US urges Philippines to lift ban on nationals working in Iraq

[floda]

MANILA (AFP) - The United States asked the Philippines to reconsider an order banning Filipinos from working in Iraq (news - web sites) put in place after a Filipino truck driver was held hostage by Islamic militants.

The hostage was later released after intense negotiations but the issue pushed the Philippines to withdraw its contingent from Iraq.

US envoy to Manila, Francis Ricciardone, stressed Tuesday that Washington was "not making any demands" about the Philippines foreign policy.

But he said there were some 4,000 Filipino workers in Iraq who were contributing to rebuilding the country and his government hoped that "others will be allowed to join them."

He said contractors hired by the US to transport food and supplies into Iraq from neighboring Kuwait wanted to hire Filipinos but were unable to do so.

more...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1521&ncid=731&e=8&u=/afp/20040831/pl_afp/philippines_iraq_us

[Ducks In A Row]

1. yeah, we need more non-US workers so they get kidnapped...

instead of ours.

decoys are important in our plan to steal the oil

[denverbill]

2. It's too bad that every single Iraqi already has a job.

Otherwise, they could just hire Iraqis to drive their own goddamned trucks. </sarcasm>

Jebus H Christ. The unemployment rate in Iraq is like 90%. Employed Iraqis have only 1/2 as much time to spend trying to kill Americans. Employed Iraqis have 1/10 as much reason to want to kill Americans.

[DulceDecorum]

3. The Fight for the Philippines

When Americans moved into the Philippines, they thought that they would be able to control Manila and that the local Filipino authorities would go along with this. The local Philippine force was led by a man named Emilio Aguinaldo, and Aguinaldo believed that the Americans, once they defeated the Spanish, would get out. So there was clearly a misunderstanding here. In January of 1899, Aguinaldo proclaimed a Filipino republic. But by that time, McKinley had decided that he had to annex all of the Philippines and, as a consequence, he sends US troops into some of the Filipino cities and in the first week of February of 1899 there's gunfire exchanged and bloodshed on both sides, and the Filipino insurrection is full blast. This was an extreme brutal war that the United States and the Filipinos fought between 1899 and 1902. It was a war of great brutality. On the one hand, Americans got this overseas empire and they felt very good about themselves. On the other hand, they became appalled at the price that they were going to have to pay in order to maintain this empire. McKinley had censored the news coming out of the Philippines, but he could not hide the fact that Americans had been told they would be able to occupy the Philippines with about 30,000 troops. Within a matter of months, McKinley had to send 60,000 troops and finally he had to send 120,000 troops. This is becoming very expensive. He could not hide the fact that of the brutality.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/1900/filmmore/reference/interview/lafeber_fightforphilipines.html

But that was then.
This is now.

[2Design]

4. why not hire iraqis........duh!!!!!

[Halliburton]

5. Why?

So they can get kidnapped and beheaded?