Worrisome in its own way
Negotiations for release of American GI interpreter are underway, according to the AP. The U.S. military said there is "an ongoing dialogue" to win the release of a kidnapped American soldier, and said the captive is an Iraqi-American who married an Iraqi woman early last year. Here are further details from the article:
At the Pentagon, a senior defense official said that since he left the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad without permission, the soldier would technically have been considered AWOL at the time of any abduction. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
The woman who claimed to al-Taayie's mother-in-law, Latifah Isfieh Nasser, said last week that the soldier's in-laws put up a futile struggle to stop the abduction by men believed to be Mahdi Army militia fighters. Relatives said al-Taayie's kidnappers later used his cell phone to contact them.
Commentary
A number of points from previous coverage immediately become clear with these new revalations. Why the Madhi Army was suspected. Why there is an Iraqi dimension to this whole problem. Not that the man isn't a US citizen, but his Iraqi ethnicity may also mean that certain other avenues, let's call them traditional dispute resolution mechanisms, may also be available to win his release. Still it sets a worrisome precedent because negotiations are always first cousins to ransoms.
posted by wretchardthecat at 11/02/2006 03:11:00 PM
6 Comments:
Ominous at best;
Kidnapping/ethnic cleansing ---> Mahdi Army ---> al Sadr ---> The Shiite alliance ---> Iraqi parliament ---> The democratic Iraqi people
This does not bode well for future peace. What are we fighting for again?
If this guy left his post without permission, if he married an Iraqi female without permission, if he *is* an Iraqi immigrant to the U.S., then I would have to seriously wonder who his allegiance lies with: America or Iraq. Given all of this I'm not willing to put in the same effort - or much of any effort at all - to retrieve his carcass because he's just not an American soldier. He's a transplanted Muslim who got caught for being stupid.
Guy swore an oath to be a soldier -- did he also swear an oath to be an American? And then what kind of oath did he swear to marry the Iraqi person?
He wants to marry an Iraqi and visit his in-laws? Fine. He can stay there and be Iraqi all he wants to be then. It's not worth messing a hair on the head of one single real American soldier to retrieve him.
I strongly disagree with you on this one Nahncee. Several Euro-Americans have also married Iraqi’s. It’s kind of what GI’s do. Living every day with the threat of being vaporized makes you think about the important things in life. We need to get him back even if it means meting out violence.
He's an American soldier. Granted he screwed up by leaving the compound. Sounds like some rule bending took place since he previously broke rules to get married, probably because he's fluent in the local vernacular.
If he was kidnapped, we need to press Maliki and others in order to get him back. Every day that goes by without his return should bode very badly for Maliki, Sadr, the Mahdi army, etc. Time to show some violence.
Not only is he an Iraqi, it sounds as though he, his wife and their relatives are about to become very wealthy Iraqis courtesy of the US taxpayer (unless of course we decide to believe this 'futile struggle to stop the abduction' story).
The entire scenario has 'scam' written all over it. This has already worked like a charm, repeatedly, against both NGO's and European governments (recall for example the Italian Communist journalist/insurgent sympathizer caught on her return concealing a share of the ransom cash). It is or was just inevitable that sooner or later someone would try this on us.
I urge right-wing racists and flag-waving demagogues who visit this blog to NOT read my thoughts on the kidnapping under any circumstances:
Go to
http://kikoshouse.blogspot.com
and scroll down to the post entitled "Iraq: What's Wrong With This Picture?"
You have been warned.
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