| I have read several articles lately that point out a few facts, like the massive corruption taking place in government, the desperate separation between the rich and the poor, and the reality Muslims in the Philippines have been trying to overthrow the government for decades, and somehow this is proof that the Bush Administration is wrong about the Philippines as a strategic location for the Global War on Terror.
This is another example, in a long list of examples, of how poor a job the Bush Administration has done in articulating the Global War on Terrorism and the regions declared as "Hot Spots." The Global War on Terrorism in the Philippines isn't because of some potential military threat that may happen in the country, the Philippines is a hot spot on the GWOT because of the substantial and credible evidence that a majority of the well trained, highly technical personal that work for terrorist organizations have substantial infrastructure built in the Philippines, particularly online and specifically in the software community.
One of the under reported revelations that occurred as a result of the GWOT that is taking place in Afghanistan is that there is substantial utilization of internet resources by Al Qaeda in the Philippines, and the large bandwidth capacity the Philippines has for a long time been regarded as a potential danger to large scale internet attacks on western countries and interests. It is also a fact that many of the captured personnel in Al Qaeda involved in the cyber element of the organization studied at the University of Manila.
The Global War on Terror has many faces, and the Philippines are one such face. Despite evidence that the Philippine Military and Political structures are not hot spots for the Global War on Terror, cyber activities from Southeast Asia by terror organizations including Al Qaeda makes the Philippines a hot spot.
Just because the Bush Administration does a poor job of explaining the purpose of their labels like "hot spots" for GWOT locations like the Philippines doesn't mean their administration is wrong, it just means the administration is terrible at articulating the proper message in the proper context.
|
