So, let me see if I understand the situation, here.
The Philippine military said Monday that a U.N. peacekeeping commander in the Golan Heights should be investigated for allegedly asking Filipino troops to surrender to Syrian rebels who had attacked and surrounded their camp.
Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang said he advised the 40 Filipino peacekeepers not to lay down their arms, and they defied the U.N. peacekeeping commander’s order. Instead, they staged a daring escape from the Golan camp over the weekend, ending a tense, dayslong standoff.
Some idiot in the UN military (God help us) told Filipino forces – men with weapons in their hands and ammunition in their pouches – to meekly surrender to irregular fighters who do not recognize the laws of war. And this fool thought that those soldiers would do that? Even if you don’t actually believe the legend that we adopted the .45 because you can’t reliably stop a charging Moro warrior with a .38*, the fact is that if you want to kill a squad of Filipino soldiers, forget packing a lunch: you’re going to need the room for more ammunition. Or maybe an artillery battery**.
Via Instapundit.
Moe Lane
*The story is apparently more complicated than that, although there is no shortage of commentary from contemporary US military personnel who were ready to assert that no, sir, you cannot.
**See, this is illustrative of the hidden cost of institutionalized racism. We could have gotten two, three US states out of that territory, easy.
Not for nothing that Juan Rico’s native language is Tagalog.
Yeah, and Juan trained at Camp Arthur Currie, here in Calgary, where I live.
We are inundated with Filipino and Filipina immigrants, fabulous people, tough, good. Between them, and all the other best of the world, and our cold hardening all of us, we intend to conquer.
First Montana, then BC and Idaho, then the world!
It’s also illustrative of the cost of beheading prisoners. At some point your opponents opt for the ‘go down fighting tactic’ in hopes of killing as many of your people as possible before they die, since surrender has been removed as a acceptable alternative.
Yeah, and I believe that Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang, made the correct call in telling those soldiers to ignore what the UN Commander said.
Was the UN Commander actually stupid enough to believe that surrendering more hostages will cause your enemy to release the hostages he already holds?
Or was he sympathetic to ISIS?
.
It’s the UN. I’m not sure which is more likely. Or more depressing.
Cuba would have made a better state than the Phillipines just based on the distance and technology of 1900. Mckinley didn’t want to betray the Cubans that wanted independence and the Filipinos did not want us around.
The real problem with this story is this:
a) This Indian general had previously ordered a bunch of Fijian peacekeeping forces to surrender. They did so.
b) This same idiot general THEN apparently got it into his head that having the Filipinos surrender would help him get the Fijians out.
c) Not sure if the Fijian troops are still in captivity.
but, perhaps most importantly:
d) HAVE YOU SEEN ONE WORD ABOUT THIS IN THE US MSM?
1) As of this morning, I believe that the Fijian troops were still in terrorist hands, alive or dead. However, given the past behavior of this group, it is quite probable that they are lining a slit trench in layers, covered up.
Al Nusra’s forces have issued a demand that I don’t think the UN will comply with but cannot be sure; that they demand the UN declare that they are NOT terrorists, but a legitimate army as part of the demands for the release of the Fijians. They are also demanding cash compensation for the casualties they took when the Filipinos fought their way out.
2) Nothing in the US media. Main coverage is in the Brit media. The US state-controlled media will not cover anything about Obama or the terrorists that is not complimentary. I rather think that they conflate the two, with some reason.
Richard Fernandez had a post up about this two days ago. I found it very informative: http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2014/09/01/theirs-not-to-reason-why/
“It was precisely out of fear of the consequences of surrender that the Filipino contingent resisted. Laban muna bago pugot ulo – ‘fight me first before you decapitate me’ — is only common sense.”
Read the whole thing.
Another factor is that Filipinos in general and their army in particular have learned the hard way about Islamists from fighting a nasty guerrilla war in the southern Philippines with a group called the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. (Yes, “MILF” … an amusing name, I guess, but they are still a bunch of bloody-handed islamofascists.)
I want the name of that UN General made public. If doing so is followed by a substantial bounty on him, I would not mind.