For me, the issue isn't whether these little brushfire wars will lead us into a quagmire - the issue is whether we ought to get involved in someone else's brushfire war. I'm somewhat uncomfortable with U.S. troops getting involved with what appears to be a homegrown insurgency. The Philippine army has been fighting insurgents for thirty years and made no progress. In addition to Muslim militants in the south there are also communists (New Peoples’ Army) in the north, not to mention various and sundry warlords everywhere in between. The last time we got involved in Southeast Asia we stayed for ten years and lost. :m: Peace.
Of course America should step in. The Filipino government is extremly corrupt. The president doesn't hide or admit the fact that for money, she allowed muslim terrorists to kill american hostages. America was going to step in to help rescue the hostages, but she would not allow us to because she was confident that American presence would impede the local Filipino military's search efforts for the hostages. America sure would impede, but not the search efforts. The president's intentions for keeping america out of it lie in the fact that she was paid off by the muslim terrorists to keep America at bay. Corrupt military generals conducted the fakest search on camera to prove that they were really doing their best to find the hostages, and they didn't need outside assistance. The hostages are now dead.