The United States is considering bombing ISIS targets in The Philippines. NBC News. The authorization for the strikes could come as soon as tomorrow and will likely involve drone strikes. The US military is already sharing intelligence with The Philippines and has some assets on the ground, but has not directly participating in the fighting against ISIS. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with the controversial President Rodrigo Duterte and said that the US is proving drones and light aircraft for the fight against ISIS. ISIS has gotten a foothold in The Philippines and has held Marawi city for three months now despite heavy fighting.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with President Rodrigo Duterte. NBC/Reuters.
My Comment:
Looks like the United States is getting into another war. In this case it is with our old ally and colonial possession, The Philippines and against the ISIS insurgents that are having a surprisingly effective rebellion. ISIS has given us little choice. They have taken and have held Marawi City for three months and are active elsewhere as well.
The fighting in Marawi City is brutal, as seen in the NBC video above. There is brutal house to house fighting and there are explosive experts coming in from other countries. Snipers are making movement difficult and despite heavy airstrikes, ISIS is entrenched. I'm actually shocked at how effective ISIS has been in The Philippines and somewhat surprised how much difficulty the armed forces of The Philippines have had against them.
The great fear is that ISIS will use Marawi as a base to target other parts of Asia. The Philippines isn't the only country in the area that has a large Muslim population that can be radicalized. Indonesia is close and it is the largest Muslim country in the world. So far they haven't been radicalized but if ISIS is able to get a toehold in The Philippines they could be.
There is also the fear that ISIS could use The Philippines as a possible backup plan as they are pushed out of Iraq and Syria. Libya was the original plan, and may still be used as such, but having a country like The Philippines as a possibility as well just gives ISIS more options. Even if they don't use it as a main base, The Philippines can be a useful base for attacking other areas and used as a tax base if they manage to capture other cities.
The US can not allow that to happen. They have to defeat ISIS wherever they show up because if they don't then the same thing that happened in Iraq and Syria in 2014 could happen again. With ISIS on the run we can not let them even have a chance to regroup and rearm. That can't happen and the hope is that the airstrikes will stop that from happening.
So will airstrikes help, assuming they get approved? I am not sure. The Philippines has been bombing Marawi city for weeks now and it hasn't defeated ISIS. Airstrikes can certainly help things but in the end it's always the troops on the ground that need to fight and defeat ISIS. What might be needed is more training for The Philippines fighters tasked with killing ISIS militants.
The main advantage over local forces is that US forces tend to be a lot more accurate in their bombing campaigns than other groups. Our weapons are powerful and our intelligence is stronger than other countries. We will be able to identify ISIS leadership and kill them. This will not end the war of course, just as it didn't end the war in Syria and Iraq. But it will cripple ISIS because more than anything else leadership is hard to replace. They will always have plenty of morons to fight for them, but the number of people that can lead as well as fight is limited.
People will probably raise and eyebrow or two over the fact that we are helping Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte has a very bad record on human rights abuses. His war on drugs has been quite violent and completely lacking in due process. He's unpredictable and has directly insulted our leaders. In short, he's a loose cannon and is quite dangerous.
So why work with him? We don't have much of a choice. The people of The Philippines have chosen him as a leader and he isn't likely to go anywhere anytime soon. Working with him is distasteful to say the least but what other choice do we have?
We can't let ISIS win in The Philippines. They have already committed horrible atrocities in Marawi City and if we allow them to continue it's even possible that Duterte's government could fall. At the very least ISIS could use Marawi City and other parts of The Philippines as a base to launch wider attacks. These could be further insurgency campaigns or serious terrorist attacks. That can't happen and I am guessing that is why we are considering joining yet another war.
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