Ken Bigley

I think the crisis will drag on for some time yet. By killing the 2 Americans quickly, the terrorists have created a sense of urgency and now they can put pressure on the weaker link (the next Spain ?). Rather than making unrealistic demands like the withdrawal of US/UK troops, they are making ones that seem reasonable, like the release of women prisoners. Adnan Pachachi (on BBC WS) said that these women worked for the Ba'athist regime which the islamists viewd as atheistic.

Commentators like John Kampfner cannot resist repeating the 'Iraq is a disaster' mantra and the well-publicised attacks of the brother-in-Amsterdam on Tony Blair must be music to the terrorists' ears. If they killed the British hostage now, all this would be over and the affair quickly forgotten.

By the way, the role for NATO in Iraq seems to have been sorted out now.

Update (26 Sep) Mick Hartley has this : Kenneth Bigley ]

Bronwyn Maddox in The Times Friday also pointed out the sophistication of the terrorists in killing the Americans, hoping to drive a wedge between the US and UK. Careful Bronwyn, that sophistication word is in danger of being deprecated due to overuse by the the NYT, according to Greg Djerejian.

David Blunkett, interviewed on the BBC, said : 'you call them sophisticated...'.