The following excerpt is from an article written by Irish Columban missionary priest Fr. Shay Cullen, published on the Preda website on February 3, 2023 and reprinted in the March-April 2023 issue of NewsNotes.
The growing tension in the Asia-Pacific region, with the Philippines at the center, makes it time for Filipinos to start to worry about possible war over Taiwan that would rain down Chinese missile strikes on any of the U.S. bases, now or in the future, in the Batanes Islands, Cagayan, Basa Air Base or nearby Clark, Subic Bay and parts of Mindanao and Palawan.
Last January 31, 2023, The Manila Times reported as follows:
A four-star U.S. Air Force general has warned of a conflict with China as early as 2025 — most likely over Taiwan — and urged his commanders to push their units to achieve maximum operational battle readiness this year. In an internal memorandum that first emerged on social media on Friday, and was later confirmed as genuine by the Pentagon, the head of the Air Mobility Command, Gen. Mike Minihan, said the main goal should be to deter and, if required, defeat China.
So, if there will be a major conflict here, it will be over Taiwan, and most certainly not over the Philippine atolls and sand banks taken and occupied by China from the Philippines and the few tons of fish stolen daily from Philippine waters.
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According to some analysts, the missile war will likely be won by those with the most effective and accurate hyper-sonic missiles launched from the air or those forces with multiple, widely dispersed missile launch sites on land and ships that are too many to be attacked and overwhelmed simultaneously.
The recent agreements between the United States and the Philippine government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. seem to be paving the way for this kind of strategy in the Philippines. There are already many U.S. marine missile bases dispersed, or will be, throughout the strategically located Japanese Senkaku Islands 170 kilometers from Taiwan and 330 kilometers from China. The marines from Okinawa are being re-trained, re-armed and re-deployed in small fighting forces without massive tanks and heavy amour, much to the disgust of traditionalist retired military officers.
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It seems that the plan of the military alliance between the United States, Australia and the UK, known as AUKUS, is to surround China with a steel chain of island fortresses bristling with multiple missile sites, too many to be suppressed by counter attack, but that can subdue the Chinese navy and strike its land-based launch sites if ever it comes to all out conflict and an attempt by China to invade Taiwan.
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This huge growing U.S. presence in the Philippines, located inside Philippine military installations, is covered by the fig-leaf of the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that shields the U.S. from criticism it is violating Philippine sovereignty by already having regular use of Basa Air Base in Floridablanca town in Pampanga; Antonio Bautista Air Base in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan; Benito Ebuen Air Base on Mactan island in Cebu; Lumbia Airfield in Cagayan de Oro City in northern Mindanao and an army jungle training base in Fort Laur, Nueva Ecija, and other unknown secret bases. Subic Bay and San Miguel Base in Zambales are next for U.S. occupation.
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Subic Bay has been used for docking U.S. Navy ships and loading supplies and now with a U.S. company, Cerberus Capital Management, owning the former Hanjin shipyard in Subic Bay, we can expect more U.S. ships, like the USS New Orleans, to be based there. For sure, Chinese missiles installed on the seized Philippine atolls are now aimed at Subic Bay and San Miguel Base, Zambales.
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The U.S. military presence in the West Philippine Sea has not deterred China from grabbing more atolls and islands from the Philippines and arming them with missiles. The Mutual Defense Treaty between the U.S. and the Philippines is of no help. There has to be an act of war by China against the Philippines to trigger a U.S. military response. Any such response will need the approval of the U.S. Congress. The presence of so many U.S. military bases inside Philippine bases is making the Philippines an open and vulnerable target for retaliatory strikes by China.
The deployment of so many U.S. servicemen in military bases all over the Philippines will speed up the expansion of the sex industry. Once again, we will see more human trafficking and sexual abuse and exploitation of women and children by U.S. servicement.
Photos of US, Japanese, and Australian ships in the Philippine Sea, Nov. 20, 2022.