Brawner wants us in the worst possible situation

LAST November 4, while nearly the entire country was in a state of panic over the destructive onslaught of Super Typhoon ‘Tino’ (International Name: ‘Kalmeigi’), Armed Forces Chief of Staff, General Romeo Brawner, was all over the news proclaiming not the plans on how to help the victims, but about their war preparations against China.

Dragging the President over his misplaced sense of priority, Brawner said the “instruction” from BBM is for the AFP, by itself, to prepare to wage war against China for at least “30 days” as they expect help from our “allies” especially the US military to come by then.

Brawner ignored that PBBM, back at the APEC Summit in South Korea, broke protocol by approaching Chinese President Xi Jinping to shake his hand and congratulate him personally as China assumes the APEC chairmanship next year.

It was an awkward moment for PBBM, to be sure. But if breaking protocol is what it would take to send a clear message to China that he is now ready for a rapprochement, then so be it.

And now comes Brawner, practically dismissing the effort of his Commander-In-Chief towards diplomacy.

Recently, after Foreign Affairs Secretary Teresa Lazaro announced the return of of the ‘eVisA’ for Chinese tourists and students—a success clearly with the imprimatur of PBBM— Brawner was again all over town gloating that US-installed missiles in our territory are “capable of hitting China.”

Why Brawner and his gangmates in the defense establishment continue to overrule the President’s clear intent of peace with China is beyond us.

But let us be real here. Filipinos are at their worst moments these days and their nearly daily suffering from unending flood, criminality and lack of opportunity are equally made worst by the knowledge that they are the victims of the worst case of thievery in our history—the plunder of our national budget.

Instead of relief and hope, our military, under Brawner, is offering us the worst situation that we can all be in—a war we cannot win and a destruction we may not be able to recover from.

Has he become so Americanized he has forgotten the lessons of history? Our own and that of others and America’s role in them?

The history of our relationship with US Imperialism has always been one-sided—in favor of America. And Brawner, the “intelligent” man that he is, knows this.

From the Vietnam War to Afghanistan, Iraq and now Ukraine, we know what the United States has always done—leaving their puppet officials to their own fate, their countries destroyed– as soon as they no longer serve its geopolitical interests.

What of our brave ordinary soldiers? Does Brawner expects them to fight and die in his war when they know it is not about our nation’s interests but that of his imperial masters that are at stake?

And when they know that they, and their families too, are also victims of the anomalies and abuses in government that he refused to address in the guise of “professionalism?”

If Brawner wants to deflect our attention to the more pressing problems we daily face then he is not offering a solution to any of them.

In fact, he wants to put us in the worst possible situation of all.