Atrocity

I will agree that the peace effort with the MILF is precious. It must be saved — although not at all costs.

There was nothing honorable in the ambush pulled by MILF units against an Army platoon out to serve an arrest warrant against a notorious terrorist. The fact that six soldiers were taken alive and then ingloriously murdered is an outrage.

This is not war. This is plain atrocity.

The Army was at a disadvantage from the start. As a matter of policy, the troops are under orders to respect the ceasefire agreed with the MILF. When the platoon was under attack, the Army had to maneuver around the constraints of the ceasefire arrangement to bring in reinforcements. The delay resulted in a massacre.

The Army spokesman barely conceals his dismay. He asked the civilian authorities to review the ceasefire arrangements to allow our military units to operate with optimal effectiveness. Under those arrangements, the military is inhibited from pursuing those responsible for this brutality.

The soldiers are not just sad about the deaths of their comrades; they are sad about the policies that led to this.

The blogs, of course, are not as respectful of the civilian authority. There, the public outrage is explicit. There is politically incorrect anger smoldering, often bordering on ethnic and religious hatred.

In contrast, the response of the administration is vastly more tepid. The President, through his spokesmen, expressed sadness over the event. Government’s chief negotiator appeared trying to diminish the significance of what happened by labeling it an “isolated incident.” The AFP, under severe policy constraints, was obliged to say they will file murder charges against those responsible for this atrocity.

Say that again? If the AFP files murder charges against those who pulled this brutal ambush, will we send yet another platoon of Scout Rangers into harm’s way to serve an arrest warrant against killers of their colleagues?

I must take issue with the chief negotiator’s characterization of this atrocity as an “isolated incident.” It is not isolated. It is symptomatic.

I have warned in this space against assuming the MILF to be an integral organization. It is more a loose alliance of factions and warlords. The rebel leaders negotiating with government can only pretend they have full command and control of all their forces. The fact is, the individual commanders may choose to obey policies from the top — or simply ignore them.

We saw that in the case of Umbra Kato. We see this again in the case of the Basilan commanders of the MILF, who openly collaborate with the Abu Sayyaf and other criminal gangs in the locality. The ambush last Wednesday could not have been a mere accidental skirmish. There was enough rebel firepower assembled to wipe out a unit of our best-trained troops.

It will be naïve, and ultimately dangerous, to overlook the organizational characteristic of this heavily armed separatist (and in some cases, Islamist) movement. We simply cannot take commitments made by the movement’s leaders at face value. It is not a matter of sincerity; it is a matter of organizational capacity.

This is where, reading in between the polite utterance of the Army spokesman, adjustments in policy needs to be made. We cannot send our troops to the frontline with one hand tied behind their backs.

In contrast with the wild and loose organizational structure of the MILF, the AFP is an organization with effective command and control. Policy is obeyed down the line. That made our fighting force unduly exposed to precisely the peril that happened this week.

I am dismayed by the futile spin being attempted, apparently by the Palace Blackberry brigade, to say basically that the past administration is to blame for the deaths of our fighting men. The absurd line goes like this: the previous administration allowed corruption to flourish in the military; therefore, the soldiers ran out of ammo and were wiped out.

I know that the Scout Rangers travel very light. They prefer it that way, unlike the Marines who tend to move with full armor complement and excessive firepower. After nine hours of intense fighting, without relief or reinforcement, they are bound to run out of ammo. The delay in the arrival of a relieving force is the matter of concern here.

One survivor reports that as many as 400 heavily armed rebels assaulted the Army platoon. Our brave soldiers were not outfought; they were grossly outnumbered. Some of our very best fighting men were lost here.

True, the peace process must be saved. There is no better option. But poorly conceived policy results in tragedies like this one that, in turn, diminish the public enthusiasm for the peace process. Only smarter policies based on respect for the combat considerations of our fighting men will guarantee the peace effort will not sink into the quagmire of public disdain.

Dead

What a disappointment. The flamboyant Moammar Gadhafi was not expected to do the predictable thing, which is to run to the safety of his hometown.

Now we know: the tyrant sought sanctuary in Sirte. He did not, as some expected, organize a guerrilla force in the desert and lead a counter-revolutionary resistance away from the creature comforts he had gotten used to.

All these weeks, he was huddled in a house and tried to escape through a sewer pipe. There he was shot and killed by revolutionary fighters.     

Months ago, Gadhafi called those involved in the popular uprising “rats.” In the end, it was the tyrant who died like a rodent, wet in the sewer.

This is a distasteful way to die — although probably most fitting.