Philippines withdraw from Iraq, agree or disagree???

I think it was a horrible decision. Look at what the Islamo-fascists are trying to get away with now.

"(CNN) -- Australia and Italy received warnings Saturday through a statement purportedly from militants linked to al Qaeda that demanded those countries withdraw troops from Iraq.

The message was posted on an Islamist Web site and was signed by a group identifying itself as Islamic Unification (Islamic Tawhid), an al Qaeda-linked organization in Europe.

To Italy, which has about 2,700 troops in Iraq, the militants warned "you will have columns of car bombs shaking your cities," if the government maintains its military presence in Iraq.

The warning also addressed the Australian government, which has about 880 military personnel and another 120 security forces in Iraq.

"We ask you to leave Iraq," the message said. "If not, we will turn your homeland into a bloodbath. ... We will shake the ground under your feet as we did in Indonesia, and the car bombs will not stop coming, God willing.

"Your fate will be like the Americans if you don't answer our demands. We will turn your day and night into hell.

"We can harm your interests in Islamic and Arab countries. Follow the path of the Philippines and Spain. This is the path that will give you security."

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Sunday said Canberra was taking the threat seriously, but would not be backing down.

"What it (the threat) does is, it reminds us we have to be absolutely determined in the face of the threats of terrorists to make sure we don't give in to those threats," Downer told Nine Network television.

Downer said the Spanish troop withdrawal and the Philippines decision to pull out troops to save the life of a Filipino hostage had encouraged terrorists to continue threats.

"It is very important we send a strong message that we will not be threatened by terrorist groups. Terrorist groups will not determine the policy of the Australian government or the Australian people," he said.

Spain pulled its 1,300 troops from Iraq last month. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the deadly terror attacks on commuter trains in Madrid that killed 190 people and wounded 2,000 in March.

Election analysts say the bombings and the government's subsequent reaction were factors in the election, but there is debate over how big a role they played in the outcome.

Some say the terrorists won by persuading Spain to vote out Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, a key U.S. ally in the Iraq war, though others say Aznar's insistence on blaming Basque separatists, not Islamist terrorists, tipped the electorate against him.

The Philippines withdrew its 51 humanitarian troops a month early to secure the release of a Filipino hostage in Iraq.

There has been a wave of abductions of foreigners by insurgents in Iraq.

Earlier Saturday, gunmen seized the chief of a state-owned construction company.

Meanwhile, negotiators worked doggedly to free a senior Egyptian diplomat and seven foreign truck drivers abducted by insurgents."

Keep in mind that these threats are not from the Iraqi citizenry(who we are there to protect), but from a faction of terrorists(the reason the citizens need protection). Sounds like the Aussies will do the right thing.

Mistake... they only made a door open for more to be taken .... and showing that there methods work and are acceptable.....

i seriously think that this has p!ssed and appeased the wrong people. the withdrawal of the philippine humanitarian contigency was going to happen anyway (in a gradual manner). now, the filipino government tried to kill two birds with one stone. i think that one life is one too many, no matter the cost. but with the declaration of the pull out because of the abduction is a wrong, WRONG decision. the allies are p!ssed, these terrorists are running amok, and the government looks weak. the fate of the one should never determine the fate of the many.

fact is people get abducted everyday. people die everyday. and it's not like these workers do not know the dangers. they have been warned, much like nick berg. this is what they chose. and its not like 50 people are gonna make matters that much better anyway, but under these circumstances, the philippine government should've not said they were gonna pull out because of this one guy. pull them out because we want our countrymen home, not fighting a war by some guy who started it for all the wrong reasons.

and yes i am filipino, pure blooded.

Thanks for posting Burly. I was curious to see what Filipinos thought of the decision.

it's all good... but i can only speak for myself. and it bugged the sh!t outta me. it was front page here in the OC. and i was like "oh, f*ck no, she (the president) didn't!!!"

I think Dubya should send his two daughters to Iraq to help fill some of the empty spaces left by the Filipinos.

Thats why we have a volunteer army 😄

Why would you say that Tex? Seriously, do you hate Bush so bad you want his kids to die or get raped? Whats up with the mods around here lately?

This is a serious topic to me, and its got nothing to do with Bush. I think the Philippine President made a horrible decision that the free world will be paying for. Look at the article in the first post, theyve already gotten more confident.

of course they should withdraw, they shouldn't be there in the first place

the US created the mess, they should clear it up themselves too
as simple as it gets; not defying the UN and then asking them to help rebuilding it later on cause they can't

Well said Yerssot!!

Creechuur>Yes, If he believes in he cause so bad, he should have to send his children over there to die, with other peoples children.
If a politician wants to go to war, they should believe in the cause so much that they would send their kids to go fight for it.

Like Yerss said, WE screwed Iraq up, and Bullied other countries into going to war with us. We should have to fix it.

