Former Friend Of Bill-turned-Friend Of George Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is beginning to reap the dubious rewards of heading the most willing country among the coalition of the willing. After that state dinner (about which I've gone on and on in these pages), President Macapagal-Arroyo, who has long expressed no interest in running for re-election, is supposedly thinking about changing her mind:
According to the highly placed source, Bush urged Ms Macapagal at the close of her recent official state visit to the United States to reconsider her announcement on Dec. 30 last year that she would not seek a full six-year term in the 2004 election.(Sen. Raul Roco wryly observed that the last time he checked, Bush was not an overseas Filipino voter.)"You know what [were] Bush's parting words to her? 'Madame President, women and politicians are entitled to change their minds,'" the source said.
Presumably our Cowboy in the White House needs someone like her on his side to fight the Eastern Front of his war on terrorism, and the only way to assure that stability would be to keep her in that position.
Already the propaganda machine is well into gear for this next phase, as veteran hack director Cirio Santiago's latest film, Operation Balikatan (starring Rey Malonzo, Eddie Garcia, and a bunch of unknown white guys) is a war movie supposedly in the tradition of Black Hawk Down. It's already being criticized by activist groups as part of a shameless psy-ops campaign orchestrated in favor of the US troops (despite the American diplomats' public show of wariness about the film). (To his credit, he produced and directed some of my favorite B-movies of the early '70s, an entry about which I'm planning to write.)
Meanwhile -- the animal metaphors are piling up, so I apologize for any sexist connotations -- our lapdog has also turned into a parrot:
Referring to the first day of strikes launched by the United States and its allies against Iraq, the President said: "March 20 signified a major blow to the power of the United Nations." ... "Unless its security mandate is updated, the United Nations will continue to limp forward, tasked to do much peacekeeping but too feeble or hand-tied to be effective at peacemaking, Ms Macapagal said.Them's fighting words, and will no doubt jeopardize the Philippines's supposedly shoo-in bid for entry into the U.N. Security Council next year. But more important, it reiterates, in even stronger terms, the Bush Administration's insulting disregard for international law, and is a bad sign of things to come for the Macapagal-Arroyo administration as well. Posted by the wily filipino at June 10, 2003 05:31 PM