WILL THEY, OR WON'T THEY?

Reuters claims that the Philippines has caved, and now says it will pull out "as soon as possible" in order to save the life of their hostage. But that doesn't quite give the entire picture.

Because look what's in paragraph eight.

Seguis gave no date for a withdrawal, and Philippine officials declined comment. Foreign Ministry officials in Manila were holding an emergency meeting.

Which may be why MSNBC frames the story completely differently. To them, "as soon as possible" didn't mean "ASAP" it meant, " a loose, vague and determinent phrase we can use to throw you a bone without really committing to anything in particular."

The Philippines said Tuesday that it would withdraw its troops from Iraq “as soon as possible” in response to kidnappers’ demands. Philippine officials were quoted as saying they expected the hostage to be released later Tuesday.

In a statement he read on the Arab-language news channel Al-Jazeera, Deputy Foreign Minister Rafael Seguis said his country’s “humanitarian forces” would be pulled “in response to your request.”

But it was unclear if such a pullout would come ahead of the Philippines’ scheduled departure of Aug. 20. When questioned by the newscaster as to when that would be, Seguis said only that a pullout would come according to the government’s commitments.