by Drew Miller

They dress the wound of my people
    as though it were not serious.
‘Peace, peace,’ they say,
    when there is no peace.

Jeremiah 6:14

In the United States, so called “peace” at home means war abroad. While the U.S. often fashions itself the beacon of “democracy” for the world -- US wealth and power is largely derived from having the largest military – and being the greatest war monger — in the world. While a wealthy few may spend their Christmas season in a so called “peace” free from threats to “national security,” millions of people will be facing war either instigated or supported by the United States.

Among those countries is the Philippines. My first experience in the Philippines was in 2016 on an international solidarity mission. This experience first brought to my attention the concept of “just and lasting peace” — peace that is not based merely on ceasefires or peace agreements, but based on social justice and solutions that address the social and economic issues at root of armed conflict. Since then, I’ve met farmers, indigenous people, workers, youth, women and Muslims from the Philippines seeking peace that provides them with land, with proper wage, with enough food, with education and with other social and civil rights. The lack of social justice in the Philippines — the mass poverty, rapid and forced migration — are all what lie at the root that makes it home to the oldest, ongoing armed revolution in Asia. When people’s basic needs are not met, when they suffer from historic colonialism and ongoing foreign intervention, they will often turn to arms to fight for rights and self-determination.

The Philippines continues to be in a neocolonial relationship with the United States, who holds 9 military bases in the country and continues to provide the Philippine military with millions of dollars in military aid each year. Meanwhile, military and police violence against civilians rage on — widespread bombings across the country in the guise of counterinsurgency, targeted killings of journalists, and the ongoing war on drugs which indiscriminately takes the lives of drug users or suspected drug users.

As bombs continue to drop in Gaza and all across the Philippines — we have to be vigilant, as the prophet Isaac, and condemn our government when it says “peace, peace” and there is no peace. This advent, let us be bold to tell the truth, to stand with oppressed communities from the Philippines to Palestine, and to insist on solutions to war – especially the halt of US military aid – that will bring a genuine just and lasting peace — not just for a few but for all.

Drew Miller, a quaker by roots and a United Methodist in practice, is General Secretary of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, a global coalition campaigning for just and lasting peace in the Philippines.