Reports have surfaced that under the leadership of President Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippine armed forces are using guided rockets to blast ISIS targets around the now ISIS occupied city of Marawi. As a consequence, many in western mainstream media are calling Duterte’s war excessive, even though the excessive horrors of the ISIS enemy are widely known.
Here’s what frightens liberals about a Duterte victory
1. ISIS is financed by drugs
Duterte first incurred the wrath of the US deep state, the EU and liberal NGOs from the west through his tough stance on drugs. Duterte’s first war was the war on drugs, but what many do not realise is that it is related to the wider war on ISIS.
ISIS are known to profit from the international narcotics trade. As the Iraqi army advances on further ISIS positions in Iraq’s oil rich regions, from Afghanistan to the Middle East and East Asia to the lucrative Latin American drugs network, ISIS have cultivated a profitable hand in the narcotics trade.
ISIS trading in Afghan heroin alone is an illegal business reportedly earning the terrorist group $1 billion per year.
The war on drugs, as waged in Philippines is as much about cutting off a lucrative black market for ISIS as it is about fighting violent organised crime and social chaos.
Drugs and drug users are in this sense complicit in aiding terrorism. Liberals who make every excuse in the world for drug use are doing their best to ignore this. If Duterte wins the double-headed war on ISIS and the drugs that fund ISIS, liberals will have a great deal to answer for.
2. It vindicates President Bashar al-Assad’s fight against terrorism
The liberal mainstream media continually demonise President Bashar al-Assad who once stood virtually alone fighting ISIS and other ISIS clones. Some of these clone groups, whose members are fighting for ISIS one day and another group the next, are often still called ‘moderate rebels’ by the mainstream media.
When Bashar al-Assad first became President of Syria in 2000, he was considered a moderate and indeed he still is. He has overseen reforms in Syria that have made it among the most open and free societies in the Middle East.
By contrast, Duterte is a populist who openly promotes a heavy handed approach to social disorder and law enforcement. If Duterte who in many ways is far more of a hardliner than Assad wins the war on terrorism, it will show liberals that the soft approach to government is insufficient when fighting terrorism.
This is not to say that Assad is weak, he is certainly strong and steadfast in his support and defence of his nation. But if Assad the moderate is called a ‘brutal dictator’ who is criticised for his war on ISIS by the western mainstream media, Duterte looks set for even more criticism.
Duterte in his battle can show the world the way to beat ISIS. It is not through capitulation or by surrendering one’s values, it is through extreme toughness. If the liberals were afraid of Assad, they will be even more afraid of Duterte. The fact that the only people who have to fear the two Presidents are terrorists, seems not to matter to the liberal west.
3. A Duterte victory will demonstrate that Syria is surrounded by enemy states
It has long been known that terrorists operating in Syria are supplied through Turkey, Jordan and Israel. This is to say nothing of the ISIS controlled areas of the border between Syria and Iraq. Many have accused Lebanon of having lax border security when it comes to supplying ISIS and other jihadist groups. This is why terrorists in Syria continue to exploit this border.
Philippines is a series of islands making supplying ISIS considerably more difficult than supplying terrorists in Syria over land. This is especially true of Turkey from where many supplies including western arms reach the hands of terrorists.
A naval blockade of the areas in Philippines where ISIS is in charge could help to stop the inflow of materials to the terrorists.
This holds the potential to make a Philippine victory over ISIS easier than that of Syria which has found it difficult to police its borders with unfriendly states.
4. It shows that yet again Russia and China are on the correct side of history
After a successful meeting between Rodrigo Duterte and Vladimir Putin, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia is committed to cooperating with Philippines on issues such as defence, intelligence, counter-terrorism support and the war on drugs.
China which has recently reached an historic rapprochement with Philippines may also contribute to the effort should it be prolonged.
This demonstrates that whether aiding Syria which is an historic Soviet/Russian ally or in aiding a traditional American ally and former US colony like Philippines, Russia and China are both willing to engage in countries that respectfully ask for assistance in various matters, including in the crutical fight against ISIS.
The fact that ISIS launched their war of conquest against Philippines when Duterte was meeting with Putin is also a notable factor. ISIS and their puppet-masters in the Gulf and beyond wanted to expose Duterte’s relationship with Russia as meaningless. Duterte and Putin will likely prove them wrong.
5. It unmasks the poor priorities of the liberal mainstream media and political elite
While the west was up in arms about Duterte’s ISIS related drug war, they ignored the fact that a decades old Islamist/Salafist insurgency in Philippines had declared its loyalty to ISIS.
They were literally more concerned with Duterte’s domestic policies which they have no right to change, than they were about helping a democratic nation fight ISIS terrorism.
Perhaps their priorities are warped from years of taking the kinds of drugs Duterte is taking off the streets of his country?
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