A way to sell nation's interests

A letter-writer from South Cotabato, Remigio D. Saladero Jr., lamented the vested interests involved in the peace process in Mindanao. ("Treachery backed by US, cause for impeachment," Inquirer,9-5-08) I can feel his outrage against the United States. By now, we must realize that the players involved in the peace process are not really keen on a just and lasting peace in Mindanao. They are just using the peace process to advance their interests, among them the United States which wants a strategic military presence in Mindanao to counter China and to benefit economically from the oil reserves in that resource-rich part of our country. We must resist in whatever form any kind of intervention by other countries.

We can learn from what happened in Iran. In 1951, Iranians voted into power the nationalist government of Mohammed Mossadegh. Prior to that, the Iranian Parliament voted to nationalize their petroleum industry. It also took over the assets of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now called the British Petroleum).

The Mossadegh government wanted his country to reap its fruits first before other countries could benefit from them. The British government quickly responded by dispatching the Royal Navy to the Persian Gulf to block Iran's oil exports around the world. Since Britain's interests were the same as that of America's (the acquisition of oil reserves all over the world), the former, under Winston Churchill, conspired with the latter, under Dwight Eisenhower, to overthrow Mossadegh.

The planning for the ouster of Mossadegh was assigned to US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his brother Allen, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Operation Ajax, as it was called, was overseen by Kermit Roose-velt, grandson of Theodore Roose-velt. After a couple of years, the operation was successful.

Tehran, Iran's seat of power, riots and street clashes ensued, wherein more than 300 people died. The destabilization move against Mossadegh took its toll on him. Soon thereafter, Mossadegh resigned from office. The Shah, with US backing, was installed in power. Subsequently, the United States and the rest of the West were able to gain a strategic military foothold and at the same time secure their economic interests in the Middle East up until the time of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

The United States will use every means at its disposal to secure its national interests. The distressing thing is that we have a leadership that is willing to give away everything, the country's quest for peace, its people and its lands to other countries just to stay in power.

(First published in the Letters to the Editor, Opinion Section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, September 26, 2008)