Easier questions to answer would be 'What is the meaning of Life?', and 'Why does dropped toast always fall buttered-side down?'. Not meaning to be facetious here, too serious a subject - it's such a big question and I can't imagine that there's a definitive answer. The images on UK TV last night of these poor people cringing in terror with knives held to their throats were truly shocking, and equally shocking was the reporter's remark that the tape had been edited to remove scenes which were deemed too horrific to show.

It was also reported on radio yesterday that the uprising in Iraq was targetted only at the forces of occupation, not at foreign civilians. Nobody seems to have told these guys.

Maybe a solution would be to turn the gentlemen whose lies led us into this crap over to the hostage-takers in exchange for the innocent? Just a thought.