Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte gave the world a sense of “optimism” by rejecting US colonialism and taking the world one step closer to ending the destructive American foreign policy which thrives on wars and military conflicts, says a political analyst.
Mike Billington, a Washington-based editor with the Executive Intelligence Review, made the remarks in regard to Duterte’s recent announcement of a “separation” from the US.
During a visit to China on Thursday, Duterte said the separation applied to military and economic cooperation between Washington and Manila.
Despite the public snub, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and other American officials insisted on Friday that America intends to keep its alliance commitments to the Philippines.
“He is not rejecting relations with the United States, he is rejecting dependence and colonial policies coming from Washington,” Billington said.
According to the analyst, years of dependence on the US “has destroyed” the Philippines’ self-sufficiency and plunged a big chunk of its population into poverty.
One day after Duterte’s remarks, hundreds of left-wing activists and indigenous citizens poured onto the streets of the Philippine capital, Manila, to call for the withdrawal of US troops from the Southeast Asian country.
“So, this is Duterte standing up for his country and the human race,” Billington argued. “I think it is extremely important that several African leaders have said that Duterte is speaking for them.”
He noted that for years US investments in the country have been limited to extracting its raw material.
Another aspect of Duterte’s decision, according to Billington, was the fact that his country was being used as a “permanent battleship” by the US as part of Washington’s pivot to the Pacific.
“The so-called Asia pivot, the policy of Obama to transform Asia into a massively armed, nuclear-armed arsenal… in order to surround China and the Far East of Russia with nuclear weapons, preparing for the showdown,” he explained.
Billington said Washington and its allies were willing to risk a “thermonuclear war” in order to stop the formation of a new political paradigm in the world, which is based on “development” and requires “putting the Western banking system out of its misery.”
“That is what Duterte has done by giving the whole world a sense of optimism,” he concluded.