Stop supporting the genocidal war of greed! : QC IMC

Dennis Andrew Aguinaldo
Ederic Eder
Gari Lazaro
Alexander Martin Remollino
for the Filipino Youth for Peace

July 11, 2004

Before there were Nick Berg and Kim Sun-il, both beheaded in retaliation for their governments' complicity in a war which has slaughtered tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis, including children still sucking milk from their mothers and old men and women no longer able to run for their lives.

Now comes Angelo de la Cruz, held hostage since last July 8 by Iraqi rebels demanding the pull-out of Filipinos from Iraq by July 20.

If the government of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo does not take the right course, De la Cruz will end up joining Berg and Kim in the next life. Arroyo must do everything possible along this line to ensure the safety of De la Cruz.

There are some 51 Filipino soldiers, policemen and health workers deployed by the Arroyo government to Iraq as part of the multinational peacekeeping force led by the US, which launched a genocidal war against the Iraqi people last year. They are deployed there in support of the still-ongoing war of genocide.

Aside from them, there are at least 3,000 Filipinos working as cooks and technicians in US military bases in Iraq.

The US justified its war on Iraq with the grandest reasons like the dismantling of weapons of mass destruction and the ousting of tyranny.

More than a year later, there is still no sign of the alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The only weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq thus far are the bombs dropped by the coalition forces on Iraqi civilians, including those attending a wedding party.

The US continues to hold on to its hypocritical claim that it scored a home run by ousting one of the world's most brutal dictators—even as it continues to support tyrants in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and turns a blind eye toward tyranny in Myanmar.

What is clear is that Iraq possesses some of the richest oil reserves in the Middle East. These can go a long way in further filling up the treasure chests of Wall Street.

Whatever the know-it-all, high-and-mighty hawks in our midst may say, the Philippine government is certainly obliged to pull out Filipino troops from Iraq. That De la Cruz's captors are employing means that may be described as terroristic does not make their demand for a Philippine military pullout from their country any less valid.

Whether they are aware of it or not, the Filipinos in Iraq are there in aid of a genocidal war of greed for gold. The Arroyo regime, practicing servility at levels that even the most deranged masochists are not known to reach, is risking the lives of thousands of Filipinos for the sake of a war that is totally devoid of moral justification.

Because of this every tick of the clock is now a danger signal for Angelo de la Cruz. If his head falls, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will have his blood on her hands. She will be condemning herself as Angelo de la Cruz's murderer, in which case she would deserve the full wrath of the Filipino people.