Ever notice how all the countries that are lending us aid, depend of the US to keep their economy stable?? We made an example out of France, They were wise and didn't go to war, now we practicly have and embargo on them. The US is a big bully.

We have a volunteer army. No one sends their kids to war, the kid has to make a conscious decision to join the US armed forces.

We're not at war with Iraq, you people listen to mass media too much. We're trying to free the citizens of Iraq from ruthless dictators and Muslim terrorists. We made mistakes in the past and got in bed with a potential enemy to fight a common enemy, but we did not tell Saddam's regime that it was ok to fill over 250 mass graves with over 300,000 innocent people.

You say we're the Big Bully, I say we're the Big Dog.

Wait wait wait.
I listen to the mas media too much???

"We're trying to free the citizens of Iraq from ruthless dictators and Muslim terrorists. We made mistakes in the past and got in bed with a potential enemy to fight a common enemy, but we did not tell Saddam's regime that it was ok to fill over 250 mass graves with over 300,000 innocent people."
Uhh what the hell is that if not the crap the Mass media is shoving down our throats?
Let me spell it out for you.
We----Don't----Give----A---Crap----About-----The----Iraqi----People.
sorry if that comes as a shock.
We want control of their oil supply. Thats it. We don't wanna have to deal with the probelms that would occur for the US if Iraq controled its own oil.
See, The Iraqi government, along with Iran I believe, used to sell oil in US dollars. But they were going to change to their own currency. Now we didn't like that, because we didn't wanna deal with the constant fluxuations of the exchange rate. So what we did, was pick the weakest country, and come up with a bogus excuse to invade them, and make and example out of them so the other big oil countrys would keep trading oil in dollars.

g. bush had the chance to oust saddam during the first gulf war, but what did he do? he passed on the opporunity. now hi sosn feels somehow he is obliged to do what his daddy couldn't. tptmanno is right... the US doen't give a rat's a$$ for the liberation of iraq.

they didn't do that in the first war cause it would be too expensive... makes you think why his lil son did it huh 😉

and I whole heartly agree
thinking the US liberated Iraq is quite wrong to put it mildly... who failed the claim to get liberated?
the US assumed they wanted this and assumed they had the power to invade a country (which they were NOT at war at!) and bring down the regime
did they had the power to arrest Saddam? no! because they weren't the policeforce of Iraq nor citizens of the country

its loooooooppyyyyy, loooooooooooopyyyyy!!!!

this so called liberation has cost the US so much money. it has dug the US in so much debt, in which bill worked so hard to at least have a little stability.

i have seen these on car stickers... funny...

"some village in texas is missing their idiot"

"anyone who can be rendered unconcious by a soft pretzel does not deserve to be leader of the free world"

"no one died when clinton lied"

this last one seems fitting...

"how many lives per gallon?"

I've seen some of those!

Originally posted by Tptmanno1
Wait wait wait.
I listen to the mas media too much???

"We're trying to free the citizens of Iraq from ruthless dictators and Muslim terrorists. We made mistakes in the past and got in bed with a potential enemy to fight a common enemy, but we did not tell Saddam's regime that it was ok to fill over 250 mass graves with over 300,000 innocent people."
Uhh what the hell is that if not the crap the Mass media is shoving down our throats?
Let me spell it out for you.
We----Don't----Give----A---Crap----About-----The----Iraqi----People.
sorry if that comes as a shock.
We want control of their oil supply. Thats it. We don't wanna have to deal with the probelms that would occur for the US if Iraq controled its own oil.
See, The Iraqi government, along with Iran I believe, used to sell oil in US dollars. But they were going to change to their own currency. Now we didn't like that, because we didn't wanna deal with the constant fluxuations of the exchange rate. So what we did, was pick the weakest country, and come up with a bogus excuse to invade them, and make and example out of them so the other big oil countrys would keep trading oil in dollars.

If we wanted to control the oil supply it would have been way easier to deal with Saddam!!!!... do you even realize this isn't the first time we have liberated countries before? .... Cuba for example... Nicaragua?.... The reason we didn't invade Iraq in the first was because we were too afraid to lose UN support... the UN are a bunch of pawns.

maybe you three should look in the mirror for stupidity... or open a text book and learn about the things you criticize and taunt.

It not the US problem, you forget this is the worlds aiglment... if you want to live in a buble and relive WW1 and WW2 go ahead and kep living in your fantasy world.

Cuba and Nicaragua?
You mena the Bay of Pigs in Cuba? Cuz that really didn't help anybody. Just got a whole bunch of Us marines slaughtered.

Nicaragua. Yea that was effective. Ever wonder why people hate Regan? Well thats why.

Yes I realize this is not the first time we've "liberated" a country. Its not the fist time we've ****ed up a country as well. We've done that countless time on preserving "Democracy."

I don't wanna relive WW2. But the way were are heading, thats whats gonna happen, with the US as the Nazi's