Reaction from the Philippines

/ iraq / common /sense/
Teodoro C. Benigno responds to those that criticised the Philippine government's decisionto pull out the small Philippino contigent in Iraq, in order to save the life of Angelo de la Cruz, the Philippino captured by Iraqi guerillas.

"It is all very well for President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell to warn her that in pulling out its 51-man humanitarian contingent from Iraq, the Philippines was "sending the wrong signals" to terrorists. The argument goes that other members of the US-led "coalition of the willing" would be more vulnerable to attacks by Iraq’s blood-thirsty insurgents.Why? Because the Philippines chickened. This columnist’s tart reply to that is dammitohell – so what?

America and its dwindling allies in Iraq can very well take care of their intersts. After all, they violated the canons of international comity and international law by waging war on Iraq. Washington resurrected the evil of preemptive war and ignored the Security Council by "going it alone" in Iraq. They played God. And now that God has deserted them, they seek to bully and bamboozle small countries like the Philippines to stay put and lick Uncle Sam’s diminishing lollipop.

The hell we will."

He has quite a few damning things to say about the current government of his country as well...