Philippine People Want U.S. Troops Out Now But See No Change Coming

Obama will still pursue US imperialism – CPP
11/08/2008 | 05:07 AM

MANILA, Philippines - US imperialism will still be the same even under new President-elect Barack Obama, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said late Friday.

In a statement, the CPP said it is an irony because Obama's victory reflects the American people's rejection of the militarist and neo-conservative Bush regime.

"Imperialism's continuing policies of global hegemony, plunder and war, however, blur the line of demarcation between Democrats and Republicans--between Obama and Bush--and show that they simply represent two factions of the US monopoly bourgeoisie. The current deepening recession and desperation in the US and the world capitalist system is pushing the US to intensify imperialist exploitation, plunder and oppression in its home country and its semi-colonies, covet more areas for expansion and wage wars of counter-revolution and aggression," it said on its website, http://www.philippinerevolution.net/.

Based on the imperialist tenet, Obama will continue to expand US military-industrial complex, flex its military muscle and wage big and small wars to pursue the thrust for hegemony.

Hegemony dictates that rivals must be shut off from encroaching into US’ vast empire, and that new markets and territories must be seized for greater plunder and clout.

"The escalation of US imperialist aggression is a matter of fact, especially in the face of the global economic crisis," it said.

The CPP's scathing remarks against Obama came a day after US ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Ann Kenney said the US will not likely withdraw its troops from the Philippines, as demanded by left-leaning militant groups.

Yet, the CPP noted that Obama, who ran under the Democratic Party, presented himself purportedly as an antithesis of Republican George Bush Jr.

"He took advantage of the current intense and widespread disenchantment of the American people, especially in the face of the US political and military disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan and the worst economic crisis in the US since the Great Depression," the CPP said.

It said, Obama would only serve as US imperialism's new lead instrument for all this.

"Shrouded in his Democratic Party and populist rhetoric, US hegemonic thrust and aggressiveness only become more devious that ever. This is not unprecedented, even among US rulers from the Democratic Party. The populist US president John F. Kennedy launched the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961. He and his successor Lyndon B. Johnson escalated the Vietnam war throughout the 1960s. 'New Deal' president Franklin Delano Roosevelt employed World War II to revive the US economy from the Great Depression," it said.

Obama has repeatedly vouched for the Bush-initiated war of terror and is actively gathering support for continued US military interventionism especially in the oil-rich regions of the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia, the CPP said.

It added he has specifically advocated sending an additional 10,000 troops to Afghanistan and carrying out unilateral strikes at its borders with Pakistan, on the pretext of going after the al-Qaeda.

While calling for the eventual withdrawal of American troops in Iraq, he has also made clear that the US would continue to exert its military presence there in order to ensure that the puppet Iraqi government would carry out US dictates, it said.

Last June, the CPP recalled Obama also advocated continuing military intervention in the Philippines saying that he would support the Balikatan military exercises in the mane of "friendship" between the US and its neo-colonial client state.

"He has completely disregarded the fact that the Balikatan is used to camouflage the building up of permanent US military presence and interventionism in the country in outright violation of Philippine sovereignty. He has called for the further expansion of programs to supply weapons to the Philippine military, in utter disdain of the several hundreds of thousands victimized by the Arroyo administration’s Oplan Bantay Laya being waged under the tutelage and support of the US military," the CPP said.

The CPP urged Filipinos and Americans "not to allow themselves to be beguiled by the deceptions of the newly elected American president."

"The CPP is confident that the working class and people of the world will persist with resoluteness in their struggle against imperialism and reaction, and for the attainment of national and social liberation, democracy and progress," it said. - GMANews.TV