THE barbarity and ruthlessness of the captors of Kenneth Bigley suggest there is no scope for compromise.

Individuals prepared to take someone's life in such an horrific manner in front of a video camera are beyond reason.

They have no support among the many decent, law-abiding people of Iraq, on whose behalf they claim to be carrying out such heinous crimes.

And tragically for Mr Bigley and his family, they will not respond to diplomacy and appeals for clemency.

The British Government has no option but to reject demands of the hostage-takers, and simply resort to hopes and prayer.

While the British and US administrations may be powerless to help their citizens, they are not excused from blame for the circumstances which have led to the escalating crisis in Iraq.

It is now abundantly clear that there was never in place a coherent strategy of how Iraq was to be governed post-Saddam.

Mr Bigley and others like him are suffering the consequences.

And so, too, are the Iraqi people who have been freed from the shackles of Saddam Hussein's tyranny, only to be thrown to the mercy of the terrorists and the suicide bombers.

It is impossible to contest Terry Waite's description yesterday of an ill thought out venture, creating a vacuum filled by extremists and psychopaths.

The situation in Iraq is rapidly spiralling out of the control of the United States and Britain, and descending into bloody anarchy with no end in sight.

President Bush's insistence, in a speech to the United Nations, that the US was a force for good in Iraq sends out the right signals to his domestic audience just six weeks short of an election.

But it bears no resemblance to the reality of the suffering and torment endured by hundreds of thousands of ordinary Iraqis, and the loved ones of Kenneth Bigley.