America v. Terrorists: a historyIt was interesting to watch the reaction of the USA (and buddies the UK and Australia) to the Spanish and Filipino withdrawls from Iraq following, respectively, the Madrid rail bombings and the kidnapping (and threatened beheading) of Filipino Angelo de la Cruz. There was, pretty much across the board condemnation and disapproval from the chief partners in the 'Coalition of the Willing' for the Spanish and Phillipines governments. For example, the Washington Post editorialised...

"Manila's act of cowardice... proves to terrorists that kidnapping and executing innocent civilians can successfully pressure government to cave in to their demands."

In Australia, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was reported as urging the Philippines to not withdraw their troops, arguing...

...that it would increase the chance of hostages being taken, saying that no country could allow terrorists to change its foreign policy.

Fair enough, I suppose, but this article is interesting, detailing several instances of where the USA has backed down to terrorists. Namely...

• Giving arms to Iran to free hostages taken at the Iranian US Embassy in 1979.
• The withdrawl of troops from Lebanon after the car-bombing of army barracks in 1983.
• The withdrawl of troops from Somalia after the 'Black Hawk Down' incident in 1993 that left 18 US soldiers dead (not to mention the many hundred Somalians).

Obviously, times and circumstances are different, but it seems that withdrawing one's own troops from a situation not of their own making is ok for the USA, but not so acceptable from anyone else.

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