Saying one thing and doing another

The Bush administration has said repeatedly in connection with the Jill Carroll kidnapping that we will not negotiate with terrorists and we will not give in to the kidnappers demands. Today, this story appears:

Saturday 04 February 2006, 18:49 Makka Time, 15:49 GMT

The US military has announced that it will free a new batch of Iraqi prisoners in a bid to secure the release of two German engineers and an American journalist kidnapped last month.

A US military spokesman for detention facilities in Iraq said on Saturday they would be releasing some detainees in the next 10 to 15 days although he declined to give any numbers.

As usual, the Bushies say one thing and do another. There is, of course, a reason you don't negotiate with hostage takers. The reason in that it encourages them to ask for more:

Last month, Iraq released more than 400 detainees, including five women, in a move widely seen as a response to demands from the kidnappers of US reporter Jill Carroll to free all female prisoners in Iraq.

Both US and Iraqi spokesmen strongly denied any link at the time.

Shortly after those releases, a new videotape from the kidnappers was broadcast by Al-Jazeera in which they broadened their demand to include all detainees, male or female.

Now, I am as concerned about Jill Carroll's release as anyone (at least of those in the general public who don't know her personally), and maybe this will get her a release, but it's a bad idea and one more example of Bush botching things up. You can bet there will be a lot more hostage taking.