Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

Of the real motives that prompted the US-led invasion of Iraq, economic gain and political control are at the top of the list of many analysts. These motives are not legitimate reasons for going to war. The reasons that nations usually give for going to war have to do with self-defense and self-image. Fictitious and … Read more

Knowledge is power, it is often said.  But power also begets knowledge.  Thus a new logic has come into being appropriate to America’s status as the world’s lone superpower.  It is important for the rest of us who are weak to learn how and when to break these axioms of the powerful if we are … Read more

“The Philippines is part of the coalition of the willing.” So declared President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in her speech before the graduating class of the Philippine Military Academy.  Her statement came almost at the same hour the United States began its attack on Iraq.  As President of the Republic, she speaks for the Filipino nation. It … Read more

People have viewed Sept. 11 in various ways.  Many think it awakened America to a vulnerability it did not recognize before. Others believe it made America look into itself.  I think Sept. 11 closed the American mind when it put patriotism above reason. Nothing can be more dangerous for any nation than to place its … Read more

We do not equate the American people with George W. Bush, a man Nelson Mandela described as someone who “cannot think properly.” For we know there are many thoughtful Americans who spend a lifetime critically examining the impact of their country’s institutions and policies on their citizens and on other nations.  So too we cannot … Read more

Both wars project American military presence, and the recent past gives us sound reasons to doubt the United States government’s motives, and not to allow ourselves ever again to be drawn into America’s wars.  American presidents, from Kennedy to Johnson to Nixon, all lied to their own people to justify the invasion of Vietnam. Books … Read more

What the government is doing in Mindanao and the rest of the country is finally becoming clear. To put it bluntly, the Philippine government is trying to put an end to the Moro rebellion, the communist insurgency, and the mass poverty that breeds them, by riding piggyback on the American war on global terrorism.  We … Read more

Here we go again in Mindanao, launching a war that defies all reason.  A full-scale assault has suddenly been launched by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in communities identified as mass bases of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).  We thought all along that a ceasefire was supposed to be in force, and … Read more

Toward the end of his speech before the Security Council of the United Nations on Feb. 5, US Secretary of State Colin Powell declared: “For more than 20 years, by word and by deed, Saddam Hussein has pursued his ambition to dominate Iraq and the broader Middle East using the only means he knows: intimidation, … Read more

Immediately after September 11, the focus of the hunt was Osama bin Laden and the so-called al-Qaida. Bin Laden and his henchmen were supposed to be hiding in Afghanistan, under the protection of the Taliban.  The US demanded that the Taliban surrender Bin Laden.  When they refused, Afghanistan was bombed.  The archaic regime of the … Read more