Things to remember about this development:
Filipino Workers Barred From Going to Iraq
CAIRO, Egypt – Armed Iraq (news – web sites) insurgents threatened to kill a Filipino hostage if his country does not withdraw from Iraq, according to a video that aired Wednesday. The Philippines responded by barring Filipino workers from traveling to Iraq.
In the video broadcast by Pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television, three armed and masked men stood behind the seated hostage, threatening to kill him if the Philippines doesn’t pull out within three days.
1). There is a human being who is a hostage, and he is quite likely going to be dead by the end of the week.
2). Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (like Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero), is the one with the responsibility (duly given to her by her constituents) of determining what is and is not proper policy for her country – not anybody here, whether on the Right or the Left. If she decides to decrease, increase or keep steady the official Filipino presence in the Middle East, it will be for reasons that seem best to her, and it is her right to make that decision. If she decides to make permanent the current moratorium of new contract workers to Iraq, that is the sort of judgment call that she was elected to make (as would be a decision to relax said moratorium), and I sincerely doubt that anyone reading this can fully appreciate her situation.
3). At the moment, it is unclear exactly what the Filipino government is planning to do in the long term, but they are neither agreeing to the terrorists’ demands nor carrying on as if nothing has happened. We’ll know what they’re going to do when they tell us. In the meantime, I suggest that we not generalize. Every blipping foreign event for the last three years has been endlessly sifted and analyzed; it’s a wonder that we’re not all nearsighted from all the peering.
4). As always, my sympathies and prayers to the hostage and his family. I am glad to see that apparently Cpl. Hassoun is safe; I sincerely recommend that those who have taken hostage the unidentified Filipino worker release him unharmed, as well.
Moe
Every blipping foreign event for the last three years has been endlessly sifted and analyzed; it’s a wonder that we’re not all nearsighted from all the peering.
I think I often am.