Once again, Al-Jazeera is airing video tape of an innocent victim pleading for her life. And in what has become the standard procedure, her captors are demanding that troops be removed from Iraq in exchange for her life. This won’t happen, of course, and she’ll end up being murdered, very likely in a gruesome beheading. So far, they have made these same demands of American troops, Japanese troops, Polish troops…
Now, it seems to be perfectly logical that no country could comply with these demands. In fact, compliance would simply validate this method to reach their means, and they would continue doing it. I suggest that the proper response would be the exact opposite. What would have been the effect, do you think, if the response was instant and unequivocal? “We received notice today that the terrorists have demanded that we remove our troops immediately. In response, we’ll be shipping 5,000 additional troops to the region today.” Every single time these animals kidnap some poor innocent person (most of whom, by the way, are simply there to try to help the Iraqi people), the country faced with the demand to remove troops immediately sends an additional 5,000 soldiers. To me, that seems the proper response to these animals.