Revolting.

This video made me want to vomit. A 55 year old Canadian journalist was taken hostage by the Taliban; she now looks well over 80 and a depressing shade of gray. She has a second hostage video, as well from about a month ago. Even if the Taliban didn't kill her, she doesn't have long to live by the looks of it. I don't think I've ever seen somebody look so pathetic and sick in my life. The woman claims that her captors will kill her by the end of March - less than a week away, if they don't receive their ransom of 2 million dollars. The choice of death: beheading her with a small kinfe. It's heartbreaking to see somebody plea like that and knowing you can't do anything about it; it's not a movie. I can't put it into words.

She's screaming, pleading, begging for somebody to help her. She's desperate and can't understand why her country, her business, the NGO's (non-governmental organizations... think Amnesty International), the government, everybody is ignoring her pleas for help. The US government won't save her; we have a no tolerance policy with terrorists. We have refused to make negotiations with terrorists. When I first heard this theory several years ago, I thought it was good - once you negotiate with one terrorist, you have to negotiate with them all. That will ultimately lead to being manipulated by the terrorists once they see an ounce of weakness. I can't imagine being in that position; do I let this poor woman die, or do I attempt to possibly maybe prevent further negotiations? I can't imagine the desperation she must feel. I'm worrying about getting a B in Spanish and threw a fit today about my mean English teacher, and she can't sleep because she doesn't know if she'll wake up the next morning.

I can't fathom the idea. Somebody needs to help her. Yet nobody can nor will.