From the sublime to the ridiculous

“FROM the sublime to the ridiculous, there is but one step,” is a phrase that has been attributed to the great Napoleon Bonaparte, although its real authorship is still very much disputed even today.

But no matter who authored it, the phrase, to our mind, now aptly describes the recent pronouncements of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) chief propagandist, ‘Marco Valbuena,’ whose real identity, by the way, is also very much under dispute.

Reacting on the successful anti-terrorist campaign launched by the military in Dolores, Eastern Samar, last August 16, 2021, which killed 20 New People’s Army (NPA) terrorists and which possibly wounded dozens more, Valbuena, on August 26, 2021, came out with a long, convoluted statement that borders on the ridiculous, saying the government’s assault is a “disproportionate use of force.”

But was not the CPP-NPA the first to remove the “glove of chivalry” and honor in the battlefield by their reckless use of explosives that have mainly killed civilians and by their mutilation of already dead soldiers and policemen?

For the CPP to whine and cry that the government is using “disproportionate force” in dealing with them is, really, ridiculous.

Heck, are they not always gloating over every killing, every bomb explosion, every incident of arson and property destruction that they commit, as if to taunt the government and create the impression that it is inutile in dealing with them?

Well, the military offensive, which used all available means in its arsenal, including our freshly-acquired attack helicopters and fighter jets, must have come as a real shocker to the terrorists encamped in that place, probably comforted by the wrong notion that if a government attack comes, it would be via the “traditional way” — an infantry assault that they can easily repulse because of their familiarity of the terrain and “mastery” of guerilla warfare.

That false sense of security has just been demolished with deadly result by the offensive. And if the CPP-NPA still does not get it, it is real game changer and a foreboding of things to come.

Henceforth, if the CPP-NPA is lusting for a fight, they would definitely get it and in huge doses too, enough not only to bloody their nose but put them inside body bags.

“All is fair in love and war,” another saying goes and Valbuena and his bosses should bear this in mind. In other words, if there are available materiel in the military’s arsenal, they would be used, comprende, Valbuena?

Valbuena and his bosses would be better off writing poetry or focusing their articles on mind-boggling subjects such as the birth of the universe, instead of griping over the shocking losses they just suffered in Eastern Samar. No use crying over spilled milk, right?

Better still, they should seriously contemplate on simply giving up for obviously, they cannot win.