We're all OA

It looks funny. But we are overdoing the reaction. We are all over-acting. The problem of "over."

President Arroyo over-reacted to some marches and street demonstrations. The military too.

And, as everybody agrees now, she did an overkill. She declared a state of national emergency. That was not necessary to do what she did. The police raided the office of The Tribune which was another overkill.

It was also overdoing it when U.P. Professor and Columnist Randy David was arrested. To correct the error he was released also immediately.

The Scout Rangers and the Philippine Marines also over- reacted. And so with the Chief of Staff when it relieved Rangers head General Danilo Lim and also relieved Marines Commander Gen. Renato Miranda. Miranda said, he volunteered to step down which some of his men did not believe.

His "relief" then led to an over-reaction by Marine Brigade Commander Col. Ariel Querubin.

* * *

Even the NDF and NPA also over-reacted. They could not wait for Arroyo to fall from power but over reacted and called for a coup d 'etat.

This so-called "tactical alliance" by both the Left and the Right caused the over-reaction of the President. I will discuss later this is a greater danger. I am referring to the "tactical alliance".

And we have to admit it, even media also over-reacted. It was just over-acting which many years ago we called OA. We're all OA.

During that media vigil at the Fountain of Justice, I was asking myself, were we not over-acting?

* * *

During World War II hundreds of thousands or probably a million of American soldiers, called the American Expeditionary Forces to liberate Europe from the Germans were in Great Britain.

The British men did not like them. The American soldiers were getting their girls. After the war, they brought home to the U.S. a big number of girls they married.

So the American soldiers were denounced for being overfed, overpaid, over-sexed, and over here. It was the problem of "over."

* * *

I go back to what I wrote about the "tactical alliance" which is the joining of two forces of Left and Right or the communist group and the radicals in the military.

And the purpose is a coup d'etat. This is a French term for sudden illegal seizure of power by a military force, a lightning stroke.

The French Revolution was bloody with thousands killed, not by government forces but by the Revolutionaries themselves in a rivalry between the Gerondists and the Jacobins. They could not agree on how government was to be formed. So, they killed each other.

It was called The Reign of Terror. More than 15,000 were killed. Funny but they terrorized and killed each other just because they could not agree on how to end the Reign of Terror.

Gerondists and Jacobins were political parties. Georges Jacques Danton was a lawyer, one of the original leaders of the Revolution.

He wanted to end the Reign of Terror and was called a traitor. He was accused, tried, and guillotined.

Maximillian Robespierre was also a lawyer like Danton and also original leader of the Revolution. Leader of the Jacobins he was accused of leading the Reign of Terror. He too was accused of treason, tried and executed in the guillotine.

In his book "Danton's Death," author George Buchner wrote, "The Revolution is like Saturn - it eats its own children."

* * *

The danger of this so-called "tactical alliance" is if they succeed in the coup d 'etat, the next thing to follow is the elimination of rivals.

This will, as experienced in the French Revolution, lead to the killing of even the innocent ones.

That is natural in Revolutions. Why was Andres Bonifacio killed? And who did it? How many comrades in this communist Revolution in the Philippines were eliminated because they were a threat to the leadership?

This will be the case of everyone trying to ride a tiger.

* * *

A Chinese proverb says he who tries to ride a tiger is afraid to dismount. Winston Churchill in his book "While England Slept" wrote in 1936, "Dictators ride upon tigers which they are afraid to dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry."

We always say, don't attempt to ride a tiger or you will end up inside.

President Arroyo is there sitting, though not very comfortably, atop a tiger. Many said, she is already inside. I don't think so as long as George W. Bush is providing her saddle.*

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