Negotiate instead of preparing for war

The recent death of Jeffrey Laude has revived a topic from the past. An American teenager, a Marine, is accused of killing him and is currently held for trial. The alleged killer was part of a joint US-Philippine military exercise conducted in the Philippines. He and his unit were invited by the Philippine government. Although both the United States and the Philippines deny it, they were invited because China claims ownership over islands that Filipinos long thought belong to the Philippines.

It is doubtful that the Philippines would have the capability to defend its claims to those islands with military might; it should be ready to negotiate with China then. The idea that the United States will go to war with China over the Philippines’ territorial disputes with China is nonsense. The United States has a huge debt with China and it is enough to give the Chinese the leverage they need to prevent war with the United States. China can collapse the US economy if it chooses to “sell the debt” at once. When she was asked about China, Hillary Clinton said, “You don’t pick a fight with your banker….”

China has plotted a course to depend on its domestic consumption rather than on US consumers so that it will not need the United States as much as it did in the past.

If the Philippines wishes to be independent of the need to host US military forces for protection, it must either build up its own military or negotiate with China. As a US citizen married to a Filipina, and as a former US Navy weapons specialist during the Vietnam war, I favor the latter as the military spending to counter China would likely bankrupt the Philippines.

—ROWLAND LANE ANDERSON,

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