The second front on the war against terrorism is opening up. The United States has dispatched military advisers to the Philippines to assist that country's armed forces as they fight a Muslim extremist group that is alleged to have ties to al-Qaeda. While the move was expected, it is not without risks. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has just concluded her first uneasy year in office. She needs peace and stability to truly defeat the insurgency operating in the southern Philippines. The U.S. presence could help her achieve that objective; or it could create another division in an already fractious country.
Even before the defeat of the Taliban, debates were being held about the next stage in the war against terrorism. For many, the proper focus was the rebuilding of Afghanistan. Yet it was clear from the start that the U.S. was not going to declare victory when the Taliban government left Kabul. The U.S. had to open a second front to convince the world that terrorism, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were a continuing threat. The fragility of the international coalition that fought in Afghanistan raised the threshold of acceptability for any second front. The easiest way to achieve that was to have a government invite the U.S. to help it eliminate a domestic threat. In this situation, the most obvious candidate was Manila.
The target is Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist group that is holding hostages, including two Americans. The group is reported to have as many as 2,000 members, some of whom have trained in Afghanistan, and claims to be fighting to establish an Islamic state in the southern Philippines. Abu Sayyaf has been linked to al-Qaeda in the past. While Abu Sayyaf cloaks its actions in the rhetoric of Islamic independence, however, it has behaved more like a criminal gang in recent years. It seems to place a higher priority on kidnapping tourists than fighting for a state.