regarding your editorial <u+201c> america<u+2019>s erratic philippine ally <u+201d> (oct. 24): philippine president rodrigo duterte<u+2019>s courageous break from foreign policy alignment with the u.s. should be taken as a signal that u.s. foreign policy isn<u+2019>t working and should be rethought. this failure isn<u+2019>t an isolated event. candid feedback from the u.k., nato, russia, kenya, uganda, burundi, israel, mexico, syria and other nations would confirm the feelings of confusion, disappointment and even betrayal resulting from the obama administration<u+2019>s blunders led by secretaries hillary clinton and john kerry. i was in the philippines oct. 7-21 as part of a trade mission. we were privileged to attend a very honest and intimate 90-minute speech conducted by president duterte without notes, a script or a teleprompter. very candid. very revealing. i also listened carefully to cooks, waiters, farmers, retail clerks and taxi drivers, as well as ceos, doctors, nurses, mayors, governors, cabinet secretaries and senators. to a person, they all support president duterte. why do they like him? he is ending the corruption whereby government and the wealthy have lived beyond accountability to the rule of law, enriched themselves and prevented common people from rising in dignity from their poverty. he is requiring that the progress of the nation be measured not by gdp alone, but by a reduction in poverty. why does he resent interference from president obama? he recalls that barack obama, as community organizer, did nothing to deliver chicago from its drugs, corruption, gun violence and gangs. as senator, he did nothing to bring reform to illinois, and as president he has yet to record a single foreign policy or economic development victory. john anderson gig harbor, wash. while i don<u+2019>t agree with philippine president duterte<u+2019>s decision to cozy up to china, i certainly understand it. his pivot away from washington was entirely predictable because mr. duterte would prefer to deal with the devil he knows than the devil no one knows. our near-decade-long absence of transparent foreign policy is rapidly catching up with us. few of our allies trust us any longer, and who can blame them? when i served as an officer aboard a naval destroyer in the south china sea during the vietnam war, i learned that any indication of weakness invites trouble. mr. duterte sees our weakness, but when he looks to china, he sees something very different. jim proffitt jacksonville, ill.
philippine president duterte sees weak u.s. - wsj
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