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You Don’t Sacrifice Hostages Wantonly To Fight Terrorism
by Monica Davis
Hostages are not human toilet paper. Their lives have value and they are not disposable.
Unfortunately, they have little voice in how they are treated–by terrorists and native countries alike. Those who become hostages are pawns in a hypermachco contest between their kidnappers and native countries. And, as we just found out from the Algerian hostage catastrophe, it doesn’t always end well for the hostages.
Any deaths among international workers at a desert gas plant in Algeria are the responsibility of the terrorists who kidnapped them, and not their would-be rescuers. The tough, no-negotiation, no-blackmail, stance of Algerian authorities is laudable. Terrorists thrive on vacillation by governments.
But if a hastily planned and poorly executed government decision to attack the terrorists is found to have contributed to a large-scale loss of life, then Algeria will have some explaining to do, especially to the families of the victims. READMOREHERE
The wanton sacrifice of hostages is an abomination. While nations can not afford to give in to terrorists who kidnap hostages, neither can they afford to wantonly sacrifice those hostages in a bid to prove their national machismo.
Hostage takers, specifally terrorists who have something to prove, can afford to throw the lives of hostages away to make a point. When governments do the same, it puts them on the same level as terrorist outlaws and gives kidnappers no way out.
According to Al-Jazeera:
El-Watan, the independent French-language newspaper in Algeria quoting official sources, is saying that the hostage-takers had given up hope of escaping and started killing foreigners, which then triggered the special forces’ assault. READMOREHERE
I’m waiting for a phone call asking me how safe I feel and my opinion on how the current President is handling the War of Terror….. Don’t worry I’m not holding my breath and fully expect NO ACCOUNTABILITY from the White House. We will have to hunker down and see what happens.
And we stand listening to the hype that Obama is some great Commander in Chief. I watched the party in Washington yesterday. Seems to me Obama should have been doing less dancing and more figuring…..