The policy of kidnapping and holding Western citizens hostage began as an attempt to get the coalition forces to withdraw from Iraq. At present, however, all sorts and conditions of men are being kidnapped and held hostage — regardless of their nationalities or political beliefs. What is notable is that this policy is used as a means of getting into the international media as quickly as possible. Kidnappers are shown on TV, their heads covered in black and knives, swords and artillery in their hands. Hostages are seen as well, trying to manipulate their home governments into agreeing to the kidnappers’ demands and thus securing their release.
Bassam is a 10-year-old boy whose kidnappers began negotiations with his father that lasted a month; the negotiations were all about the money the kidnappers were demanding. In the end, Bassam was released after the demands had dropped from $100,000 to only $5,000. No one knows or can even estimate how many Iraqis have been kidnapped or been in situations in which a ransom was demanded for their release.
If kidnapping non-Iraqis was initially a method to frighten the occupiers and invaders, then what does the kidnapping of Iraqi children? Or is kidnapping a mere method used to get what one wants? Regardless of the answers, all this is taking place in the absence of security in Iraq and despite the presence of the occupying coalition forces. Even Arab truck drivers have fallen into the hands of kidnappers. The Jordanian relatives of one hostage agreed to the kidnappers’ demands and organized protest marches in support of the Iraqi resistance.
If this particular insanity is the result of a war that is destroying a country and its people, then what can possibly be said of Hussein Ali Alami, the Somali candidate running for president? He threatened to encourage his allies and supporters to kill Iraqis in Somalia if one Somali truck driver was beheaded in Iraq. Thus beheading has become a phenomenon which has gone far beyond the limits of reason. Is it some kind of new diplomacy?
