The Philippines’ Appeaser-in-Chief summons up some courage — to direct at critics. From AFP:
Arroyo brushed off US criticism that she had played into the hands of militants and said she had no regrets about her decision.
“It won’t take more than three lines to summarise my case, and let me say them. One, I take responsibility. Two, I make no apologies. Three, I stuck to my oath,” she said….
Analysts said Arroyo had decided to act to avoid angering the estimated seven million Filipinos working abroad, a formidable constituency whose billions of dollars of remittances keep the economy afloat.
“I trust that our allies will come to understand that the Philippines is in a special circumstance unlike the US, Australia, Bulgaria and other countries,” Arroyo said, referring to other countries with troops in Iraq.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday added to previous US criticism of the troop withdrawal saying that “in effect the kidnappers were rewarded for kidnapping.”
“We were very disappointed in the actions of the Philippine government,” he said.
“I’m pleased that the Filipino gentleman was returned home safely, but I think a very high price was paid for the policy position that the Philippine government took.”
In his reaction, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday that “weakness is provocative.”