Written by Gail Ilagan / MindaNews Saturday, 25 August 2007 11 01 52
http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3105&Itemid=68
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / August 24) -- In deference to the gallant soldiers who died taking the Abu Sayyaf camp in Silangkum, Ungkaya Pukan in Basilan last 18 August 2007, I have maintained a respectful silence on the advisability of having sent our men on a do-or-die mission. Having said my piece before the fact (see Lessons learned in Basilan), nothing else I could say could bring back those fallen sons of the fatherland.
Today, I stood on the pavement as the C130 military transport, which carried the earthly remains of some of the August 18 Basilan casualties, refueled at the Davao Air Base. The transport plane would bring the bodies home to Gen. Santos, Cotabato City, Dumaguete, and Tagbilaran. I thanked God that I had this opportunity to say a solemn prayer for the repose of these gallant souls. I would like to think that they died for something, that the taking of the camp in the high ground was worth it. I would like to think that they did not die in vain.
This is not to belittle the commitment of the fallen to secure this country and to protect the Filipino people, but when after all is said and done, they died taking that little piece of disputed territory. Someday, that little piece of real estate would again change hands.
There is a difference between what one intends and what one actually and permanently accomplishes by one's actions. We cannot put more into the gains of the August 18 debacle than what is actually there, our great loss and much grief notwithstanding.
Still and for all that, the fallen sons of the fatherland were gallant fighting men and they deserve to be honored for their courage and unwavering resolve.
In the aftermath of the Basilan offensive, widows and hometown-mates are calling for more war, more deaths. Senators are calling for investigations on combat decision- making. The GRP-MILF talks broke down. Thousands of people remain displaced. And many of us are left
with this horrible feeling that we're all missing the point.
In the aftermath of the Basilan offensive, someone floated a disgruntled remark on the internet. It said,
It's the SOLDIER – not the reporter – who has given us the freedom of the press.
It's the SOLDIER – not the poet – who has given us the freedom of speech.
It's the SOLDIER – not the politicians – who ensures that we live freely and
peacefully.
It's the SOLDIER who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose
coffin is eventually draped by the flag.
We can, well, forgive the words uttered in pain, but I'd like to think that whoever wrote it has had some time to think about his knee-jerk reaction and recognize that such was an intensely divisive comment that would be unforgivable under normal circumstances. It smacks of an elitist complex and suggests a refusal to be held accountable by the
press, the poet, and the politicians for the methods soldiers employ in securing the nation and protecting the people.
Gee, if fifteen of our soldiers and one flyer died, the citizens have the right to question why they were sent to their death. Just because they died does not automatically legitimize why they had to die. This is not about playing armchair general and second-guessing war tactics.
This is about reckoning the national policy that renders expedient our soldiers' ultimate sacrifice. This is about solidarity with our men-at-arms. This is about outrage. Why are our men being sent to slaughter?
But it is also true that for a long time now, there are soldiers like the one who originally wrote that remark who hold the rest of us in contempt. It would be soldiers like this who believe that the ultimate solution is the military solution, and that there is no point in
working with civilian institutions. It would be soldiers like this who would pay lip service to the doctrine of civilian supremacy over the military, while at the same time resenting the fact that his service goes unappreciated.
"Kayo lahat, mga walang utang na loob," he says.
Not satisfied with the cyberspace to air this grievance, the like-minded took a billboard and put it up in a major military camp. There. We are all duly reminded now that only the soldiers deserve to be citizens of this country. The rest of us are freeloaders. Worse, we
are all obstructionists. We have been put down and put in our proper place. Gee, I wonder what those glory-seeking soldiers think should be done to the rest of us if we don't kowtow in their presence.
Whoever approved that sign that the Marines put up in the Marine Corps gym at Fort Bonifacio authorized that message to get across: The soldiers are better than all the rest of us, and don't anybody ever forget it.
I though perhaps it was just the organizational culture of the Marines to be always in the battle mode. It is actually understandable that one could not shake it off completely even after he has left the battlefield. And maybe that's among the reasons why we psychologists
should remain in business. But to banner that slogan way past the throes of grief and anger, it's scary to think that the Marines see all the rest of us as ingrates who don't fully appreciate their sacrifice. Hello? Reality check, please. How many fingers am I holding
up? Who's the enemy? Where next would you point your gun?
Who can trust soldiers like that? They will serve and protect us. Just don't ever question how they do it. Not when they are literally dying to prove --- what? Okay, I'll bite - What exactly did they prove?
Oh well, the gloves have come off, so I might as well join in the asking.
Did they really need to die, those poor, gallant, and dead sons of the fatherland?
(Wayward and Fanciful is Gail Ilagan's column for MindaViews, the opinion section of MindaNews. Ilagan teaches Social Justice, Family Sociology, Theories of Socialization and Psychology at the Ateneo de Davao University where she is also the associate editor of Tambara. You may send comments to gail.ilagan@gmail.com. "Send at the risk of a
reply," she says.)
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