World Watch

Manila Gives In
When Filipino truck driver Angelo de la Cruz was kidnapped by insurgents outside Fallujah on July 8 and threatened with decapitation unless the Philippines' 51 peacekeepers were pulled from Iraq, Manila was presented with an all-too-familiar dilemma. (Similar demands have been made of Japan, South Korea and Italy.) Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last week chose to recall her country's troops a month before they were scheduled to leave, and may have saved De la Cruz, 46, a father of eight. But she damaged relations with Washington and may well have encouraged more kidnapping of...