NY Times is down on the Philippines

The New York Times doesn't like the Philipine government's withdrawal of troops from Iraq in response to a terrorist threat to behead a Filipino hostage. Well, tough. Maybe the Filipinos recognise that there's nothing in Iraq worth putting their citizens in danger over, and maybe they also realise that they owe the U.S. nothing. After all, they were the victims of U.S. imperialism a century ago, when the U.S. brutally invaded and conquered the island, killing hundreds of thousands of Filipinos. To have them assist in the occupation of another hapless country alongside their former overlord would be too bizarre.