Posted on 07/17/2004 10:20:36 PM PDT by FairOpinion
Once dubbed the "sick man of Asia" for its anemic showing during the 1980s Asian economic boom, the Philippines has now earned the title "weak man of Asia" — by caving in to terrorist demands in exchange for the release of a Filipino truck driver in Iraq.
By being the first country to pull its troops out of Iraq over a terrorist hostage situation, the Philippines has, in one fell swoop:
Encouraged terrorists thugs to take more hostages in Iraq — and beyond.
Emasculated itself at home in the face of a growing Muslim terrorist insurgency.
Stabbed its ardent counterterrorism supporter and 50-year ally, the United States, in the back.
Manila's desire to secure the safe release of its native son is understandable. But its decision to yield to terrorists' demands — even temporarily — shows that terrorism pays dividends and will encourage its continued use as an evil tool of influence across the globe.
In fact, by bringing its troops home, the Philippines will put other foreign workers in Iraq directly in the terrorist cross hairs. Whose workers will be next?
Manila's show of weakness in Iraq will only make matters worse at home. The Philippines faces a serious terrorist insurgency in its southern Muslim-dominated islands; it has suffered 73 terrorist incidents since 9/11, including 163 deaths and 675 injuries.
Southeast Asian al Qaeda affiliates Jemaah Islamiya, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Abu Sayyaf intend to establish a theocratic Muslim state on the large southern Philippine island of Mindanao. They're working in cahoots and already have set up joint training camps there.
The Philippines may also be putting its 10 million overseas workers in harm's way as terrorist pawns. (Filipino expatriates, as many as 500,000 in the Middle East, remit $8 billion a year to the Philippines, accounting for 10 percent of the country's economic output.) How long before a terrorist group snatches overseas Filipinos and hold them hostage in exchange for concessions on independence for Mindanao?
Once one of the most outspoken supporters of President Bush and the War on Terror, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appears to have lost her nerve on fighting terrorism abroad — at a minimum.
The Arroyo decision is also particularly offensive to Washington, which has been incredibly generous in helping the Philippine government fight terrorism since 9/11:
Washington spent over $100 million training, assisting and equipping the armed forces of the Philippines for counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations at home as well as peacekeeping duties abroad. America also gave Manila tens of millions of dollars in social and economic aid to address the problems contributing to the southern Muslim insurgency and terrorism. Finally, Arroyo has called into question the Philippines' reliability as an ally. By contrast, Japan and South Korea faced similar situations in Iraq, but gritted their teeth and held firm despite political turmoil at home.
The Philippine pullout is small in significance militarily — 51 troops from a multinational force numbering 150,000. But it's huge politically, because it could lead to a chipping away of international resolve in Iraq.
Negotiating with terrorists never pays and the consequences of the Philippines' actions in Iraq will reverberate far and wide. We can only hope that after Spain's abrupt decision to retreat from Iraq this spring, the Philippines will be the last nation to appease these bloodthirsty criminals in Iraq — or anywhere else.
This is so obvious. I can't imagine what Spain and The Philippines were thinking.
Its crazy.
The Philippinos were leaving in August anyway, so this wasn't quite the craven move that some say it is. By leaving a couple of weeks before schedule they may have saved the hostage's life. And since there were only a handful of them in Iraq in the first place, it makes no tactical difference whatsoever. Spain, on the other hand, is another story. I am still shocked over their very cowardly pullout.
The Philippine decision makes sense only if they are trying to change sides in the war on terror.
In this case, they probably think they can change to the "neutral" side. It makes sense: The U.S. will not punish them, and maybe the Muslims will go easy on them.
The sad thing is that as long as the U.S. is there to defend them anyway, and we are, "neutral" is a viable option. However, if the U.S. loses, all the neutrals lose at the same time.
The Spanish acted terribly by being stampeded into electing Zapatero - but even he did not say in his campaign that he was going to bring Spanish troops home immediately, simply that they were going to be brought home on the date that had been planned earlier and not replaced, unless the UN agreed. Of course, as soon as he took office, he announced that they were being withdrawn immediately, UN or no, upsetting even some of the people who had supported him and flatly betraying all of the other Coalition forces. The Spanish troops left in shame. Typical leftist duplicity.
Actually, the Philippine pullout seems to me to be more drastic, because it took relatively little to get them to do this - just a threat, and no more. And surely they must realize that this just encourages their own domestic Muslim crazies. Watch for the beheading of hostages to become a routine Muslim practice in the Philippines (where it has already been practiced - IIRC, several years ago they beheaded an American tourist they had taken hostage).
I hope you're wrong but I wouldn't be surprised a bit if it happens. History shows Islam to be an unhappy and restless way of life; they seem to be animated by conquest and bloodshed.
My feeling is that if the Philippines had had a larger military contingent they would have stayed put. The fact that they only had 50 or so troops there in the first place means they won't be missed. So leaving two weeks early is no victory for the terrorists, in fact it means the terrorists are just as stupid as I thought they were. They take a Phillipino hostage and demand that the fifty troops leave, but they already had their bags packed to leave in 2 weeks anyway. Brilliant strategy by the Islamists, (smile).
If the Islamic terrorists in the Philippines take the pullout as a cue for more beheadings it will only serve to galvanize the Philippino people against their small Islamic population. It's been said that the Philippines is the last truly Christian government on earth, so here's hoping they will drive their own Muslim terrorists into the briney bottom of the Pacific before the Mohammedans can ever gain a strong foothold there.
Honestly speaking,I have to sympathise with the Filipino position-which was between a rock&a hard place-It was not the wisest thing to pull out for the life of one man-but what a lot of articles&reports are missing is that the Philippines has a large expatriate population living in the Persian gulf(it's the largest migrant group after Indians,Pakistanis&the Palestinians).The wackos wouldnt hesitate targeting them as most low end workers&don't have the protection&excusivety US or British expats have.Moreover the Filipino economy is heavily dependent on their funds-any disruption would be massively harsh.Anyway their presence in Iraq was at the most ,symbolic.
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