Three American and British hostages were kidnapped recently in Iraq. Failing in their demand for the release of women prisoners kept in Abu Ghraib and Umm Qasr prisons the kidnappers beheaded two Americans. They claimed that they would kill the other hostage if the demand were not answered.

Days ago two French reporters were taken hostage by kidnappers who demanded that France cancel the regulation banning Islamic headscarves in public schools. While declaring that it would not make concessions the French government presses on with sending personnel and seeking help from others to rescue the hostages, which has set up a typical case as hostage diplomacy.

Faced with hostage crisis the countries concerned, though angered and startled, must devise ways of precaution and response. Some countries either have withdrawn or are preparing to withdraw troops from Iraq while some companies in cooperation with the US troops are backing out as a result. In the current Iraq hostage kidnapping and rescue diplomacy rise and fall one after another as often as a merry-go-round.

Although Iraq has "taken over" the power from the US hostage issues that threaten national security and government image seem to grow bigger and exert a strong psychological and political impact.

Ordinary kidnappings are usually related to economic interests whilst the broader context of the kidnappings and hostage killings happening in Iraq is anti-occupation, which have both political and economic objectives. They want both the cake and to eat it.

The goals of the Iraqi kidnappers are quite obvious, that is, they want to achieve the end that is hard to achieve in other ways through extreme means -- to demand the withdrawal of the US-led coalition troops stationed in Iraq.

It should be noted that the invasion and occupation by foreign troops, particularly the shocking US prisoner abuse issue, are bound to catalyze radical revolts and fierce retaliation.

Beheading hostages is barbarous and brutal. It is a wanton destruction of life and trampling on human dignity and the right to live. Iraq, the Arab countries and the international community all expressed strong condemnations calling for normal ways and legal means to restore the independence and sovereignty of Iraq.

On the other hand the chaos following the war in Iraq is apparently the vicious result of US' unjustified war as well as the cost for pursuing power and hegemony.

Kidnapping and hostage beheading produced an overawing effect and psychological impact. Many concerned countries are considering withdrawing from Iraq as a result of the pressure, which threw the front line of the US-led coalition in Iraq into confusion. The US on the one hand bolsters up morale for its allies and on the other presses on with cleaning up terrorist organizations and anti-US forces in Iraq.

Confronted with an inevitable choice countries with troops stationed in Iraq are torn between leave and stay. The state of affairs indicates that as long as the situation in Iraq is not stable hostage events and the resulting hostage diplomacy are hard to be completely done away with.

The concerned countries are also confronted with dilemmas in handling hostage crisis and carrying out hostage diplomacy, because to rescue hostages political mediation and buying out with money are necessary, which in turn may very well encourage and indulge similar terrorist activities.

The article is carried on the People's Daily newspaper, Sept 22, and translated by People's Daily Online