Reaction to the Philippine pull-out from Iraq has been polarized along the very lines that Washington has drawn. If you side with America, you accuse Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of 'selling out' the coalition and breaking its word. If you feel that America is the one that 'sold out' by waging an illegitimate war, you cheer the Philippines because it has undermined Washington's 'coalition' and Middle East strategy.

In fact it's neither. It is true that the Philippines has given yet another green light to terrorists holding foreign workers to ransom and it is true that the Philippines had given its word to George W Bush that it would stay the course-and accepted a great deal of aid in the process.

But there are four reasons why this decision cannot be seen so simply. The Philippines had a special anguish here that in all the hoopla has not been mentioned. Eight years ago, a Filipina maid, Flor Contemplacion, was hanged in Singapore for murder. Put aside the rights and wrongs, there has seldom been such an outpouring of grief and outrage as that which poured out on the streets of Manila in reaction.

At the time, in fact the Philippines was coming up in the world very rapidly, under the reform presidency of Fidel V Ramos. Until then, however, the Philippines' image in the world was all too set by its contributions of maids and laborers. All the more reason to resent what looked like high-handed treatment, meted out by Singapore's courts-as the Philippines became a fast-growing exporter of IT and chips. Behind Angelo dela Cruz's profile there always was, in the Philippine unconscious, the shadow of Flor. The fact that the Philippines gets a tenth of its GNP from its overseas workers, many of these in the Middle East, adds further resonance here.

There is a second reason. The importance of the Philippine fight against terrorism in Mindanao vastly overshadows whatever the country could contribute to a 'coalition of the willing' in Iraq itself. It is true that Manila has botched its counter-terror efforts again and again, with scandals arising from its own military's corrupt collusion with Islamic terrorists; but anything distracting Malacanang from getting its act together for the struggle for Mindanao-and Angelo's neck was certainly here at issue-needed to be put aside. The Philippines' contingent in Iraq had, at most, symbolic meaning. The struggle for Mindanao is of the essence, it's one of the most important fronts in the war on terror. It's substance.

The third reason overwhelms the others. Manila joined the 'war on terrorism' in good faith but Washington changed the terms of the war when it struck out against Iraq. Polls show that Filipinos no less than Americans didn't buy the rationale for the Iraqi invasion. It is a war gone sour, because it was entered on a false premise.

Filipino anxiety

For the Philippine administration to hold out against the kidnappers on behalf of a war effort that has no support would be unrealistic. The only reason Manila hesitated at all was because of its anxiety over Washington's reaction-given its need for continued American aid in Mindanao; and given the always slightly paranoic Filipino anxiety that Washington can retaliate in awesome and even mysterious ways. But the cavalier way America started the war and the contempt for multilateralism that it showed gives Washington very little leverage now to compel its allies to stay the course in Iraq.

Finally, it was always doubtful that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had her heart in the war on terrorism American-style. She was profoundly affected by the policies and style of her father, the first Philippine president who tried to chart an independent course for his country. It is worth recalling that it was only with his presidency, in the 1960s, that the Philippines changed its independence day from America's-4 July-to its own.

When she became president, in a way widely criticized for insufficient legitimacy, she was not dealing from strength. She needed help from wherever she could get it, and the blank check George Bush offered was critical at the time.

Now her election for a six year term, won fair-and-square without any question of its legitimacy, gives her a chance to develop her own style and strategy to project Philippine interests. Her highest priority has to be to get an economic policy together but not far behind that is the need to come to terms with the Mindanao problem: implementing the previous accords and ending the violence. She simply wouldn't have had a chance to start had she bowed to Washington's pressure and almost surely faced her nation's wrath over Angelo's fate. She did the right thing.

W SCOTT THOMPSON, an adjunct professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Boston, is a former assistant secretary of state for the Ronald Reagan administration. He also served as Donald Rumsfeld's assistant at the Pentagon in 1975-76. He lives in Bali and Washington DC.