OYSTER BAY, PALAWAN – When American forces withdrew from Iraq in 2011, I watched it happen from Kuwait, where I worked as a contracted security guard. I have spent much of my adult life watching American power leave places abroad. Last week, from a hilltop above Oyster Bay on the Philippine island of Palawan, I watched it arrive. Elsewhere on the base, a small American unit called Task Force Ayungin advises and trains Philippine forces conducting operations in the contested waters. Under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, American forces now hold rotational access to nine Philippine military sites.