It isn't often that I myself operate. I hold American citizenship in addition to my Israeli. America has laws about its citizens involving themselves in other nation's armed conflicts. Laws mean absolutely nothing here but if, for example, I was captured by the NPA, the Maoists, shit would hit the fan pretty quickly. Likewise, the Philippine Government has a bothersome Constitutional provison that bars foreigners like myself from carrying weapons. If some dickhead would happen to take a photo of me, even with a cellphone, it is again, a fan and some shit.
Therefore let me lay out the following in the theoretical sense...
Usually I don't openly carry my rifle outside of our properties, I let the Flips around me do that. Sometimes though they need to be stage managed and on those rare occasions I sometimes- theoreticaly- find myself walking the line. On one such occasion roughly two weeks ago a contact took place where an NPA "platun" (platoon) was ambushed. As much time as they spend in the bush they should know how to move but alas, they are like a Chinese Firedrill, rifles slung on their backs, talking amongst themselves, and generally not paying too much attention.
We set a simple A-B ambush with two fire positions, front and rear one each, but on opposite sides of the trail so as to pin them. To make a long story short three guerillas were killed and several were wounded but escaped with their mates. After sending most of the men after them five of us started combing the ground for weapons, paperwork, what have you.
One of the deas guerillas was a young girl, early 20s, and suprisingly she carried a legitimate I'd, something NPA almost never do. Getting the bodies out for us always takes many hours, sometimes two or three days because unlike the military we can't use copters, though they rarely use them for such chores owing to the expence (the Flip Military, the AFP, is cheap as hell). If lucky we get a couple of ponies or water buffalo (caraboa) but usually we build a litter out of bamboo and drag and carry the remains.
Later, at home a week later just for a couple of hours, I used a search engine to check the girl's I'd. There is nothing like in the West where police, etc.can check an I'd in mere seconds. She was 21, a student at UP Dilman on Luzon, a great school. She dreamed of being a singer, but what really moved me was her poetry. She wrote a lot of it in English and it all focused on social issues. I found myself really thinking.
Rule 1 of infantry recruits is never personalise the opposition. Most humans instinctually have an aversion to hurting people they know. It has never been a problem for me because in Israel U am well grounded politically and believe in the ideology driving the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces. The Philippines though? What the fuck am I doing here? Yes, I have extencive business interests here, yes I am tied to Rizza's family, but what real stake do I have in a 43 year old insurgency in the Philippines?
It began to really effect me as I read that beautiful girl's poetry and thought to myself that under slightly different circumstances I could be her (well, that and a sex change). "The man that isn't a Socialist by age 20 has no heart but the man that is still a Socialist by age 40 has no brain." I do find that old maxim to be true but who am I to kill over someone's foolishness?
The thoughts kept me pre-occupied for the better part of two weeks and even now I'm still trying to sort through it.
Meanwhile, those who used to read my BL Journal may remember that in 2007 I raised a 4 hectare poppy crop. The plots, all in close proximity, were within a Hilltribe's settlement. Last week they voluntarily uprooted nearly 50 hectares of cannabis, more than 80 acres for you Americans. An 80 acre pot farm is a lot of weed. They did so cause the man behind that single field was only paying them between 200 and 400 Pesos per 50 kilo rice sack full of buds, depending upon the size of the buds. 200 Pesos is 5 US Dollars. They were offered a new road to make travel to and from their village easier, by the Governor of Bukidnon Province if they uprooted the field. Serves the cheap bastard right! Only paying 5 Dollara for 110 pounds of sinsemilla is outrageous. They should have been paid 50 Dollars at least with a single kilo of bud here selling retail for 12 Dollars, he was robbing them. For my poppies I paid a pretty pemny and didn't even harvest opium! I had to do a straw extraction because the Monsoon came early and I risked losing the entire crop.
Only one kidnapping in the last week so things are becoming much more calm here.
Therefore let me lay out the following in the theoretical sense...
Usually I don't openly carry my rifle outside of our properties, I let the Flips around me do that. Sometimes though they need to be stage managed and on those rare occasions I sometimes- theoreticaly- find myself walking the line. On one such occasion roughly two weeks ago a contact took place where an NPA "platun" (platoon) was ambushed. As much time as they spend in the bush they should know how to move but alas, they are like a Chinese Firedrill, rifles slung on their backs, talking amongst themselves, and generally not paying too much attention.
We set a simple A-B ambush with two fire positions, front and rear one each, but on opposite sides of the trail so as to pin them. To make a long story short three guerillas were killed and several were wounded but escaped with their mates. After sending most of the men after them five of us started combing the ground for weapons, paperwork, what have you.
One of the deas guerillas was a young girl, early 20s, and suprisingly she carried a legitimate I'd, something NPA almost never do. Getting the bodies out for us always takes many hours, sometimes two or three days because unlike the military we can't use copters, though they rarely use them for such chores owing to the expence (the Flip Military, the AFP, is cheap as hell). If lucky we get a couple of ponies or water buffalo (caraboa) but usually we build a litter out of bamboo and drag and carry the remains.
Later, at home a week later just for a couple of hours, I used a search engine to check the girl's I'd. There is nothing like in the West where police, etc.can check an I'd in mere seconds. She was 21, a student at UP Dilman on Luzon, a great school. She dreamed of being a singer, but what really moved me was her poetry. She wrote a lot of it in English and it all focused on social issues. I found myself really thinking.
Rule 1 of infantry recruits is never personalise the opposition. Most humans instinctually have an aversion to hurting people they know. It has never been a problem for me because in Israel U am well grounded politically and believe in the ideology driving the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces. The Philippines though? What the fuck am I doing here? Yes, I have extencive business interests here, yes I am tied to Rizza's family, but what real stake do I have in a 43 year old insurgency in the Philippines?
It began to really effect me as I read that beautiful girl's poetry and thought to myself that under slightly different circumstances I could be her (well, that and a sex change). "The man that isn't a Socialist by age 20 has no heart but the man that is still a Socialist by age 40 has no brain." I do find that old maxim to be true but who am I to kill over someone's foolishness?
The thoughts kept me pre-occupied for the better part of two weeks and even now I'm still trying to sort through it.
Meanwhile, those who used to read my BL Journal may remember that in 2007 I raised a 4 hectare poppy crop. The plots, all in close proximity, were within a Hilltribe's settlement. Last week they voluntarily uprooted nearly 50 hectares of cannabis, more than 80 acres for you Americans. An 80 acre pot farm is a lot of weed. They did so cause the man behind that single field was only paying them between 200 and 400 Pesos per 50 kilo rice sack full of buds, depending upon the size of the buds. 200 Pesos is 5 US Dollars. They were offered a new road to make travel to and from their village easier, by the Governor of Bukidnon Province if they uprooted the field. Serves the cheap bastard right! Only paying 5 Dollara for 110 pounds of sinsemilla is outrageous. They should have been paid 50 Dollars at least with a single kilo of bud here selling retail for 12 Dollars, he was robbing them. For my poppies I paid a pretty pemny and didn't even harvest opium! I had to do a straw extraction because the Monsoon came early and I risked losing the entire crop.
Only one kidnapping in the last week so things are becoming much more calm here.
