“In the News” will be something which I hope I can do regularly, where I’ll write about news stories that have struck me.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this blog, I’m interested in people– in what they do and say, and why they do and say them. One (admittedly unscientific) way to do that, I’ve found, is to watch and read the news.
That in mind, in the news we have wars and rumors of wars, and sometimes rumors of rumors of wars: the Filipino peacekeepers in the Golan Heights and US cyber-warriors taking the fight against the Islamic State to cyberspace.
“The Greatest Escape”– Filipino Peacekeepers besieged
One of the most-discussed events recently here in the Philippines was the standoff between Filipino peacekeepers stationed in the Golan Heights and Syrian rebels. The peacekeepers are part of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) manning the buffer zone established between Syria and Israel after the 1973 Yom Kippur War; the current UNDOF commander is Lt. Gen. Iqba Singh Singha of India, who took over in 2012. More on him later.
To summarize what happened, on Wednesday, 27 August 2014, Syrian rebels overran the Quneitra crossing on the buffer zone; a day later, a number of Fijian peacekeepers were captured (the UN said 44, but the rebels reported 45) and Positions 68 and 69, manned by the “Blue Helmets” Filipino peacekeepers, came under siege from rebels demanding that they surrender their weapons and assuring them that would be treated well in captivity. The Filipinos refused, even when General Singha ordered them to raise a white flag and comply, and “exercised their right to defend themselves”– they traded fire for around seven hours. Apparently, Manila was kept apprised of the situation on the ground. On Saturday, the thirty-five peacekeepers stationed at Breiqa were safely escorted out of their encampment while being covered by the Irish quick reaction force. Shortly after midnight on Sunday, the other forty stationed at Rwihana fled under cover of darkness (“While the rebels were sleeping,” as the Philippine military reported) and walked across the minefields and rough terrain to make contact with the rest of the peacekeeping contingent. No casualties were reported, and as of this writing, all the Filipino peacekeepers are now safe (in a manner of speaking) at their base camp in Camp Ziouani.
The interesting thing about news sites on the Internet is how interactive they are. Before, people sent in letters to the editor if they wanted to comment on an article or pick a fight with a reporter, which took some time; now, most of them have social media plugins, and people can share them or pick a fight with the reporter in real time 😛 From reading the comments, I saw that most of them, barring the ones written by obvious trolls, fell into one of three camps (if you’ll excuse the word):
- The “Proud to be Pinoy” and their supporters
- Negative commenters
- People who don’t quite know what’s going on
“Proud to be Pinoy” commenters are Filipinos (“Pinoy” is a slang term which we use to call ourselves) who are obviously very proud of their men and women in uniform, with just cause. Reports say that among those peacekeepers were members of the Scout Rangers of the Army’s Special Operations Command, elite and experienced troops who have probably fought against insurgents at home, though I’m not sure how reliable those reports are. Also, seven hours may seem relatively short, but I’m sure it’s a long seven hours when you’re under fire and certain death is whizzing past you.
They commonly cite a quote attributed to General Douglas MacArthur: “Give me ten thousand Filipino soldiers and I will conquer the world,” or bash President Obama (I’m not sure why) or General Singha, who must have been a lot of pressure at the height of the standoff– we won’t know for sure now, but some scenarios paint a dire picture and more lives put at risk.
And about General Singha, some are even insinuating that he’s working for the rebels from inside the UN, pointing out that he’s a Muslim (I’m not sure if he is, but many Sikhs apparently are). For me, it shows a sort of latent anti-Muslim tendency in my countrymen, maybe a sad holdover from colonial times when most of the country was Catholic while the Muslims in Mindanao held out and refused to fall in line. The stereotype is that Muslims are terrorists or purveyors of pirated DVD’s, and Indians (whom Filipinos refer to as “Bumbay” from “Bombay”) are usurious money-lenders. I’m a Catholic myself, and I think such talk does nothing useful. Christ is the Prince of Peace.
Some of these commenters seem to go overboard, though, to which I say: Guys, I’m proud of what our gallant Filipino peacekeepers have accomplished and I love my dear country, too, but we’ve got a lot of conflict already. I don’t think we need more. 😀
Negative commenters are mostly calling for the Philippine government to bring the troops back home, which is understandable. Gen. Singha commanding the peacekeepers to surrender their arms and raise a white flag was seen as him sacrificing the Filipinos to save the Fijians, which might be a little unfair; I think he owes everyone an explanation. In any case, they’ll probably get their wish, because after their tour of duty ends in October, the Philippines has indicated that it doesn’t want to send more peacekeepers to that part of the world.
They also cite the fact that up to now, the problems of the decades-long Communist insurgency and the Islamist separatists in the south– some of whom have allegedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State– haven’t been completely resolved yet, and that China seems to be threatening the country.
Another common theme is that the peacekeepers “ran away with their tails between their legs”– which is unfair to them. They nailed the colors to the mast and held out until they found a way to escape; it wasn’t really their job to fight and defeat the besiegers. They fought and survived together, and God willing, they’ll all come safely home for their hero’s welcome.
The ones who don’t quite know what’s going on include Filipinos who, well, don’t really know why the peacekeepers were there. It’s rather sad, since the peacekeepers are there doing an important job– keeping the peace. And they deserve some recognition for what they’re doing.
Also, like a lot of Filipinos, they’ve forgotten or haven’t heard of the PEFTOK– the Philippine Expeditionary Forces to Korea, five Battalion Combat Teams who served in the Korean War; one of them was designated as an armored battalion, but it arrived in Korea without tanks and spent most of the war without them 😛 . Among them was a Second Lieutenant named Fidel V. Ramos, who later in life became President. It’s usually passed over as a footnote, but in Philippine schools, when we discuss the story of the martyred opposition senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr., we’re told that he went to Korea as a journalist. He was there to report on the PEFTOK’s campaigns. The Philippines is in the UN, and it isn’t uninvolved in the world.
For that matter, we shouldn’t be uninvolved in the world, either.
Twitter warfare– US cyber-warriors take the fight against ISIS to cyberspace
This will be shorter than the previous section, but apparently, the US Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (USCC) is now taking the fight against the Islamic State to cyberspace. They’re probably now flaming and trolling the IS on the Facebook, the Twitter machine, and all over the Internets in a war for hearts and minds.
I don’t know if it’ll be effective, but I hope it will be. And I hope somehow, someday, all this war and rumor of war, and rumors of rumors of wars, can stop. It isn’t the way things should be.
That’s all for now, friends 😀 I want to hear from you. What’s happening in your side of the world?
Aletheia Observer, signing off. Careful out there! 🙂
-A.O.
P.S. Obligatory music post, after a long blog post. This is “If A Song Could Get Me You” by Marit Larsen.
Aletheia Observatory 