Cost of war

The battle for Marawi is essentially over, with the symbolic image of its end posted in several Facebook pages before the full takeover of the besieged city by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). There it was, the bloodied bodies of Isnilon Hapilon and Omar Maute, two high-profile leaders of the terrorist group that dared to attempt to seize a territory in the country.

I didn’t share those photos and those that strayed into my FB page I hid. The dead, no matter how violent when alive, deserve some dignity, too. Hapilon, who was hit in the breast, looked at peace, his eyes closed in seeming repose. It was how Maute looked that reminded me of the cost of waging war. His eyes were open, a part of his skull blown away. No way could I tell myself to rejoice staring at the proof at the brutality of the Marawi encounters.

I have seen war being waged up close and, indeed, as Mao Zedong said, “it is no dinner party.” That’s why when I see people act with swagger and speak like waging war is the easiest thing in the world, I pity their ignorance. It’s not like being in a moviehouse watching a war film. The bullets you fire are real; the bullets fired at you by your enemy are real. When you are hit, you cannot shout, “Cut!” When you die, you are dead for good.

Hapilon was once with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and was once with the Abu Sayyaf until reports said he linked up with the international terrorist group Islamic State (IS) while forging ties with the Maute group based in Marawi. The Mautes allied with Hapilon’s Abu Sayyaf faction was a volatile mix. Hapilon and Omar dying together was therefore symbolic of the defeat of the IS cause, at least in Marawi City-and at least for now.

The one mistake the terrorist group committed was in believing it could wage an effective urban warfare against the Philippine military, seize a territory (a “caliphate”) and control it. In a way, this belief, which was also held by IS leaders in the Middle East, didn’t consider the balance of power, which is important in laying down a war’s strategy and tactics. A small force can’t engage another force ten or a hundred times bigger than it in regular warfare.

Which makes the defeat of the Maute group in Marawi City potentially dangerous for us peace-loving Filipinos. It would push terrorist groups to revert to acts that could be more difficult to contain than when they are battling in one territory. We have seen how even rich and militarily advanced countries like the United States and England are finding it difficult to contain terrorist acts like exploding bombs, mass shootings and even vehicles rammed into crowds.

It is on this that we are called upon to remain vigilant. The threat in Marawi may no longer be there but IS terror activities could spread to other areas of the country. And terrorism can be countered not solely by military action but by a vigilant populace that is watchful of the presence of terrorist elements in its midst. Terrorists strike where the link in the security chain is weakest. The war in Marawi may be over, but the threat of terrorist acts remain.