When the US secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, told an audience in Singapore recently that the US would not allow “coercion and bullying” of its allies by China, he must have been counting on a lack of historical knowledge (or a tolerance for hypocrisy) in his audience. Bullying and coercion, including threatened and actual military attacks, are not something new; they have been part of US policy in Asia (and elsewhere) for two centuries.
Hypocrisy abounds, yet few seem to notice. German Foreign Minister Anna Baerbock is nursing a fantasy. She believes one day Vladimir Putin will be hauled into The Hague and tried for war crimes. Her dream is to punish Putin for fumigating Nazis.
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
The Philippines is no stranger to colonialism, being subject to several invasions and occupations throughout its existence from being a loose aggrupation of small tribal kingdoms beginning with the colonization by Spain in 1565. (The ‘discovery’ of the Philippine archipelago
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