Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: Obama’s Pivot to Asia Hits a Roadblock in the Philippines

  1. #1

    Obama’s Pivot to Asia Hits a Roadblock in the Philippines




    Written by Ron Paul
    Monday October 24, 2016


    While the mainstream media continues its obsessive reporting on the mud-slinging campaign for the White House, a dramatic development in China last week brought President Obama’s “pivot to Asia” to a sudden halt. Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, while in Beijing, announced his country’s “separation” from the United States. He told his Chinese audience, “Your honors, in this venue, I announce my separation from the United States … both in military, but also economics.’’

    The State Department was stunned and asked for a clarification. The Philippines has been a virtual US protectorate since 1898, when it became US property after the Spanish-American war. Even after gaining independence after World War II it remained a close Cold War ally, hosting US military bases until 1992. Just this spring, as US tensions with China were heating up over a Chinese reclamation project in the South China Sea, the US signed a deal to open five military bases on Philippine territory. The deal was considered of major importance in an increasingly confrontational US approach to the region.

    Suddenly it appeared the deal was off. Was the Philippines about to sever diplomatic relations with the United States?

    Shortly after making the statement, the Philippine president walked back slightly from what appeared a break with the United States. He did not mean total separation, he said, but rather a desire to loosen his country from the firm grip of US foreign policy. But the point had been made. The Philippines was not happy in its current relationship with Washington.

    President Obama’s “pivot to Asia” has turned out not to mean improved trade and diplomatic ties with the region, but an aggressive stance toward China over, among other issues, the South China Sea. The US has concluded military agreements with Vietnam and the Philippines, and maintains strong military ties with Japan and South Korea.

    The Philippines has been used as a US cat’s paw in South China Sea dispute and Duterte’s surprise statement signaled that he felt the relationship was too one-sided.

    But the tension has been rising and the mood souring for some time. The US State Department has been critical of President Duterte’s admittedly brutal crackdown on illegal drugs, which has cost perhaps 2,000 or more lives. In August, Secretary of State John Kerry conveyed the US government’s concerns. As elsewhere, such condemnation by the US likely seemed hypocritical to the Philippine president, as the US leads the world in prison population with a large percentage serving long terms for non-violent drug crimes.

    Last week a large protest was held in front of the US embassy in Manila in support of the president’s move toward a foreign policy independent from Washington. Demonstrators burned American flags and demanded the departure of US troops from their country.

    Will US-Philippine relations continue to spiral downward? Or will Washington begin to see that its aggressive foreign policy, in Asia and elsewhere, is beginning to alienate allies? Or perhaps the next US administration will decide that a CIA “regime change” is in order for the independent-minded Philippine president. A US pivot away from confrontation with China would go a long way toward repairing strained relations with the Philippines and beyond. Let’s hope that’s Washington’s next move.
    http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives...e-philippines/

    Copyright © 2016 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.
    Please donate to the Ron Paul Institute
    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Paul View Post
    The intellectual battle for liberty can appear to be a lonely one at times. However, the numbers are not as important as the principles that we hold. Leonard Read always taught that "it's not a numbers game, but an ideological game." That's why it's important to continue to provide a principled philosophy as to what the role of government ought to be, despite the numbers that stare us in the face.
    Quote Originally Posted by Origanalist View Post
    This intellectually stimulating conversation is the reason I keep coming here.



  2. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  3. #2
    Front page...

    "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Suzanimal again."
    "Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
    "Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Pharma-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
    "Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
    "Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

    Proponent of real science.
    The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

  4. #3
    "Let it not be said that we did nothing." - Dr. Ron Paul. "Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone." - Sophie Magdalena Scholl
    "War is the health of the State." - Randolph Bourne "Freedom is the answer. ... Now, what's the question?" - Ernie Hancock.

  5. #4

    Washington’s ‘Pivot to Asia’: A Debacle Unfolding

    Washington’s ‘Pivot to Asia’: A Debacle Unfolding
    Prof. James Petras: http://www.globalresearch.ca/washing...olding/5552830

    In 2012 President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter launched a new chapter in their quest for global dominance … Dubbed the ‘Pivot to Asia’ … the US would concentrate its economic, military and diplomatic resources toward strengthening its dominant position and undercutting China’s rising influence … The ‘pivot to Asia’ did not shift existing resources from the Middle East, it added military commitments to the region, while provoking more conflicts with Russia and China. …

