If the communists aren't in a pool of blood after that then that island has already been lost.
Let 'em start an open uprising. The Filipino armed forces aren't as nice about prisoner rights as we are and the lesson would go double for the Muslim terrorists currently afflicting the Philippines.
Senior U.S. and Philippine military officials said the three weeks of exercises will be held at an army camp in the heartland of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
"A reconnaissance team from both sides will start this week an initial survey of the proposed training area," a Philippine army official told Reuters.
The MILF, the largest Muslim rebel group in the largely Roman Catholic country with about 12,000 guerrillas, is holding to a ceasefire as peace talks with the government inch forward.
Despite the truce, soldiers in the area are still trying to root out an estimated 30 to 40 militants from Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian group linked to al Qaeda, who have infiltrated the Philippines through its porous southern coast.
Jemaah Islamiah is blamed for deadly attacks in the region, including bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali in October 2002 that killed 202 people. Philippine forces say they have arrested several foreign members of the group in the past two years.
The MILF, which denies any links to Jemaah Islamiah, is due to meet government officials in central Cebu City on Friday to finalise an agreement on how to hunt down the militants.
The small-unit drills by U.S. and Philippine soldiers will be part of "Bayanihan '04" (Cooperation) exercises, the latest in a series of counter-terror training that began in 2002.
Communist rebels from the New People's Army will eventually become targets of the mobile units, military sources said.