WAR: U.S. Warns Philippines Against Giving In To Terrorist

A senior Bush administration official has warned the Philippines not to give in to terrorist demands to speed up their plans in withdrawing their troops from Iraq. The Khaled bin al-Walid Brigade (Islamic Army in Iraq) is demanding that Manila have their troops out of Iraq by July 20, or the kidnapped Filipino truck driver will be beheaded.



The Philippine government only has 51 soldiers in Iraq, on what is mostly a humanitarian mission. Still the Islamic Army in Iraq will declare this as a victory. Spain was under similar stress earlier this year after the Madrid train bombings. As other nations, no matter how insignificant their role may seem, drop off the list of coalition partners, the terrorist will only become encouraged to commit more kidnappings, and bombings to further their goals.

The main concern of course is the upcoming elections in the U.S. this November. The U.S. is undoubtedly concerned, that terrorist will try similar tactics to persuade the U.S. to change it's posture toward the middle east. These terrorist must not be given the assumption, that their actions can influence government decisions.

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[edit on 13-7-2004 by dbates]

The title is a bit misleading. I think "warn" is not exactly what the US is doing here, this is more of an "advice" not a warning. A warning denotes to do something, or else.