The United States is deploying 340 military engineers to build roads and water wells on a southern Philippine island stronghold of Muslim rebels linked to the al Qaeda network. The dispatch of the U.S. engineers to the Philippines will bring to about 1,000 the number of American troops deployed in the country's politically volatile south where Manila is fighting Muslim separatist groups and kidnap for ransom gangs. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said she had approved the deployment of the U.S. engineering team on Basilan in response to clamor from residents for more development and social projects. About 660 American soldiers are currently deployed in the country's south to train Filipino soldiers in counter terrorism and help defeat the Abu Sayyaf rebels holding a U.S. missionary couple and a Filipina nurse for more than 10 months on Basilan.
That's very nice. It accomplishes nothing but some local public relations and the expenditure of a few hundred thousand dollars, but it's very nice. |