Mindanao, Martial Law, ISIS and Foreign aid

By Roger Oliver
May 31, 2017

An item in this morning's Audible.com version of the Wall Street Journal reports that the president of the Philippines instituted martial law on the island of Mindanao to control the brutal killings of civilians by two Muslim gangs supported by ISIS. The island fears he will institute martial law everywhere and set democracy on its ear. The article pointed out that the Philippines is rejecting help from the United States and looking to Russia and China for help. What the article failed to mention is why.

Foreign aid always comes with strings. Aid from the U.S. these days is used to promote gender equality, a euphemistic leftist political term for normalizing sexual perversions. Not a requirement when you get aid from Russia where homosexuality is "officially" banned, alhough I've been told the ban is not enforced. I read recently that the Philippines particularly rejects the gender strings attached to U.S. aid, and so looks elsewhere. Says something about the Wall Street Journal that this detail is left out of their article.

The WSJ article said the disadvantage of refusing America's aid is that the Philippines forgoes the intelligence the United States offers. What strings come with aid from Russia? Good question. Perhaps the president of the Philippines should hire the prophet Isaiah for counsel on foreign relations.

Those who go down to Egypt for help are as good as dead,
those who rely on war horses,
and trust in Egypt’s many chariots
and in their many, many horsemen.
But they do not rely on the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 31:1

Topics: Culture , Government, Justice, Statism, World History

Roger Oliver

Roger Oliver serves as a missionary in Puebla, Mexico. He and his wife, Marcy spend most of their time at the Pierre Viret Learning Center, a Christian academy, preschool through high school. Their local church meets in the Learning Center. They sponsor a web page www.visionamericalatina.com to promote Christian reconstruction in Latin America. Roger is a partner in a furniture manufacturing company. The business exists to provide employment to the families in the community, to help the community become independent, to generate capital for other family businesses and as a venue for vocational discipleship. He retired from the US Army in 1992. He earned his MBA at Syracuse University for the Army and completed a ThM in Bible Exposition at Dallas Theological Seminary.

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