The US and President Obama should be key partners with the Philippines and President Aquino in demonstrating the benefits of democracy. With one exception, all the Arab nations that have moved towards democracy in the last three years have failed such as Egypt and Libya. Other Middle Eastern nations, with the exception of Israel, operate as dictatorships and/or are presently in costly civil wars, such as Syria.
President Obama, when he meets with President Aquino in late April, should make a pledge to the Philippines similar to that made by the US long ago to Israel once it became clear that Israel was a viable democracy. The Obama pledge should be per capita economic assistance to the Philippines equal to the per capita, direct and indirect assistance by the US to Israel. Further, to maintain a strong military presence in the Philippines essential to combat the increasingly militaristic and aggressive policies of China, the US should sign with the Philippines a military commitment to train an elite and incorruptible military corps armed with the modern weapons necessary to combat China, the world’s second largest economic and military power. This should include state-of-the-art aircraft carriers, fighter planes and drones.
Given the US military budget of 600 billion dollars and the US’s annual gross domestic product of more than 17 trillion dollars, an annual 20 billion dollar commitment to the Philippines represents a mere one tenth of 1% (00.1%) of the US’s gross domestic product.
Before, during and after President Obama addresses Israeli leaders, he confers with a number of prominent Jewish Americans whose first loyalty is to the US but are sympathetic to and knowledgable about Israel’s many extraordinary accomplishments in terms of democracy and economic growth. Similarly, President Obama should call a meeting by early April in DC with up to 25 Filipino American leaders who are proud of the Philippines, its culture, and its democratic efforts, including leaders who have made major contributions to US economic and cultural advancements. In fact, we would urge that the President select at least a half of a dozen of these leaders to accompany him to the Philippines.
The National Asian American Coalition’s leadership, primarily Filipino American, will be in Washington DC during the week of April 7th. We wish to meet with the President on behalf of Filipino American leaders who wish to meet with the president to offer him both advice and support on what could be his most important international mission since he took office in January 2009.
Today, there are 105 million Filipinos in the Philippines as well as more than 20 million overseas. This includes four million in the United States. If five million Jewish Americans helped create a permanent US long term US alliance with Israel then surely four million Filipino Americans can help do the same for the Philippines and the US.
Although the Philippines should, where possible, remain neutral militarily, much as Japan has done since the end of the Second World War, China is rapidly changing the military paradigm. It may therefore be necessary to prevent a new major war by an advanced military and economic alliance between two great democracies.
