As Kaleikoa Kaeo points out, if you imagine the U.S. military in Hawai’i to be a monstrous he’e (octopus) with tentacles strangling other lands and peoples around the Asia-Pacific region, its tentacles can regrow if they are cut off. The Washington Post reported that the Philippines government may allow the U.S. to expand its military presence in the Philippines, despite U.S. bases having been thrown out twenty years ago:
Two decades after evicting U.S. forces from their biggest base in the Pacific, the Philippines is in talks with the Obama administration about expanding the American military presence in the island nation, the latest in a series of strategic moves aimed at China.
Although negotiations are in the early stages, officials from both governments said they are favorably inclined toward a deal. They are scheduled to intensify their discussions Thursday and Friday in Washington prior to higher-level meetings in March. If an arrangement is reached, it would follow other recent agreements to base thousands of U.S. Marines in northern Australia and station Navy warships in Singapore.
Among the options under consideration are operating Navy ships from the Philippines, deploying troops on a rotational basis and staging more frequent joint exercises. Under each of the scenarios, U.S. forces would effectively serve as guests at existing foreign bases.
The sudden rush by many in the Pacific region to embrace Washington is a direct reaction to China’s rise as a military power and its assertiveness in staking claims to disputed territories, such as the energy-rich South China Sea.
After 9/11/2001, the U.S. began to creep back into the Philippines under the guise of fighting a second front in the Global War on Terror:
The Pentagon already has about 600 Special Operations Forces members in the Philippines, where they advise local troops in their fight with rebels affiliated with al-Qaeda. But the talks underway between Manila and Washington potentially involve a much more extensive partnership.
However, the nature of these new proposed bases is changing:
Instead of trying to establish giant bases reminiscent of the Cold War, however, Pentagon officials said they want to maintain a light footprint.
“We have no desire nor any interest in creating a U.S.-only base in Southeast Asia,” said Robert Scher, a deputy assistant secretary of defense who oversees security policy in the region. “In each one of these cases, the core decision and discussion is about how we work better with our friends and allies. And the key piece of that is working from their locations.”
The distinction is critical in the Philippines, which kicked the U.S. military out of its sprawling naval base at Subic Bay in 1992 after lawmakers rejected a new treaty. Along with the nearby Clark Air Force Base, which the Pentagon abandoned in 1991 after a volcanic eruption, Subic Bay had served as a keystone of the U.S. military presence in Asia for nearly a century.
[…] Philippines lawyers union denounced the possible increase of U.S. military forces and activities in the Philippines: National Union of Peoples’ […]
[…] President Obama announced that the U.S. will deploy 2,500 troops to Australia. Recently, the U.S. and Philippines have engaged in talks about expanding the U.S. military presence in the Philipp… twenty years after popular movements forced the U.S. to remove its military bases. The prospect of […]