Mike, your post was a well reasoned explanation, and in theory I can buy into it. But I must point out that when some are so bereft of moral values that they can commit this type of brutally savage act, they are usually beyond redemption. I agree totally that, in the main, we must find common ground with the insurgents. It is, after all, their country. Bush's attempts to create some sort of western democracy in a country that has no basis upon which to establish such a creature is delusional, at best. My point about the perpetrators of the beheading stand. These folks, at least, need to be cast into the deepest, darkest cell available and left there to rot. By the way, my opinion is much the same for those that beat Iraqui prisoners to death and then posed with the bodies. I do not believe that this is what the majority, or even a significant minority of US or British troops are about. My basis for this comes from another time when I was aware of troops pointing M16's at those who sought to commit atrocities. These same troops refused orders to do so.

It is constructive to remember that troops are usually 18 to 22 year old kids, who a year before were playing football on Friday nights. They are cast into a situation of unimaginable horror to all but those who have experienced it. It is up to senior non coms and officers to establish the protocols and conditions which allow these young people to maintain a sense of honor and civilized behaviour. It requires a sense of values on the part of the Senior levels of the command structure. That is what I see missing here. And it is why, if there is any justice left in the US system, the most senior people will take the fall for what is happening. May they rot.

Mick