Pinoy troops are pulling out, and apparently Angelo de la Cruz is heading home. His family must be so happy; I wish I could say the same for the rest of the Philippines’ overseas workers in the Middle East.

Update: Oh look, he’s not heading home. But do not worry, those honorable, honorable Iraqi “militant” “insurgent” “freedom fighters” can always be trusted to keep their word, right? That’s why we’re obeying them!

• When one yields to blackmailers, they tend to keep coming back for more.
• The Philippines will reap this.
• I worry that the Philippines is about to learn a harsh lesson about paying the Dane-geld. (Actually, I wonder if the Dane-geld analogy is more applicable to the UN Oil for Food scam. And the antiwar folk wanted the UN to handle Iraqi liberation? ;)
• Mollycoddling Milksops of Manila. (Caveat: Malkin. What? Malkin is Filipina?! That’s horrible! ;)
• Nice work, Philippines. We’ll be sure to put you on speed dial right next to France, Spain and Dr. Kevorkian when we need help.
• Wala na talaga yong development aid. (Well we shouldn’t have been sending troops to Iraq with the motive of getting development aid or currying American favor; it’s supposed to be with the altruistic aim of helping to rebuild a broken country. Yup, that was it, wasn’t it? Of course. Riiight.)
• GMA’s decision may be a sign of withdrawal of confidence from the Bush government. (I’d agree if we had begun pullout as soon as it was evident that WMD presence and the Iraq-Al Qaeda link had been debunked, but to do it the way the Philippines did it cannot be interpreted in any way but as a response to terrorist pressure, and the fault for that lies squarely on the terrorists’ and GMA’s shoulders, not Bush’s or America’s.)
• Wages of Capitulation.
• Sipadan.