POLITICAL HOSTAGES

The past couple of years Americans have been face with having non-combatants taken hostage by the Muslim Jihadists.

Hostage taking in not a new thing Ancient Romans and others prior to them found that hostage taking was not only lucrative from a gold standpoint but also from a political opportunity.

Now we here in America have a government which will trade five enemy Generals for one u.s. army Deserter Private.  Let's remember that he was a private when he chose to give aid and comfort to the enemy, yet we have a government and military which give advancement and promotion to deserters.  If he had stayed another year he could have been a Brigadier General.

Now we have photojournalists who for some reason feel they must place themselves in harms way to get that great picture or story which will win them a Pulitzer.  I know that these guys have been around at least since the War Between the States, but, now it seems like these guys are like ants a picnic and are getting squashed in the same way.

Then we have the humanitarian aid types.  These are those who who go to college for a couple of years or maybe four then decide they want to go to Nigeria, Eastern Ukraine, Iran, Syria or Sierra Leone.  Then they and their families are shocked and distraught when they get Ebola, lose their heads, are raped, tortured and degraded.

While I cannot imagine the sadness and loss of their families and the frustration with the inability of private citizens to be able to arrange for their children's release.  Families which face government persecution, arrest and fines if they attempt to get their children back.

I must say that what James Foley and Kayla Mueller did they did from a sense of Glory or a sense of Polyannaism.

Would anyone dive into a pod of feeding killer whales to save a wounded seal?  Would anyone stand between a mother grizzly bear and her cubs?  Would anyone stand in front of a herd of charging Cape Buffalo?  Would any sane person stomp around a nest of rattlesnakes?  Perhaps, but I think they need an intervention.

There are those who desire to run with the bulls in Pamplona.  When they get gored or trampled the world seems shocked but these people do get their names in the paper and fifteen minutes of fame and surely someone got a great picture of their bleeding groin.