My friend Michael Yon, writing from the islands:
Until recently, Afghanistan was called The Forgotten War. The dramatic domestic, regional, and international politics of the Iraq war largely eclipsed the fact that our people were fighting just as hard in Afghanistan. Although were paying attention to AfPak now, off the radar screen an important and related fight has been unfolding in the Philippines.
At the invitation of the Philippine government, the U.S. maintains about 600 troops, including Army Green Berets, Civil Affairs, and Military Information Support teams, Navy SEALS and Seabees, along with Air Force personnel and Marines. Our military forces are deployed in six locations: Zamboanga, Mindanao, Jolo, Basilan, Tawi Tawi, and a small number of liaison staff on Luzon. Their mission is to help the Armed Forces of the Philippines eliminate terrorist groups like Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf Group and to prevent them from establishing safe havens from which to train other terrorists, both internal and external.
Read the whole thing, the details are fascinating. Open this up to a discussion on whether or not it was wise of the Philippine government to boot us from Subic Bay and Clark Air Base (keeping in mind that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front -at the time of our expulsion- was still relatively quiet and had yet to declare jihad on the local government).
--John Noonan
