GLORIA FAILS HISTORY

The Philippines is withdrawing its troops from Iraq, caving into terrorist demands.

This is disappointing, but not a complete surprise. The Philippines has on several occasions facilitated ransom payments to the domestic Abu Sayyaf terrorists in the south of the archipelago.

The Abu Sayyaf - like the current enemy in Iraq - rather enjoy beheading their hostages. “In August 2002, Abu Sayyaf kidnapped six Filipino Jehovah’s Witnesses and beheaded two of them.”

The biggest payment to the group was in 2000, which was made by Libya after the Abu Sayyaf kidnapped a group of hostages seized from a nearby Malaysian resort island.

Naturally, the group was only encouraged by the payment. They used it to buy new weapons and supplies and continued to try for a bigger score. Their activity only started to trail off after a major offensive was started, with the assistance of the US, shortly after 9-11.

The natural lesson to learn from this is that appeasement doesn't work. Force does!

Gloria Arroyo's government is saying that the troop withdrawal is to help protect overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). It won't! And I had expected more from Arroyo. I honestly thought she was smarter than this.

The islamofascists don't need much of a reason to kill Filipinos. A couple of months ago three Filipinos were massacred in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, because they were Christians.  Most Filipinos in the Middle East will still be Christians tomorrow and they will still be targets. Gloria's weakness won't make them safer - it will just encourage the islamofascists to seek further concessions.

A withdrawal of Filipino troops from Iraq will not necessarily end our woes in that country.
The fact remains there are some four thousand Filipinos workers in Iraq - anyone of them could fall into the hands of terrorists in the future. When another Angelo de la Cruz becomes captive, what then will Manila offer to the hostage takers? How then would Manila value that life?

Beyond the Middle East, I'm sure there are a few twisted souls in the Southern Philippines who are seeing Arroyo's new leanings toward appeasement as a marvelous opportunity.