We have SF engaged in the Philippines as advisors now.
There are advisors here, but not “engaged” in the “engaged in combat” sense. The training exercises are not in combat zones and the advisors are not accompanying troops into combat zones, unless they are exceeding the terms of reference agreed upon for the current exercises.
There is talk of a joint exercise in Cotabato. I hope they don’t do that. Little to gain and plenty to lose.
They have an old bone to pick...I served with Nick Rowe in the 5th SFGA in 62 and 63… Nick was assassinated in Manila by terrorists in 88 or 89.
If they are picking that bone, they’re picking it with the wrong people. Rowe was killed by the communist New People’s Army (NPA), which is not the target of any current operation. The NPA still exists but has rendered itself pretty marginal and is no longer a significant force. All of the action these days is directed at the Muslim separatists in the south. Different sort of animal altogether.
I was in Manila when Rowe was killed, living not far from the spot where it happened. I can’t honestly call it an act of terrorism. The US was very heavily involved in the conflict here at that time – for a while Manila had the second largest CIA station in the world, behind only Moscow – and that involvement finally reached a point where our people became targets. It was unfortunate that Rowe was the one who paid the price, as there were others who deserved it far more, but that’s the nature of war. You step into the kitchen, somebody’s going to take heat, and the guy who takes the heat is often not the guy who decided to step into the kitchen.
If the NPA had gone around knocking off Americans who were not involved in the conflict, or targeting American-owned businesses, that would have been terrorism. They didn’t do that. Rowe was ordered into harm’s way. He followed orders, because that’s what good soldiers do. He was killed in action, in an undeclared war, like so many other Americans. The responsibility lies with the people who made the decision to get involved in somebody else’s fight.
Those were weird times here. A whole lot of unnecessary dying went on; Rowe was by no means alone. Not a lot of black and white, and even the gray scale was pretty damned obscure. |
