人質問題をきっかけにしたフィリピンのイラクよりの撤退ーその評価

人質問題をきっかけにしたフィリピンのイラクよりの撤退。国内での支持基盤が弱いアロヨ政権の国内向けの決断と受け止める向きが日本のマスコミには多いが、この寄稿は、より深い考察を行っていると思う。日本の民主党他の野党もこういったアプローチができないのだろうか。

http://www.iht.com/articles/530822.html

Arroyo's burst of defiant nationalism
by Philip Bowring IHT Saturday, July 24, 2004

For many in the outside world - and the United States, Britain and Australia in particular - the Philippine decision to bring forward the withdrawal of its contingent in Iraq to save the life of a contract worker was a surrender to terror.
→そうですね、これが出発点。
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But for the majority of Filipinos it was something else entirely. First, it was an assertion of national sovereignty. No amount of derision by the former colonial ruler, seen by many to have never shed its "little brown brother" attitudes, could deter the government from following what it thought to be in the national interest of a country whose main export is human talent.
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Secondly it was an illustration that in a democratic country where almost every family has a close relative working somewhere overseas, the fate of those workers is of huge political significance. For once, populist instincts and the perceived interests of the poorer classes triumphed over the instincts of a ruling elite reluctant to offend America.
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The desire to save dela Cruz was also a reflection of the widespread belief that the Philippines should never have an official commitment in Iraq in the first place. There were limits to which even Filipinos would go in doing the West's dirty work.
フィリピンの主体性を尊重する書き方ですが、汚い仕事というあたり、イラク戦争そのものへの筆者のスタンスを示すものとも言えましょう。
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Arroyo's willingness to accede to US. requests was a sign of her weakness at the time. The government needed money; Arroyo, facing an election, needed a state visit to the United States.
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The nation still needs the money, but Arroyo has now been elected. Her position at home has been strengthened and she saw it as in her interest, at the beginning of a six-year term, to build on nationalist credentials which she inherited from her late father, President Diosdedo Macapagal, but which had been badly dented in the previous two years.
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All this may be short-sighted, serving only to lose needed economic help for Manila while doing nothing to improve the opportunities and risk levels for the million or so Filipino workers in the Middle East. However, it has been viewed with some sympathy in an East Asia which at best has been reluctant to commit to Iraq, and in some cases has been highly critical of the Philippines' perceived subservience. Only the overriding importance of the North Korea nuclear issue keeps Korean forces in Iraq.
フィリピンの新聞以外の論評は目にしていませんが、アジアの新聞では同情的なところが結構あるのでしょうか。
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Manila and some of its neighbors have also been irritated by what they see as Western obsessions with the supposed links between the loose regional militant grouping Jemaah Islamiyah and Al Qaeda. Arroyo was widely criticized for allowing US. forces to be based in the southern island of Basilan as part of President George W. Bush's "war on terror."
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For the Philippines, the Moro Islamic Liberation front insurgency in Mindanao/Sulu is a far more important issue which has long threatened national integrit. Yet the West is seen to be interested only if connections with Al Qaeda can be claimed.
これは重要なところかもしれません。アルカイダとつながりのあるところしか叩いてくれない、という風に受け止められていると米国との同盟、協調の持つ意味は薄れます。
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The Philippines also feels that its military ties with Washington have been of no help in deterring Chinese encroachment into areas of the South China Sea close to the Philippines.
重要な点ですね。

The Philippine withdrawal from Iraq is partly an ill-considered burst of gut nationalism, of a sort which occurs periodically in a country which at other times fawns on its former ruler. Resentment coexists with the knowledge that tens of millions want to migrate to the United States, but only a few will succeed.
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But Arroyo's action can also be seen in the context of a much wider resentment at the way countries have been dragged into the Iraq imbroglio.
この２つのパラグラフがまとめでしょうか。考えさせるものがありました。