Are the tides truly turning or is this merely a game the Philippine government is playing with the terrorists? If it is indeed a game, I wouldn’t want to be living in that particular region in the weeks & months ahead, but if their decision to pull troops does in fact have a peaceful agenda, then it’s truly a beautiful thing. For God’s sake, one innocent man’s life has been saved. Don’t look at it like the man’s life will be sacrificed in the name of peace & future wellbeing of the human race (and blah blah blah). That is BS and the people who spit out such rhetoric know it in their hearts. If these people were asked to give up their own lives in the name of this type of questionable peace that attempts to conquer and then instill peace in the hearts & minds of people they conquer, would they do it? Who knows. All I know is that they would have to think about it for a second.

Also, by pulling their troops from the region, you must account for the lives of the aid workers—those lives are now spared from bombings, beheadings, etc etc. So technically, you are not just saving one life. Think about it: everything starts off slowly. Before a flood happens, there is always first little bit of rain, then a little more and eventually you got a bloody flood. This is the type of attitude that will end terrorism—forward thinking & going against the trend. The current trend is trying to root out terrorism, but how can you possibly root out the thoughts of poor people who are prepared to strap on a bomb and blow themselves up in the name of God. It’s impossible (actually not impossible, b/c you can technically kill everyone off until the people who remain are too afraid to commit acts of terrorism). Let’s face it, the tracks we’re on at the moment is long and murderously wrong.