In a gesture that was well-intended but a bad precedent, the Italian government persuaded Afghan President Hamid Karzai to swap five Taliban prisoners in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist.

One of the freed prisoners, described as a Taliban spokesman, said he would immediately begin again "to hunt down foreign invaders and fight nonbelievers."

The Italian government has done this sort of thing before - it has ransomed several hostages in Iraq - and the Karzai government cooperated, knowing that back in Rome support is weak for a continued Italian presence in the NATO force in Afghanistan.

The United States apparently didn't know about the deal in advance, and the State Department later called the exchange ill-advised.

It is good that reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo is safe, although the Taliban beheaded his driver and his interpreter is still missing. And the fact of his exchange may embolden the Taliban to commit further kidnappings.

The observation of Dutch foreign minister Maxime Verhagen, who was in Kabul when Matrogiacomo was freed, seems particularly apt: "When we create a situation where you buy the freedom of Taliban fighters when you catch a journalist, then in the short term there won't be any journalists anymore."