***

PNP Senior Supt. Angelito Casimiro is an official whom I would like to meet.

The reason? I’d like to understand better the grim situation now obtaining in southern Mindanao , in particular the war being waged against our home-grown terrorists.

Casimiro was featured in a documentary aired on CNN last Saturday. He was explaining to the interviewer the nature of the terrorist threat and the problems that our police and security forces face in countering it. He also waxed pessimistic about the prospects of resolving the crisis in the foreseeable future. He said: "It may not be in my lifetime."

Casimiro struck me as a sober, competent and dedicated law enforcer. Articulate too. It would really be a privilege to meet him.

***

Due mainly to the run-up to the elections yesterday, the dire situation in southern Mindanao has been pushed behind the headlines. Thousands of civilians have already been displaced because of the armed clashes between government forces and the terrorists. Now that the elections are over, let us hope that the government will devote more attention to the worsening humanitarian situation there.

***

How can something so out of the ordinary, so deadly, so heartrending, be regarded as something "normal?" I refer to the ongoing carnage in Iraq. Just last week, scores were killed due to suicide bombings and retaliatory attacks by occupying forces in that country.

In the last four days alone, nearly 80 people, including 5 US soldiers, wee killed and hundreds wounded.

I realize that the carnage has been going on for so long now, that the almost daily killings no longer shock. But don’t those people responsible for the outrage realize that the situation in Iraq (not to mention the continuing deprivation of a homeland for the Palestinians) is in fact causing the jihads to sow more terror anywhere and everywhere they can? Just recently, it was reported that a plot to hit American targets in Germany was unearthed.

How do we end the mess in Iraq? I believe the American people themselves, having decided that the Iraq adventure does not serve their interest, have already made a good start by putting more Democrats in Capitol Hill in Washington .

The Democratic majority in Congress, listening to the voice of the American people, have decided they will put an end to the war through the purse strings. Unfortunately, their president, George W. Bush, has already vetoed one funding bill and has promised to veto a second. Both bills seek to impose a deadline on the withdrawal of US troops in Iraq.

The Bush administration claims that telegraphing to the enemy when US troops will be withdrawn would be a sure-fire formula to losing the war.

But so far, Bush and his advisers have not made a good case, nor have they convinced the American people of this contention. In the meantime, both Iraqi and American soldiers and their families and friends, and Iraqi civilians suffer and die almost daily. Sad.

I am reminded of a scene in a movie, "Flags of our Fathers," where a character, referring to the Vietnam War, said: "The war was lost. We just hung around trying to pretend it wasn’t. People were becoming cynical and tired of war."

Somehow, I feel that that point has been reached in Iraq. And we know what happened in Vietnam .

***

The reconciliation efforts being pursued by Bush and company in Iraq will most likely unravel if and when Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, makes good his threat to pull the entire Sunni contingent, 44 of them, out of the 275-member Parliament if key amendments to the Constitution are not made by today, May 15.

Al-Hashimi said he wants guarantees in the constitution that the country will not be split into Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish federal states that he said will disadvantage Sunnis. Sunnis are concentrated in the middle portion of the country where there is virtually no oil.

The Sunnis participated in the parliamentary election in December 2005 only after they were convinced that the promised changes to the Constitution, agreed upon by the US , would be done. That was a year and a half ago and nothing has been done.

"Without changes in the constitution, the situation would be a disaster for Iraq ," al-Hashimi said.

***

My wife and I practically invited ourselves to spend a week as guests of our envoy to South Korea , Ambassador Susan O. Castrence. It was a most welcome respite from the searing heat of summer here and the rather annoying political circus that culminated in yesterday’s election.

Apart from affording us the opportunity to enjoy the spring weather in modern and bustling Seoul, its sights and cuisine, Ambassador Castrence also arranged for us a visit to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Panmunjon that divides the two Koreas, through Col. Jonas C. Sumagaysay, defense attaché. The colonel had us accompanied by two of his administrative assistants, Sergeants Willie F. Pedrosa and Lowell Flores.

Panmunjon is where the Military Armistice Agreement that ended the Korean War was signed on 27 July 1953 by representatives of the United Nations Command, the Korean People’s Army and the Chinese People’s Volunteers.

The DMZ is one of the few remaining relics of the Cold War where the situation continues to be tense and volatile. Hopefully, as Colonel Sumagaysay said, things will change once final agreement is reached in the six-party talks between North Korea on the one hand, and China, Russia, South Korea, Japan and the United States on the other.

Ambassador Castrence has been in South Korea for only a year and a half. But in that short period, she has already earned the high regard and respect not only of her host government’s officials, but most definitely of the Filipino workers in that country. She is ably assisted in this respect by the labor attaché, Rodolfo Sabulao, and his staff.

With only a few months left before she retires, Ambassador Castrence will definitely be a loss to the foreign service. Her stint alone in South Korea will be a tough act to follow.