I agree that posters on here have come up with justifications for people fighting for causes we might not agree with but I've yet to see someone condone a brutal murder of a hostage that has his arms tied behind his back. I happen to think an act like that or even lobbing mortar shells into a crowd of unarmed people is the act of absolute cowards that have no claim to moral imperative or nationalistic justification.

Of course, as I'm writing this, I was reminded about watching an episode of the series "24" in which I was able to justify Keifer Sutherland's character cutting the head off of a prisoner he shot to thwart a nuclear terrorist plot. Of course it was purely fiction and the stakes for his character were much more dire than I assume any band of Iraqi kidnappers face but it also is a good illustration of how warfare of any kind unleashes the worst in people and gives power to punks.

I just hope that horrible acts of murder such as this latest one don't numb us to our own humanity and ability to distinguish between political and military foes and Manson-like subhumans.