A real pro life President...

The New York Times opines...

...President Arroyo deluded herself into thinking she could actually do something about the situation, and has now allowed the kidnappers to alter Filipino policy. One can understand the desire to save a life, but Manila's retreat will only place all other foreign nationals in Iraq in greater peril.

Really? What evidence is there to support that notion?

In fact, the willingness of other nations to sacrifice their citizens rather than negotiate with their captors did nothing at all to keep the Filipino hostage out of peril. It's only the willingness of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to accelerate the already scheduled withdrawal of her country's token force (if it wasn't in the papers, would anyone even know that the 51 Filipinos were gone?), a presence that was unpopular at home at any rate, in order to save the life of Angelo de la Cruz.

A President who places the life of a citizen above blind adherence to meaningless symbolism. What a concept!

The truth is, the people who sieze and murder hostages will do so without respect to the response. The notion that there's an appropriate 'one size fits all' response is ridiculous. The withdrawal of the Filipino forces from Iraq will have no substantive effect on the war one way or another. It will neither provoke nor deter future kidnappings and murders. The choice set before President Arroyo wasn't whether to encourage or discourage the behavior of madmen. It was to whether to prop up George Bush's pretense of an effective 'coalition' or protect the life of one of her citizens.

She chose life.

Good enough for me, and good for President Arroyo.