Another Forgotten War- The Philippines

Via Big Hollywood, there is a great post by the yeoman Michael Yon, who is now in the Philippines being a great journalist and really writing the story of our times. When I teach my students about modern warfare, I make sure that I mention that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are part of a larger initiative to fight terrorism around the world, and so are not isolated to those countries.

It's not like the US invaded Iraq to conquer it, or overthrew the Taliban because we are a bad country- America is the good guy, the hero, the moral country, and is trying to bring order and civilization to the whole world so that the people of the world can enjoy the blessings of life, liberty, and the protection of property that we enjoy. It is a noble goal, although one you may not really feel comfortable with.

Because it is a large goal, it takes us around the world. There are operations in Somalia, operations in North Africa, and operations in the Philippines. The effort in the Philippines has gone largely unnoticed in the United States, but we do have a sizable force there and it is one of the main fronts in our global war on evil (lawlessness, killing of innocents, barbaric behaviors, piracy, banditry, etc).

If you want to really understand the conflict in the Philippines better, read Michael Yon's account of it here. It's good stuff.