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| Thanks a Lot, TR...... |
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| no, really |
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This is Dark Cloud on Wednesday, April 28, 2004. No doubt, not a few of you recall, but do not wish to, the fiasco of those peace activists who announced to great fanfare that they would chain themselves to targets of value in Iraq so the US wouldn’t bomb those targets. It never seemed to occur to them that their surety in their own importance to the United States and the alacrity with which Saddam was willing to use them were at odds with their own contentions. In any case, when word was passed that losing one lonesome British lady in exchange for many young lives on our side and lord knows how many on the Iraqi side was an exchange judged acceptable, the dust may not have settled yet from the hasty retreat upon which these individuals embarked. Still, to this day, those individuals – as proven, if utterly ineffectual and hypocritical, peace activists – probably find many places in their world where they are honored, and aside from sniping from nobodies like myself probably lead the lives they wish to lead. When three terrified Japanese citizens were captured by Iraqi militants some weeks ago, and videotaped with knives to their throats and threatened with being burned alive unless Japan announced they would remove their forces occupying Iraq, one could reasonably assume that – should they survive – an approximation of what happened to the “human shields” would attend to their homecoming. But what happened was quite different. From the government on down in this essentially very conservative nation, there was condemnation for the ‘selfish acts’ of these three, and they are being billed for their rescue and evacuation home. Far from being welcomed, the youngsters were harassed so severely that the woman among them has hidden herself and is rumored to have suffered a breakdown. She is eighteen. It isn’t just that these three were left-leaning journalists in this nation with the tilt to the right. That was certainly part of it, however. But taken on its face, there is substance to the official Japanese position, which might be summarized as follows. The three went to Iraq despite official government warning not to do so. They went with a history of decrying the government’s support of the Iraqi War. Despite warnings not to put themselves in danger, they also managed to get kidnapped, which cost time and effort in a war zone to the government officials there, and to the Japanese taxpayer and possibly to those assigned to a violent rescue. It was an expense to get them home, and forced the government to take a position it didn’t wish to, and which it assumed was best for their people as a whole. Not said, but assumed because of the nasty comments, is that the three did not comport themselves as Samurai or in accordance with Japanese myth while on camera. Rather, they clearly looked terrified, and one cried. And all just because a knife was held to their throats and public announcement was made they were to be burned alive. Ever since the 1970’s in Iran, throughout the Middle East Americans have been captured and often killed. When one group got nabbed under similar circumstances – I think in Lebanon – our government was annoyed that an already delicate diplomatic scenario was complicated by people who were doing nothing constructive by official reasoning, but merely playing hero for religious reward or book deal. Like the Japanese earlier this month, they were nabbed where they had been told not to be. Much of this is Teddy Roosevelt’s fault. TR made hostage rescue romantic when during the chronic Arab revolts against Spanish rule in Morocco a naturalized American citizen named Ion Perdecaris was captured by a tribal chief named Rasuli who held him for a $70,000 ransom. Former Lincoln Secretary and then Secretary of State John Hay issued a famous quote, the reverberations of which are felt yet. “This government wants Perdecaris alive or Rasuli dead.” Eventually, the man was released, possibly by unofficial bribe, the revelation of which would have been embarrassing. But not, as it turns out, as embarrassing as the fact that Perdecaris wasn’t a US citizen, but had repatriated to Greece years previous. Still, the honor that TR received on behalf of the United States affects the judgment of governments to this day, especially when they saw how the US rallied behind its President. Even the German Kaiser, who was in awe of TR, subsequently used a fake kidnapping to justify a rescue by the German Navy in a botched attempt at national heroics. And citizens expect their nations to go to war for their release. But previous to TR, absent much else, no nation was likely to go to war over the antics of one citizen, nor risk war for one citizen, nor much of anything. But a concurrence of relatively instant media and a bombastic but deadly serious President changed all that. Any government’s normal reaction when one of their own, even a kid trying to be a hero, is taken hostage is “…and?” Because their responsibility is to the common good. It makes no sense to demand a release backed by threats, follow through on the threats, and end up with hundreds dead, including the hostages, and long term resentment among the people involved. So, you can understand the Japanese government’s annoyance at its three independent citizens. But the damned media won’t allow it, and citizens won't tolerate it, and the world was changed because of our diplomatic mistake. Thanks a lot, TR. No. Really. Thanks a lot. |
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