We, the Filipino youth, view with utmost alarm and condemnation the intensifying conflict in the Middle East (West Asia) brought about by the United States’ brazen assassination of Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani in Iraqi soil last January 2. We stand with the rest of free, peace-loving, and anti-imperialist peoples of the world in condemning the criminal actions of the US pushing for war which will undoubtedly victimize civilians rather than the warmongers in Washington.

The youth recognizes that the US’ ambitions in West Asia have lasted for decades and that US imperialism has been responsible for the region’s instability. West Asia has for decades been a strategic region for the US to control the world’s oil supply and maintain its economic hegemony. This need has been the driving force in its numerous wars and interventions in Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.

History shows that it was the US that sponsored the coup d’etat which toppled the democratically-elected Iranian government of Prime Minister Mossadegh in 1953 to install a pro-US monarchy under the Shah which was toppled by the Iranian people in 1979. Iran’s assertion of its political and economic independence from US imperialism in the years that followed resulted in economic sanction after economic sanction victimizing the Iranian people. These sanctions and outright hostility from the US forced Iran to adopt a defensive posture, culminating in a 2015 Nuclear Deal which was subsequently scrapped by Donald Trump after three years.

The Filipino youth firmly believe that any conflict in the region will only put innocent civilian lives at risk. In the final analysis, it is the civilian population of West Asia who have suffered under the US’ wars with at 200,000 civilian deaths in Iraq since 2003 and another 225,000 in Syria since 2011. Any war in Iran is sure to cause a similar body count.

Furthermore, any instability in the region will adversely affect 2 million Overseas Filipino Workers who will be forced to evacuate and leave their jobs with no clear future or better prospects in the Philippines, contributing to worsening poverty and the starvation of their families.

Rodrigo Duterte has demonstrated his status as a US lapdog. Like Quirino, Marcos, and Arroyo who have deployed Filipino troops during the Korean, Vietnam, and Iraq wars, he has once again committed to deploy Filipino troops in a war that endangers the millions of innocent lives in West Asia. The youth assert that throwing away Filipino lives to aid the US in its criminal war of aggression is nothing less than an act of treason and a war crime in itself. We call for the Philippines to stay out of the conflict while protecting the lives of our fellow Filipinos abroad.

We want genuine and lasting world peace--an end in which the United States stands as the greatest threat. Peace in West Asia will only be possible if the US’ self-serving imperialist interventions in the region are curtailed.

In this end, we call for:

1. The dismantling of US bases across West Asia, with utmost urgency in Iraq
2. The United States to stop all forms of aggression against Iran and the rest of West Asia
3. President Duterte to not involve our country in the United States's self-serving wars by abolishing unequal treaties such as EDCA and VFA
4. Trump to be held accountable for endangering international security and for violating international laws

We call on the Filipino youth to join global mobilizations against the US attacks on Iran and the impending conflict on January 25!