Encouraging terrorists

The Phillipine military has left Iraq in a body. Totally abandoned the "Coalition of the Willing". Left a major gap in the flank of the occupation troops. All fifty one soldiers. Only good thing about it, it was pretty easy from a logistical sense. Spain, Nicaragua, P.I. One is inclined to ask just how willing some of these coalition partners really were. Given that most of them have a few hundred troops at most, and those forbidden to engage in actual combat, I have a vague notion that these partners are going along with the United States desire for some window dressing in hope of gaining some present or future favors from Uncle Sam. Or, seeing how vindictive the current administration can be, perhaps these partners are simply hoping to avoid an unpleasant payback.
Now the Phillipine government is certainly coming in for a lot of criticism for their departure. The U. S. State Department (among others) says that if you do what the terrorists want, you'll only encourage more terrorist acts. I guess somebody must have been doing quite a lot in the last year or so to encourage them, since there is more terrorism going on than you can shake a stick at lately. Perhaps dropping bombs on people doesn't make friends so much as piss them off. That's what the Iraqis keep saying anyway. The Palestinians say that too. And they certainly do seem to have an unlimited supply of terrorists in their midst.
I would claim there is a connection, but the president, who claims he has more intelligence than me, says that's not so. It's all that evil going around out there that's to blame.
I'll stick to my theory.