IT is a casual observation; it is a matter-of-fact assumption; and, for all we know, it is US combat doctrine; but every time you do not kill determined enemies; they get harder to kill the next time around. Meanwhile they get better at killing you. You get that from David Belavia’s war memoir, House to House, Stryker, Lions of Kandahar and other literary victories that the longest American war has at least produced, if nothing else.
The slaughter of our men at Mamasapano and the slaughter of half that number when the previous administration was hammering out the same peace agreement, which the Supreme Court struck down, raises the specter of an enemy harder to kill when we finally set our minds to it.
Meanwhile, the enemy gets better at killing us.
That is the problem with getting our soldiers killed without killing a far greater number of the enemy. By the time the Republic comes to its senses, the enemy will have taken as much of our country as they want because we won’t be able to stop them.
The only way to stop them is never to let them try; and the only way not to let them is to keep fighting them.
The only way to fight well is to keep fighting. The only way to win is to keep winning as we did under Marcos, Ramos and Estrada.
Unjustly fired Special Action Force chief Napeñas’s assurance that his boys killed 5 times their casualties is, therefore, good news.
If true, it reveals an advantage we must exploit. If anyone tells you different she is working for the enemy. If there are terrorist attacks from the south on peaceful population centers elsewhere in our country, mainly Manila, it will be the fault of this government. A government that let’s murderers get away with murder and a Congress that wants to blame everybody but the murderers is begging for this to happen. Because if the enemy can do it, they will do it; nothing will hold them back because they will come to believe that nothing can hold them back. Our military is so accustomed to failure that failure is all we and the enemy expect. And that emboldens the enemy and boldness brings victory.
We need a new Army; but those who lost the old one cannot create it. We need better fighting forces; but those who weakened the one we have, with blame and confusion, cannot be trusted to give it to us. We need a savior and he must ride a horse.