You are changing the subject, bearded bruce, and backing off from either defending what you said in your last post, or retracting it.

Saying that both sides are guilty of terrorist acts is not to say that they are guilty of the same terrorist acts, or even to say that they are equally guilty. It is too early to draw up the balance sheets on that kind of thing. There is no doubt that some indescribably cruel and evil things have been done by some people on "the other side".

But there are not any people on the Mudcat saying that the people responsible, for example for the murder of Margaret Hassan, were doing a great job.

I do not find the fact that, when episodes like Abu Ghraib come to light, trials of some of the low-ranking individuals identified are held, very impressive. It sees pretty clear that responsibility for that episode stretches far higher, and that the real culprits are mostbunliokley to be punished.

And if in a few days I read a press release saying Al Zharqawi had executed the people responsible for Margaret Hassan's death, I wouldn't be impressed by that either. He knows how to play the media game, which is why last week he issued a press release asking her captors to release her.