Joint heritage

Ronald Alonzo Wellington Post, a technical sergeant in the United States Army, was somewhere in Luzon fighting the Japanese imperial forces alongside Filipino guerrillas when his son Ronald John was born on Feb. 3, 1945 in Detroit, Michigan.

The younger Ronald, who refers to his birth date as "2345," recalls his father telling stories about capturing Japanese soldiers in the Philippines. The American sergeant had jumped into a foxhole with his rifle and found himself face to face with enemy forces.

Perhaps the war provided enough excitement to last the elder Ronald a lifetime. He was soon back with his newborn son in Michigan, and did not get a passport until four decades later, when the younger Ron was stationed in South Korea.

Ronald John Post is now the counselor for public affairs of the US Embassy in Manila. Stories such as Ron’s make you believe Joseph Mussomeli, US Embassy chargé d’affaires, when he says Philippine-American relations are "strong and almost mystically and inextricably entwined."

"Sometimes in conflict, sometimes in anger, sometimes with understanding and honor, we have grown together. Our joint heritage is one that I am proud of," Mussomeli said the other day. "To say this is not to ignore that there are aspects of that history that are regrettable, that could have been done better."

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Mussomeli and Post spent Saturday, the anniversary (Philippine time) of the US attack on Iraq, recalling history. They were among the guests at the unveiling of a new collection of photographs depicting life in these islands during the Spanish and American colonial periods in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Also at the unveiling was Spanish Ambassador Ignacio Sagaz, whose government is planning to pull out Spanish troops from Iraq following a deadly terrorist attack on commuter trains in Madrid.

Another guest was British Ambassador Paul Dimond, whose government has announced no similar plans.

A year after the attack that led to the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime, Iraq continues to put a strain on America’s relations with the world.

The attacks in Madrid, which are being linked to an al-Qaeda threat to hit countries belonging to the so-called coalition of the willing, prompted the new government in Spain to consider the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The attacks were also followed by an announcement from South Korea that it would not contribute troops to the coalition.

For most of the other members of the coalition, however, the attacks could have the opposite effect sought by the bombers. Nations with contingents in Iraq could be forced to dig in, if only to avoid handing terrorists a victory. There are dozens of legitimate reasons – the Bush administration has given the world enough – why a government may want to pull out its contingent from Iraq. But it cannot be because terrorists demanding the troop withdrawal have just bombed your capital.

Whereas 9/11 placed the United States on war footing, Spain is crying uncle without putting up a fight.

Will terrorism stop if Spain – or any other country for that matter – gives al-Qaeda what it wants? Or will such capitulation further embolden the terrorists, who thrive on fear and weakness?

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The anniversary of the Iraq war has revived agonizing across the globe over whether it is possible, especially for nations committed to democracy, to stay out of a war against a deadly enemy that has, as security officials have pointed out, dispersed and metastasized.

More to the point, nations are asking if the world will be a safer place if the Americans are left to fight their wars on their own.

Nations will first have to decide whether this is a war against America or against a way of life. Because if Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and other like-minded extremists such as Southeast Asia’s own Jemaah Islamiyah pursue their ultimate goal of creating a pan-Islamic state run Taliban-style, their attacks, especially on the free world, will not stop even after all foreign soldiers have pulled out of Iraq.

For now most US allies are jittery but staying put in Iraq, counting on Washington’s promise to install a sovereign government in the war-torn country by June 30. The event will signal the start of the gradual withdrawal of US troops from Iraqi soil.

Mussomeli, who is well versed on US foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa, told me Washington’s timetable in Iraq is on track.

In this country, the Americans are counting on the two nations’ shared history and commitment to freedom for the Philippines’ continued alliance with the US in the war on terror.

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Ron Post did not find any photograph of his father in the wonderful new collection of industrialist Geronimo Berenguer de los Reyes Jr. at the GBR museum in General Trias, Cavite.

But there were enough photographs to give all the guests a sense of shared history. There was a photo of Gen. Vicente Lucban, whose massacre of American soldiers in Samar invited a brutal counterstrike that led to the US troops taking home the church bells of Balangiga. The surrender of Lucban on Feb. 27, 1902, followed two months later by Gen. Miguel Malvar, signaled the end of what the Americans referred to for a long time as the Philippine insurrection.

There were harrowing scenes from too many wars: the revolution against Spain, the Philippine-American war, World War II and the bombing of Manila.

There were images of a charming city that would soon be obliterated in a brutal war.

Ron Post, who was once a soldier, disagrees with those who say US Gen. Douglas MacArthur could have spared Manila from destruction if he had simply demanded the surrender of the Japanese forces and the declaration of Manila as an open city. The Japanese, Post said, had intended to hold on to Manila.

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Both the Americans and the Spaniards, however, admit that in this shared history, "some things that should never have happened" did happen – as Ambassador Sagaz put it. "But such is life," said Sagaz. "We are part of you and you are part of us."

The important thing, Mussomeli said, is "that we have not ignored the past, but have learned from it; that the present is better for all of us because the good in the past outweighs the bad, and because we choose to emphasize that good and not allow the bad to fester."

As allies wage war on terrorism, they will need to draw deep into this well of goodness and joint heritage to keep their coalition together.