No quarters

Heavy fighting raged in Sulu yesterday. As this is being written six Marines have been killed and 21 others wounded. An undetermined number of Abu Sayyaf bandits lie dead.

The casualty toll will likely rise further. It appears that our soldiers have finally established contact with the surviving force of the bandit group.

Military operations have been going on for weeks now against the elusive terrorists. Several Abu Sayyaf base camps have been overrun. The terrorists have not been given respite and have been on the run since the major operation began.

The operation scored several successes even before the major engagement that began yesterday. Materials for making improvised explosive devices have been captured. With every bandit camp taken, our soldiers gain more and more insight into the disposition of the enemy.

It was clear the remaining bandit force intended to conduct new bombing runs, possibly on instructions from the international terrorist networks who want the September 11 anniversary of the attack on New York City with a major show of force.

In the remnant bandit force that the military began engaging yesterday are the top leaders of the group along with two Indonesian terrorist personalities wanted in their own country for involvement in several major bombing attacks.

Until this group is completely neutralized, they will continue to pose a threat to our people.

Unfortunately, there is no room for dialogue with this particular group. They are a band of fanatics ready to kill or be killed trying to.

This is a band with a flair for the spectacular.

They have kidnapped foreign tourists from an exclusive resort in Palawan, bombed trains and buses in the metropolitan area, sunk a passenger ship and even tried a mass escape at the highest security detention facility.

This is a band that is relentless. Having packaged their cause as part of a global jihad, they make no political demands that could be part of the premise for negotiations. They simply want to destroy mainstream society, bomb innocent civilians for greatest impact, force the authorities to impose regimes of fear in every dimension of our life.

This is a band that has demonstrated chilling cruelty. They have decapitated captives, opened fire on civilians and once tried to burn a whole town to the ground. They have tortured a priest to death just for the heck of it.

That cruelty they match with unbearable arrogance. They have found the gall to use the media with great sophistication, sneering at all of us in our own living rooms.

That unbearable arrogance, they have matched with both courage and skill. They have engaged our best combat troops toe-to-toe. They have employed tactics that hit our security forces on the blind side.

It is tough trying to beat a band that is only too willing to die for whatever perverse cause they have committed themselves to. They are thrilled at the thought of doing suicide missions. If at all possible, they will not allow themselves to be captured alive.

It is totally unthinkable that we could talk this group into disarmament. The only way to deal with a band like this one is to meet force with force, destroy every resource they have and eliminate the most dedicated members of the group.

There are those among us who are, against all the odds, clinging to every sliver of chance that violence could be averted and differences sorted out. They are well-meaning individuals gifted with excessive optimism in the human spirit. But in the specific case of the Abu Sayyaf, they will have to be called naïve.

Nothing short of military force is the only way to deal with the Abu Sayyaf. Nothing less than a full body count will settle the score.

In the engagement that is now in progress, our soldiers have taken casualties. That can only indicate how ferocious the enemy is.

Many of the militant groups in our society have made a cottage industry out of vilifying the armed forces. Even when our soldiers do good, they will find a way to smear them. They have an ideological obsession with seeing our armed forces, the spine of our Republic, fragment and crumble.

In the present engagement with the Abu Sayyaf, we will not likely hear the militants praise the valor of our troops. There will be no word of endorsement from those who invent every reason to discredit our troops as well as from those who are only too willing to facilitate splits within the military organization for mere factional interests.

Since we expect to hear no encouragement from the excessively politicized groups, someone has to speak for the ordinary citizen and express our gratitude to our soldiers who sacrifice everything to secure our peace and protect our lives. Let me take that role.

What is going on in Sulu is not a sporting match. It is a war – and there is no other way to score this except by the body count.

The most patriotic thing a Filipino might do at a moment like this is to cheer our troops on. Let us hope that take no more casualties than they did in the first hours of this battle. Let us hope that they kick the daylights out of this bandits.

Pour everything we have into this battle. Allow the enemy no quarters. Rake them with gunfire. Attack them from the air.

Let there be no rest. Do not allow the survivors of this terrible gang is miscreants to slip away. Nail them down.

This group has caused the nation immense grief. They have taken a great toll and committed grave injustices. They mocked our democracy and refused us peace.

The only admissible option is to see this gang completely destroyed. Even if we lose a few men, the safety of a whole nation is at stake in this battle. The peace that we want is on the line.

At the end of this battle, we want to see all those bandits dead.