Democratic interests at Philippine expense
US Democrats impeached President Donald Trump for allegedly threatening to withhold military aid to Ukraine unless its president investigates the business dealings of former vice president Joe Biden's son in that country. But these same Democrats also caused adoption of a Senate resolution similarly threatening to withhold military aid to the Philippines unless it frees Leila de Lima, a senator detained on charges of illegal drug involvement.
To the Democrats, it is gravely wrong to intervene in the affairs of Ukraine but perfectly all right to intervene in the affairs of the Philippines. Never mind if Ukraine was a former Soviet republic before the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the sworn enemy of America, broke up. Never mind, too, that the Philippines was a US ally in the three wars America fought in the region --World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
For friendship or enmity has nothing to do with the Democratic viewpoint, no matter how skewed, on either Ukraine or the Philippines. It is all about political interests. For do you really think the Democrats would give a damn if Trump had instead sought the investigation of any of his Republican fellows? On the other hand, do you think the Democrats really give a damn about De Lima?
As far as the Philippines is concerned, it is all about Rodrigo Duterte and his infamous rant against former US president Barack Obama, their fellow Democrat, and Duterte's subsequent warming to China. The Democrats, who could not accept the fact that the American system can actually deliver a Trump, could not take either the effrontery of a small man from the Philippines having the gall to stand up to a Democratic American president.
It has nothing to do with killings, extrajudicial or not, although Duterte's war on illegal drugs does provide a good cover alibi. The US isn't killing-shy. To this day, America remains the first and only country in the world to ever use nuclear bombs on civilian populations. After wiping out Hiroshima, America could have paused and said, Oh my God, what have we done? But no, it had no qualms going ahead and wiping out Nagasaki as well.
The names of the two nukes dropped on Japan in WWII were "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" as if they were meant for something frivolous and funny. And guess who was the American president who ordered atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, knowing full well that tens of thousands of civilians were going to die? I will not name the president out of respect for his soul, but by golly, he was a Democrat!
This whole brouhaha also has nothing to do with human rights and due process. America does not shy away from waltzing with dictators for as long as it is in its interests to do so. The Philippines' own Ferdinand Marcos was once toasted in public by then US vice president George H.W. Bush for his "adherence to democracy and democratic processes." Bush, of course, was Republican. But the Democrats never complained. Nor do they now.
The problem with Democrats and their liberal impulses is that they have come to embrace so many things they no longer know which ones are of real value to anyone. I would not be surprised if there is a Liberal-Democrat thread running through this Oscars so white anthem being sung by those who forget that the Academy Awards is essentially about talent and skill, not about the color of skin.
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