Bush trip to Asia will focus on terror

WASHINGTON — President Bush leaves Wednesday on a Pacific trip that combines a regional APEC leaders summit with the most extensive swing an American leader has taken through Southeast Asia since the Vietnam War.

The timing is no coincidence. With visits to the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia, the president will sweep through a region that trails only Iraq and Afghanistan as a U.S. priority in the global anti-terror campaign.

"This is the second front in the war on terrorism," said Derek Mitchell, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

"It's not in the spotlight, but it's in the wings," said Mitchell, "because of its large Muslim population, its porous borders and its failed societies and weak institutions."

Southeast Asia, which also includes countries like Malaysia and Brunei that are not on Bush's itinerary, takes in nearly 300 million Muslims, almost a third of the world's Islamic population.

A small number have joined ideological ranks with the likes of al-Qaida and other militant organizations in the crosshairs of U.S.-led counterterrorism activities.

Bush has looked to the region's leaders for help in ferreting out, prosecuting and interrogating the ringleaders of a movement that has long had a goal of carving out an independent Islamic state.

Some have helped more than others, but all have seen it largely in their interest to join forces with Bush in his anti-terror campaign.

"These are all countries that are seen as threatened by extremists and cooperating with us," said a U.S. diplomat. "Obviously they have different agendas and their own political inhibitions."

Bush arrives in Tokyo on Friday, then journeys Saturday to Manila for an eight-hour stay hosted by President Gloria Arroyo, a stalwart partner in Bush's anti-terror campaign.

Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Bush administration marked the southern islands of the Philippines archipelago as a hotbed of militant Islamic groups loosely aligned with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization.

Some 1,200 U.S. troops, including about 150 special forces, have operated off and on there, helping to train and equip Philippine forces to combat militant organizations like the Abu Sayyad group.