Putting one's own life, or in the case of governments one's fellow countryfolk in harm's way to save the lives of others is considered a noble gesture. If this is so, how do we consider the act of doing the exact opposite? If, as is widely suspected, the Italian government saved the lives of two of their citizen with a $1 million payoff, is this not exactly what has been done? The demise of two young innocent Italians has been deferred, but the cost of deferment undoubtedly will be paid in countless more lost lives.
As Iraq is pulled apart at the seams, the cycle of violence and relentless poverty can only lead more to be pulled into this game. It seems that a hierarchy of hostage taking is at work, with opportunist criminal gangs grabbing foreigners, and then assessing whether to handle the ransom themselves, or take the less risky option of selling their captor to a political or religious faction keen to convert their prey into valuable airtime on the news networks of the world.
Zarqawi's network of bloodthirsty zealots threaten to overshadow Al-Qaeda. Although the Americans are keen not to blur issues and throw Zarqawi into the Al-Qaeda pigeonhole, the truth is more complicated. Zarqawi comes from a poor background, and sees his own organisation, Al Tawhid wa'l Jihad as a Jordanian alternative to Al Qaeda. Although he was behind the Madrid bombings, his principal battleground is the Middle East. His personal beheading of at least two Americans in Iraq shows he is a hands-on character, eager to lead from the front. One can imagine this attracting more support from young potential terrorists in the future than a man hiding in a cave releasing the occasional rousing speech by video.
The fact that he likes to star in his own videos also hints at the man's priorities. He is primarily a propagandist, looking to use the spotlight to rouse other Muslims to join the fray. When Eugene Armstrong, Jack Hensley and Ken Bigley were abducted, the demands to release all women held in Iraqi prisons were clearly only for show. Their first demands were to release women from prisons where none were held. Having killed their first two captives, they can now squeeze as much media attention as they like from their remaining hostage. It is also no accident that they have left Ken Bigley to last. As with Spain, Zarqawi sees that there is sufficient anti-war feeling in the UK to potentially cause serious political damage to the British government.
Tony Blair is of course right to stand firm against this, and it is to Michael Howard's credit that he has stated in no uncertain terms his support for Blair's stance. If only all governments had this far-sighted moral fortitude. It is nothing but ironic that the continued incarceration of two women in Iraq will almost certainly lead to the death of one innocent man, while the release of two others will put many more in line for the same fate.