Renegade Commander

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu blamed the attacks on a renegade commander.

The attacks, of course, refer to the raids on Kauswagan, Maigo, and Kolambugan towns in Lanao del Norte, where the MILF have burned houses and shops, taken civilians as human shields, and left at least eight people dead.

“Our leadership has not sanctioned these attacks. This has to stop if we can confirm the involvement of our forces,” (Kabalu) said.

Which means, I suppose, that if the MILF can’t confirm that it’s their forces – and not some renegade commander who nevertheless claims to be acting on MILF business – behind the carnage, they won’t lift a finger to stop it?

This whole ‘renegade commander’ bullshit doesn’t really fool people, I hope. History is replete with examples of people going beyond the conventions of war (and that’s putting it lightly) being disavowed by their sovereigns, even as the fruits of their banditry are enjoyed by the very same people who publicly denounce them. It was bullshit when Elizabeth did it, and it’s bullshit now, when EId Kabalu is the one doing the bullshitting. At least Elizabeth let her privateers loose on the Spaniards. Kabalu and his MILF dogs are killing their own countrymen.

And still, we talk about giving them land; and continue to engage in even more talking about how we’re going to make them pay.

Enough talking already.

Although I had doubts about the wisdom of creating a BJE, I subsequently arrived at the opinion that since Moro aspiration for a homeland was an inevitable thing, it might be more … enlightened to pursue the process with an open mind and not just dismiss the idea out of hand. But now, even if I were to accept – which I don’t (a position that more and more people seem to be verbalizing now) – that the MILF did represent the Bangsamoro people, I believe that they have lost whatever moral high ground they might have had with these vicious attacks in MIndanao. While it is true that one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist, I’m no longer ready to give the MILF even that little credit.

And while I cannot possibly shape history, I say that it is way past time to excise the MILF from the body politic, with extreme prejudice. I think we’ve done enough ‘reaching out’ and all that feel-good, politically correct, Oprah-esque bullshit. It’s time to educate them on what it means to defy the state, eh? Like Duterte once said: the government isn’t here to give you a fair chance; it is here to overwhelm you.

Unfortunately, no matter how aggressively the military goes after these vermin, they will never be one hundred percent effective for as long as people like that moron Pimentel – yeah, the Senator – continue to yap about constituionalizing the grant of a state-within-a-state to these bandits. If you think about it, the move towards federalism is just the large-scale equivalent of congressmen breaking up their home provinces at the end of their third term. Remember sugbuak? Because, come down to it, that’s what this federalism crap boils down to: giving little fiefdoms to all petty provincial kingpins in order to justify giving the terrorists their own sultanate.

With Pimentel hogging the headlines about what a good idea it is to federalize, what will the military really be fighting for? Fighting men are most effective when they are fighting for a cause that they can rally behind. That was true for the Spartans at Thermopylae; that was true for the Israelis when Arab nations ganged up on them; and that will be true for the troops in Mindanao – whether they’re fighting the coward Eid Kabalu, or some renegade commander whose name might well turn out to be Snuffleapagus.

Filed under: musings , ARMM, BJE, fighting, human shields, MILF, Mindanao