved that whenever the legitimacy of a state suffers and the economy goes down, other forces come to the fore as an alternative."

This is the issue in a nutshell. The area from Indonesia to Mindanao is refered to as the "Sulu Highway". It is a route for smuggling of all types, drug, human, weapons, etc. The Philippine government has neglected this area south of Mindanao for a long time. Now, the Philippine government wants to control the area and the locals want nothing to do with it. The people on Jolo have seen the lifestyle of the Filipino's in the north and just want to be treated equally, but that is not forthcoming.

If the people of Jolowere to be the recipients of more infrastructure, the may be a little more responsive to the influence of the Philippine government.

Our SF guys have been doing a great job there, but we aren't really wanted, except for the high-tech materials and support we supply to the Philippine military.

Why are the flags on their sleeves backwards?

The flags are displayed correctly. They are positioned to look like the wearer is moving forward and the wind is blowing the flags backward.

Regards.

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