Cause and Effect
There is a wonderful country song by Joe Diffie called Third Rock From the Sun, which is the only popular song I know of on the subject of causation. The chorus includes these lines: "Cause and effect, chain of events, All of the chaos makes perfect sense." It's a cheerful tune entirely unsuited to today's headlines, but it came to mind when I saw this headline: "Group Threatens to Behead 6 New Hostages":
Militants took six foreign truck drivers hostage and threatened Wednesday to behead them unless their company ends its business in Iraq, and their countries — India, Egypt and Kenya — pull all their citizens out.The threat to behead the hostages — and separate warnings against Bulgarian, Polish and Japanese troops — is the latest development in a violent campaign to scare off foreigners, who play a vital role in supporting the new U.S.-backed government and in the reconstruction of Iraq.
Iraqi and U.S. officials had warned of a potential surge in threats and hostage-taking when the Philippines withdrew its 51-troop contingent from Iraq on Monday, giving in to the demands of militants holding a Filipino truck driver.
There have been reports--I'm not sure whether they are confirmed--that the government of the Philippines paid a $6 million reward to the kidnappers of Angelo dela Cruz, in addition to withdrawing their forces from Iraq. There are a lot of thugs who would like to get in on that kind of action. Cause and effect.
