Philippine president calls for removal of all US troops (Guardian)

[Equinox Moon]

“I want, maybe in the next two years, my country free of the presence of foreign military troops. I want them out,” he added in a reference to US troops spread across five bases in the Philippines as part of a security agreement reached with Washington by his predecessor, Benigno Aquino.

Duterte conceded that he “may have ruffled the feelings of some but that is how it is. We will survive, without the assistance of America, maybe a lesser quality of life, but as I said, we will survive.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/26/philippine-president-calls-for-removal-of-all-us-troops

[tonyt53]

1. Better learn how to speak Chinese.

[Foggyhill]

2. I think he's going to have a coup

Or it will become "democracy" like russia

[AgadorSparticus]

3. Troubling times for the Phillipines. IS this what the people REALLY want?

I am a little surprised.....

[awoke_in_2003]

4. Give him what he asks for

I am sure no other major power in the region will occupy them.

[lpbk2713]

5. This might not go over as good as he would hope.

A lot of Filipinos derive their income directly or indirectly from the presence of US forces.

[geomon666]

6. Fine, let's get the fuck out.

Have fun with China asshole.

[Equinox Moon]

7. I wonder how congress will re-allocate the money being spent on x5 bases?

[malaise]

8. I'll go along with Mark Twain on this one

http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/blog/2008/04/mark-twains-flag-for-american-colony-in.html
>snip>
But his support for the war turned to opposition after reading the Treaty of Paris which ended the U.S. war with Spain. U.S. control of new colonies, the payment of $20 million, and the treaty's specific protection for Spanish landholders in Cuba were all factors which turned him against U.S. policy. He returned to the U.S. in October, 1900. Embarking in Europe, he told a reporter, using words much like those of anti-war activists today, that the war was, "a mess, a quagmire from which each fresh step renders the difficulty of extraction immensely greater."

His opinion got a lot of press in the context of the 1900 presidential campaign which revolved to some degree around the issue of imperialism. He advocated putting a miniature U.S. constitution in the Pacific, but "we have gone there to conquer, not to redeem." "And so I am an anti-imperialist." He soon joined the Anti-Imperialist League, which had been formed in 1898. With that organization, he went on to support the Russian Revolution (1905) and opposed Belgian control of Congo. He wrote and spoke on its behalf, but was not involved in the day to day work of the league, even after becoming the organization's vice president in 1901. He died in 1910.

His 1901 essay To the Person Sitting in Darkness was not an anti-American polemic, but a broad critique of western colonial imperialism. In it, he satirizes the colonial powers' claims to be bringing "civilization" to the "dark" corners of the globe. This and his other writings clearly show his disgust with American colonial-imperial policy and with atrocities committed during the insurrection. He mocked the American general Leonard Wood (who has a base named after him in Missouri) and praised the Filipino leader Aguinaldo.
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I am not praising the moron running the Philippines today but why does the US have military bases all over the planet - it has never had a damned thing to do with democracy.

[Equinox Moon]

9. I agree...

"why does the US have military bases all over the planet - it has never had a damned thing to do with democracy."

If more country's had us leave it would be great. IMO