    The US onslaught for greater empire depended on the cooperation of proxies … The entire US strategy of retaining global supremacy depended on securing and enhancing its control over its regional allies and proxies. Failure of the Obama regime to retain Washington’s vassal states would accelerate its decline and encourage more desperate political maneuvers. …

    every military decision and action made by the Obama Administration with regard to the Asia-Pacific Region has had only one purpose – to weaken China’s defense capabilities, undermine its economy and force Beijing to submit to Washington’s domination. … Washington has installed an advanced missile system in South Korea, increased its air and maritime armada and expanded its provocative activities along China’s coastline and its vital maritime trade routes. Washington has embarked on a military base expansion campaign in Australia, Japan and the Philippines. … Washington pressured its client regime in Manila under the former President ‘Nonoy’ Aquino, Jr., to bring its territorial dispute with China over the Spratly Islands … The Spratly and Paracel Islands are mostly barren coral islands and shoals located within the world’s busiest shipping trade routes …

    The US authored and promoted Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) is a trade and investment agreement covering 12 Pacific countries designed to ensure US regional dominance while deliberately cutting out China. …

    The strategic goal has been to expand its military and political power, exploit the economies and resources and encircle China and North Korea. …

    Under the Obama-Clinton-Kerry Regime, the imperial structures in Asia are coming apart. Washington’s anti-China TPP is collapsing and has been replaced by the Chinese sponsored Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with over fifty member countries worldwide, including the ten nations of ASAEN, plus Australia, India, South Korea and New Zealand. … each and every current and former US ally and colony has been signing on … The debacle of the TPP has just accelerated the shift toward China’s new trade pact (RCEP). The US is left to rely on … a stagnant Japan, Australia, South Korea and its impoverished former colony, Philippines, to bolster its quest to militarily encircle China. … The centerpiece of US strategy to encircle and tighten control over China’s maritime routes to and from the world-economy is the massive build-up of US military installations in the Philippines.

    The US self-styled “pivot to Asia” involves locating five military bases directed at dominating the South China Sea. The Pentagon expanded its access to four strategic air and one military base [in Philippines] … signed by the Philippine President Aquino in 2014 … Pentagon planners had envisioned targeting Chinese shipping and air bases in the South China Sea from its new bases on western shores of the Philippines. … Washington’s entire “pivot to Asia” has centered its vast military build-up on its access to the Philippines. This access is now at risk. Newly elected President Rodrigo Duterte … is pursuing an independent foreign policy … Duterte has openly challenged the US policy of using the Philippines to encircle and provoke China.

    The Philippine “pivot to China” quickly advanced from colorful rhetoric to a major trade and investment meeting … President Duterte announced he would end military exercises with Washington … President Duterte … moved rapidly and decisively to strengthen the Philippines ‘pivot’ toward China … ‘normalizing’ trade and investment relations with his giant neighbor. … met with China’s leaders to discuss multi-billion-dollar investment projects and trade agreements, as well as closer diplomatic relations. The initial results, which promise to expand even more, are over $13 billion dollars in trade and critical infrastructure projects. …

    Without total US control over the Philippines, Washington’s strategic arc of encirclement against China is broken. According to a recent ruling by the Philippine Supreme Court, the controversial US military base agreement imposed by the former President Aquino by fiat without congressional ratification can be terminated by the new President by executive order. This ruling punches some major holes in what the Pentagon had considered its ‘ironclad’ stranglehold on the strategic Philippine bases. …

    Washington’s ‘pivot to Asia’, enshrined in its effort to corral the Asian countries into its anti-China crusade is not going as the Obama-Clinton-Kerry team had envisioned. … a major foreign policy debacle … Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton has been forced to denounce the TPP, one of her own pet projects when she was Secretary of State. The Pentagon’s military base strategy stuck in a 1980’s time-warped vision of Southeast Asia is on the verge of imploding. … In desperation, Washington may decide to resort to a military power grab– a coup …[but] Rodrigo Duterte is immensely popular with the Philippine electorate … The mayor of Manila, Joseph Estrada, himself a former victim of a Washington-instigated regime change, has stated that any US backed coup will face a million-member mass opposition and the bulk of the nationalist middle and powerful Chinese-oriented business class. …
    "Let it not be said that we did nothing." - Dr. Ron Paul. "Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone." - Sophie Magdalena Scholl
    "War is the health of the State." - Randolph Bourne "Freedom is the answer. ... Now, what's the question?" - Ernie Hancock.



Similar Threads

  1. Philippines' President calls Obama 'son of a whore'
    By enhanced_deficit in forum U.S. Political News
    Replies: 9
    Last Post: 09-07-2016, 07:37 PM
  2. A Military 'Pivot to Asia'
    By jct74 in forum Ron Paul Forum
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 05-23-2015, 01:03 PM
  3. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 04-26-2014, 02:08 PM
  4. The Asia Pivot and US Motivations
    By Origanalist in forum World News & Affairs
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 02-03-2013, 09:05 AM
  5. Obama to Encourage Business Investments -- in the Philippines
    By Steve Peacock in forum World News & Affairs
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 06-22-2011, 12:41 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •