We have been here before...sadly
 

In what is shaping up to be a re-run of last year's tragic events in Iraq another Briton finds himself in captivity this evening along with colleagues from the USA and Canada.

Norman Kember is 74 years old and is a committed christian. His captors claim that he is a spy and that unless the Iraqi Government and the American occupying forces agree to release all detainees by Thursday they will execute them all!

For the love of God, when will all this madness end? How many more decent, caring people have to be traumatised and die horrible deaths before these pea-brained dick-wavers get the message - no one is going to negotiate with them and no one is going to take their ridiculous demands seriously. Prancing around in combat fatigues is so, like, twenty years out of date!

But that is not really the point is it? The real point of the kidnapping is sour the Christmas season and sow dissention and discord in the helpless populations of allied nations to keep up the pressure for a disengagement in Iraq so that these clowns in balaclava's can drag Iraq and her people back to the fourteenth century.

That Norman Kember and his colleagues have their faith to sustain them in their extremity is perhaps a small crumb of comfort. And I am sure that the thoughts and prayers of many fellow Britons, Americans and Canadians will be with them and their families over the next few days.

I am also sure that the governments of Great Britain America and Canada will be doing whatever thay can to secure the release of these men. All that we can do is to hope for a favourable outcome but we must also stand firmly behind our governments in stating and re-stating that there can be no negotiation with terrorists. Change is won through the ballot box, not through the barrel of a gun or on the edge of a blade.

Re: We have been here before...sadly
 

Maybe they should be told release them or we release Sadam and co and see how brave they are then. Chances are they will disappear rapidly and hide for the rest of their limited days. The toppled regime used terror for control so now some wasted in the head bam thinks he can do the same.

Re: We have been here before...sadly
 

I'm not being funny but what was he doing there in the first place? I know it doesn't justify his kidnap but surely he knew he was taking a huge risk.

Re: We have been here before...sadly
 

i heard on the radio he went over there as a peacekeeper.

ironic.

Re: We have been here before...sadly
 

He was supposedly there as a peace keeper, helping ease tensions between Sunnis and ****es, as part of a Christian organisation. I do have more sympathy for this man than the Liverpudlian, who was sadly killed last year, who was there for his own financial gain.

No weapons of masss destructions found, British and Allied service men and women still being killed, and a country on the edge of civil war, was it worth it?

Re: We have been here before...sadly
 

Lol at the auto censor.

Says S-hites.^

Re: We have been here before...sadly
 

sorry, posted same reply twice - see below

Re: We have been here before...sadly
 

Some of the MPs are now regretting their decision to support the war. I read in the Lancs Eve Tel that a few of them are now starting to question their stance. Got to admit this is one area where I have never, ever supported my own party and would have had to vote against if I was in that position. Not worth it!

Re: We have been here before...sadly
 

hell no,
but...
this may sound rather cynical and this is only my own opinion - but i would rather be trying to seek peace in another country under Blair's office than having a social class war in our own country because of the Tories. id rather not go back to Thatcher's britain.

Re: We have been here before...sadly
 

Not cynical, just a bit of a different matter, though I do agree with you.

Saddam was an dictator, but no different from Robert Mugabe, the only difference is one country has oil reserves the other doesn't.

Re: We have been here before...sadly
 

Errrm...'scuse me but, according to your profile, you arent old enough to remember "Thatcher's Britain". I am. I am also old enough to remember Callaghan and Wilson's Britain which preceded it, and I know which I prefer. The "Social Class War" that you prate so glibly about was largley an invention of the marxist left of the then Labour Party. "Rock Against Raciscm" and The Anti-Nazi League" and "Babies Against The Bomb" were all development's from socialism as is "Political Correctness".

"Trying to seek peace in another country under Blairs office"? The west is in Iraq at the behest of Mutinational Oil Companies, the ideas of Freedom and democracy for Iraq are a thin veneer designed to disguise basic greed and persuade the sheeple to follow meekly.

Re: We have been here before...sadly
 

Britains greatest claim to fame is being part of the "self preservation society" as they are using Iraq to be certain of a future for itself. If people want to see what real Britain and oil mean then wait to see what happens when north sea oil runs out. Scotland will suddenly become independent as it wont have what London craves.

Re: We have been here before...sadly
 

obviously im not old enough to remember the peak of Thatchers power but i have heard of all the pain and struggle she caused amongst working class folk from my parents and family friends etc.
i didnt say we are GETTING peace in Iraq; i said the AIM of the war is to bring about democracy and some kind of peace to the country.

Re: We have been here before...sadly
 

Is this you coming out as a Conservative A-b?

Surely if you remember Thatcher, Callaghan, and Wilson you must also remember Heath, and the winter of discontent? Power cuts, food shortages, three day weeks. Happy days under a Tory government.

Re: We have been here before...sadly
 

I wasn't around in the second world war, but I still have an opinion about it. Shakermaker is allowed his view just as everyone else is. Age is not a barrier to having a point of view.