Risk

Quote of the moment: Kerrang single of the year - Last Train Home - Lost Prophets (Sigh!)

I can't remember whether I actually mentioned that before, when I first heard it, or not. But anyway: super stuff, what what? It's such a brilliant song... I can lose myself in it, just stand in the middle of my room, shut my eyes and feel my skin tingling every time I play it...

On a totally unrelated train of thought (no pun intented :p)... The guy who has been taken hostage in Iraq, Kenneth Bigley. There's been a huge fuss about it - his family have been on the news non-stop. And they've been complaining about the lack of intervention from Tony Blair, when negotiation with terrorists is quite simply NOT DONE. It's blindingly obvious - give in, and more hostages will be taken, and more demands made. They've been complaining about how the Americans should let the Iraqis decide what to do with the female prisoners that the hostage takers want freed (they are in American-run jails) when the Iraqi prime minister has already said there will be no negotiation. Now the British goverment has even printed leaflets asking people in Baghdad for help in finding him - more than done for anyone else - but still they whine. FFS! He chose to go there! He actually volunteered to go there, and when given the option of returning after the kidnappings became rampant, he refused. Quite simply, his only real chance from the point of being taken hostage was that somehow a patrol would find him, either on a random house-to-house search or while he was being taken to the safe-house. Appealing to the kidnappers won't do anything except strengthen their position and reinforce their belief in their methods. He was, in effect, a dead-man-walking from the time of kidnap.

If it was a British soldier taken hostage, what then? Would there be all this fuss? No - it's a risk of the job they went out to Iraq to do. They didn't volunteer - they were sent. But it's the job they chose to do, and that risk is inherent. Bigley actually voluntarily placed himself at risk. When his luck ran out, it isn't the fault of Tony Blair or George Bush - they didn't send him there. He went of his own accord. There were failings by the security contractor - guards didn't turn up. They might be blamed for the kidnapping, but he still placed himself at risk.

It's noticeable how the opposition leaders have been keen to avoid this topic. Charles Kennedy, interviewed on Channel 4 news because of the Liberal Democrat conference, was asked repeatedly - what do you think of Mr Blair's attitude to this situation? The Bigleys think it's crap - Kennedy ducked the question because he doesn't want to praise his opponent on live national television. Michael Howard too has issued a small statement on the impossibility of acceding to the demands of terrorists, and then stayed off the subject.

Something must be done, but the emphasis must be on disposing of Al-Zarqawi and his followers, not making deals with them.