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Check out these videos.  I didn’t know the situation was that bad in the Philippines !

But before that,  let me tell you a few facts.

a)  The Philippines is  90% Christian,  about 85% are Roman Catholics. Only 3%  are Muslims.

b)  These 3% Muslims are confined in Mindanao, the 3rd largest island in the Philippines,  ( the country is comprised of 7, 600 islands ) .  The Muslims  want to  dismember the country by trying to separate Mindanao  from the rest of the country……. the Philippines  is even smaller than California in terms of area.  The fact is , even Mindanao is 90%  Christian.  However,  in the 70’s ,  they were given  an Autonamous  political concession in 5 regions,  Jolo, Basilan,  Lanao del Sur, and 2 others.  They can have their own holydays there, but  they cannot kill a family member for marrying a non-Muslim or worse, converting to another religion.  Their laws are still under the laws of the land.

c)  The world doesn’t know this, but the longest Muslim-Christian civil war  that is  on-going  is in the Philippines,  more than 40 years, going on 50.  It started in 1970 when a group of rebels and terrorists started their reign of terror.  Since then , there have been  thousands of clashes between the rebels and government forces .  Fortunately, the clashes are confined  in their area, the 5 autonomous regions.  The Philippine soldiers  , though ill – equipped compared to other coutries’,  are  hardened  soldiers.

In May, 2017,  a group of terrorists, Abu Sayaff (  rebel/criminal/ terrorist / bandit group that  kidnap for ransom  )  and the Maute group  combined their forces and tried to take over Marawi City (  a city in Mindanao  that is 98% Muslim, with a population of 200,000 )  and establish a Caliphate, or an Islamic State.    Filipinos are like, seriously?

The Philippine soldiers,  however , are trained in jungle warfare ,not urban warfare.  The terrorists  are  highly equipped, with seemingly endless ammunitions.  This is the soldiers ‘ first time to fight room to room, house to house, alley to narrow alley , building to building, one structure at a time.  It is an urban warfare, and a war between snipers.  Though the government forces are careful  not to involve civilians and hostages (   the terrorists and bandits use women and children  as shields ) the government forces   finally decided  on air firepower to flush the terrorists out .  Ground firefight without firepower from above , you see,  is painfully slow.

Here’s the video from Philippine Special Forces Command.  The government won, of course,  but to be honest, nobody won.  Marawi  City lay in ruins,  more than 150 soldiers died, thousands more wounded,  more than a thousand  terrorists killed (  including foreign terrorists from Indonesia and Malaysia ) and   civilians. Guys, I’ve never seen  an urban warfare before, not even of videos from    Iraq and Syria.  I’m sure you haven’t either, so please watch this.  Just 8 minutes of your precious time.  I’m sure the US Armed Forces and other countries have watched this too. How to, or not how to.

Another one from the embedded media. ( HBO’s Vice ) I find this one more interesting.

I’m speechless.

( ._. “)

What else can I say ?  Merry Christmas, folks.  Peace to all of you.