1 Countries such as Turkey might as well get on their knees and bare their necks. Make it easy and get it over with. Negotiating with terrorists is like setting out sugar for ants. Soon your house will be swarming with them. The most effective way to rid yourself of them is quick and lethal extermination.

2 Agreed, negotiating with terrorists is bad. There is a difference, however, between actually making real concessions to terrorists and just talking to them, and there's a fine line. Everybody tries to get their hostages back. Considering how much terrorism the US is creating in the world via its policies, it's hardly fair to ask the world to just sit back and let everybody be kidnapped and beheaded by madmen. France is typically pretty tough on terrorism because they've been dealing with it for a long longer than we have. (And rather than freak out and knee-jerk attack the first country that pops in their mind, they take a more comprehensive approach to reducing terrorism.) Even the US talks to terrorists, so this is nothing unique. Reagan talked to (and, yes, even negotiated with) terrorists. Bush told the Taliban, give up bin Laden or we attack. The Taliban may not be "terrorists" by the strictest definition but they certainly were nice and friendly with some people who were less than enthusiastic about Americana. And their country WAS terrorist-training-camp central. ("What? Afghanistan? We know nothing about it!")

3 Don't you remember this, Rusty? They have kidnapped lots of drivers from this company; mostly turks. With two of them, they lined up the trucks all the way from Baghdad to Kuwait to leave and they killed them anyway. They killed two before that. The turks who work for this trucking company have been picked out by the kidnappers quite a bit and they have killed each and every one even though several were supposed to have been released. So this time, they're saying they'll leave and hoping this group of ten will be released but even if they do leave, the Turks will die anyway. I'll try to go back and find out how many they've had from that same company but it's been quite a lot and quite a lot have been killed despite the fact that they were ready to pull out of Iraq, none of the Turkish hostages were ever released. I wonder what makes them think that this time is any different?? Yep, the journalists aren't free yet and they are blaming the US from holding up their release for they are in Fallujah, I believe, which we are bombing. They're using Hamas......unbelievable. ~C

4 I had read that the French journalists are now staying voluntarily with their captors and producing a documentary showing their side. At least M. Moore will finally have some competition.

5 What is the deal with the release of the Iraqi female scientist this morning? Are we trying to do a solid for Blair? Seems like really bad policy in play at the moment.

6 "It's not so bad when it's a private company, but it is bad. It's much worse when it's a government. I'm looking at you France and Spain" A government?, no, more than 10 millions of Spaniards who voted them , BTW you don't defeat terrorism attacking one or other country, is it more difficult than that :/ (France, Spain, Morocco and Argelia had been fighting against ETA for more than 30 years, and they haven't defeated it completely, although it has lost almost all his capacity). Terrorism is a real problem, like poverty, and these problems aren't resolved talking about "freedom, honour or pride", it is about eliminate poblation support on terrorism activities (real and effective solutions), something that hasn't been doing in Iraq. I really like what our president, Zapatero, said last night at UN General Assembly

7 Irk said "Considering how much terrorism the US is creating in the world via its policies, it's hardly fair to ask the world to just sit back and let everybody be kidnapped and beheaded by madmen. France is typically pretty tough on terrorism because they've been dealing with it for a long longer than we have." The United States is to blame for terrorism? The United States is to blame for people being kidnapped, killed, tortured, beheaded? I DON'T THINK SO. You going to blame all the other terrorist acts on the US, too? I DON'T THINK SO. Was Beslan the United States fault? I DON'T THINK SO. IT'S A GLOBAL WAR and every country, every citizen, every person on this globe has to stand up to terrorism - including us! France is tough on terrorism? You really need to face reality, Irk. ~C

8 "IT'S A GLOBAL WAR and every country, every citizen, every person on this globe has to stand up to terrorism - including us!" This is the problem, you see war where there is no war. The problem is a terrorism group called Al Qaeda, well the real problem are more or less 5.000 individuals trained by CIA during Soviet invasion of Afganistan. Are you going to use the army/navy with every country where this people hide themselves (in Europe too?, in Russia?), this is not the way terrorism is eliminated man There was one country who served as base of Al Qaeda training camps, Afganistan, and there was a regime who support them, yes we have to fight it, but please don't try to export this exceptional situation of that country to everyone else. Iraq has a dictatorial regime, that US supported some years ago, this regime hated US (why?, maybe the way US do business outside its frontiers), but they were no terrorism groups there (Sadam did not tolerate them, because Iraq was a non-religious country). Now, Bush (if he is reelected) will "free" Iran, and North Korea?, there is a problem, terrorism, and your president is using this problem to solve other problems partially (there are many countries in Africa that need to be freed, why not there?). Now there is a HUGE problem in Iraq, and sooner or later US will take off his troops of that country, why?, because it is the way US diplomacy works (don't blame me, just take a look to other similar situations on the past) How can we solve the problem of terrorism?, looking for radicalism islamist all over the world (schools, religious groups,...), and eliminating them. If Al Qaeda (well, groups that said to be working in the name of Al Qaeda) doesn't have so much support among middle class in many arab countries, there will be no Al Qaeda At the end, Al Qaeda (so much named by Mass Media), are two crazy people with money made from oil, Arab oil, which want to obtain power, just that!. Sometimes I think they have seen too much "Arab terrorism related" Hollywood films. And man, they are, how much?, 5.000?, well if you count supporters and anyoneelse 10.000.000?, how much are we?, 1.000.000.000?