Is this what ransom demands have come to these days?
Many of the marchers said they were not giving in to blackmail but
were only calling for peace. Several hundred people who brought up the
rear carried banners calling for the government of Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi to withdraw Italian forces and cheered what they
called the victory of Iraqi guerrillas holding the city of Fallujah
against an onslaught of U.S. Marines. In an ultimatum issued Monday,
the kidnappers said that unless Italians marched in Rome within five
days, the three captives would be killed.
"..not giving into blackmail, but were only calling for peace."
Mmmhmmm.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure guys who run around shooting off AK-47's,
desecrating bodies and then setting them aflame for the sheer and utter
joy of it and who take their orders from an Imam understand your nuanced
approach to meeting their demands. I'm sure they understand your
conundrum quite nicely and are sympathetic to your needs. They won't
shoot those guns off now, will they? Now that you've given them exactly
what they wanted? How could they? That would be going against their
word!