Dutch hostage killed

[Mark Berkowitz]

Just to clarify things that I have said:

When it comes to fighting terrorism, I don't always trust the locals of any given country to do as good of a job as the Americans, Brits, Australians, etc.  In the past, the US trusted the Pakistani government to help find Osama Bin Laden, who in fact was hiding in plain sight and was protected by the Pakistani government.  The US certainly had no qualms at all with entering a sovereign country (Pakistan) to eliminate Bin Laden.

I was merely suggesting that Western Special Forces would do a better job, regardless of what DU30 believes, likes, etc.

Since it was mentioned that  Western Special Forces would stand out in the rural areas of the Phils where the terrorists have been holding Western hostages, I was merely suggesting that the Western Special Forces should recruit Filipinos into their ranks (who would be less likely to stand out in the bundok/jungle).

Sure, the Philippines has their very own Special Forces.... but like I said, I don't believe that they can do as good of a job with rescuing Western hostages as the Western Special Forces would do.  JMHO.

[Doug B]

It looks as if Duterte is going to finish off the Abu Sayaff for good:  https://www.philstar.com/nation/2019/06/03/1923113/more-soldiers-deployed-vs-abus

[Mark Berkowitz]

3 minutes ago, Doug B said:

It looks as if Duterte is going to finish off the Abu Sayaff for good:  https://www.philstar.com/nation/2019/06/03/1923113/more-soldiers-deployed-vs-abus

I truly hope so 

[Arizona Kid]

On 6/4/2019 at 2:36 AM, Mark Berkowitz said:

Very good question! 

Does anyone have any ideas as to why these groups are continually allowed to flourish (by the Phillipine government)?    

One word Corruption. It's not a federal state so each provincial Governor  controls where and when the taxes that are paid get used. Some of them have their own private army's. The Datu's for example from Mindanao. Kill 45 plus people and still be in the legal system how many years later?

[Mark Berkowitz]

2 hours ago, Arizona Kid said:

One word Corruption.

Yes, I agree and that I why I cannot put too much trust in Filipino forces, as compared to Western Special Ops forces with fighting terrorism. 

As most of us already know, Corruption is the root cause of so many of the problems in the Philippines.

[Jack Peterson]

2 minutes ago, Mark Berkowitz said:

As most of us already know, Corruption is the root cause of so many of the problems in the Philippines.

 As with the Rest of the world 

[Mark Berkowitz]

19 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

 As with the Rest of the world 

Agreed, but there are different levels in every country, and the Phils is high on the list. 

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/29/689639808/u-s-slips-in-annual-global-corruption-rankings

 

[Hobbit112]

Phils is middle of the pack, 99th of 180 countries and is tied with a good half dozen or more countries.  And they admit that their survey is flawed as several high ranking countries have been disclosed in corruption cases, including the #1, Denmark.

[Mark Berkowitz]

29 minutes ago, Hobbit112 said:

And they admit that their survey is flawed as several high ranking countries have been disclosed in corruption cases, including the #1, Denmark.

So, it could be better or worse than the 99th out of 180 countries? 

Either way, I still think that there's more corruption in the Phils than western countries. 

[virginprune]

1 hour ago, Mark Berkowitz said:

 

Either way, I still think that there's more corruption in the Phils than western countries. 

I believe that western countries have a better take on hiding corruption than their third world counterparts. In the UK it is rife but the money in brown envelope days have changed to giving out peerages to high end corruption. There are several investigations ongoing at this time with high profile people, particularly regarding election funding.