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B.A. Patty begins a three-part series on anti-terrorist operations in the Phillipines at The Long War Journal :

The battles between the AFP and Abu Sayyaf and MNLF make the papers, but they miss the real story of the counterinsurgency in the Philippines. The real story is the movement of the populace away from support for conflict and toward a support for the peace processes. This has followed "a shift in strategy since April," according to Raphael, to focus on what are called civil military operations, which focus on dealing with problems afflicting the people. "A lot of the villages have insufficient water," the general said. "They have no schools. We are doing massive infrastructure projects." Acting in cooperation with the JSOTF-P, the AFP have held numerous meetings at which medical treatment is provided to anyone who showed up, with any problem that could be handle in the field. The AFP has built schools and community centers.

There is a stick-and-carrot approach at work here. Funds are limited for these projects, and so villages get them where the AFP can travel most safely. Leaders in Mindanao are told honestly enough that while the Filipino government would like to help everyone, it has limits on both funding and manpower. The villagers see their neighbors getting the benefits of a peaceful society, and they begin to want those benefits also. These villagers are not fools, and they are not weak. Abu Sayyaf and even MNLF travel and operate only with local support, and neither group is strong enough to dominate the people of Mindanao, whose ancestors are those same Moro warriors who fought US troops after secession.

Patty's embed was a joint PMI / BlackFive project. You can support such embeds here.

Posted by Bill at October 16, 2007 09:56 AM | TrackBack (0)

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