Australia's Response to Hostage Taking

This is no surpirse to me, Australia and her citizens are not ones to be threatened by anyone. Their compassion and hopes will still run high for the freeing of this hostage unharmed, however, the majority of the citizens realise that kow towing to bribery or showing weakness in their resolve will solve nothing and will only promote further terrorist activities against their country and countrymen.

Bloomberg.com: Top Worldwide: "May 2 (Bloomberg) -- Australia won't withdraw its 1300 troops from Iraq, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said after an engineer who identified himself on a video as an Australian pleaded for his life.

``We are not going withdraw our troops,'' Downer told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. today. A task force comprising federal police, negotiators and defense personnel is being sent to Iraq in a bid to free the hostage, he said."