Their bafflement is easier to understand if we look more closely at the kids themselves, who were not merely vacationers out for adventure, but political “activists” of a well known sort. There were supposed to be four hikers that day, and the fourth, Shon Meckfessel, stayed behind. He says he was amazed when he heard the news of his friends’ arrest: “It was the last thing I expected. … The breath went out of my chest I was so shocked. We had no interest in Iran. We did not even know we were that close.”
If this is to be believed — and I believe it — they were so geographically challenged that they did not realize they were in grave danger of drifting into enemy territory (or even not; the Nation has produced a pretty convincing report showing that Iranian Revolutionary Guards crossed into Iraq to snatch the three).
But then, they were apparently incapable of comprehending the meaning of “enemy territory,” since they really didn’t think of themselves as “Americans,” in the usual sense of that term. They thought of themselves as independent fighters for peace and justice, and in fact their sympathies lay with people who were more likely to kill Americans than befriend them. “We have a deep involvement in the region. The irony is we were even doing work on some of the issues that Iran speaks about.” One of them, according to Meckfessel, was almost finished with an expose article on the Israeli military’s actions against protesters in Gaza. “He would have published it long ago if he had not been arrested…”
Such Americans just won’t accept the fact that the Iranian regime hates us, and they constantly try to explain to the Iranian regime that it is a mistake to hate “progressive” Americans, whether it is a group of foolish children or a foolish American president.
There was a similar case in 1994, when a young woman from Southern California went to a township outside Cape Town, South Africa, to work with the poor residents there. All went well for a while, and then one day they killed her. Like the hikers, she had done nothing wrong, and was executed for the crime of being an American. Her killers were pardoned, and, in an example of the Stockholm Syndrome worthy of clinical study, her parents approved the pardons.
The Americans in the Iranian hostage matter would love to be able to forgive the Iranian regime for its many sins, and I rather suspect that if the hikers were released, their friends and family would probably blame the whole thing on the United States. Like the president, they are burdened by a sense of guilt and a desire for repentance and forgiveness that makes them easy targets for those who wish to dominate or destroy us.
It breaks my heart. We are very lucky to have children who recognize evil and have gone to the battlefield to defeat our enemies. But then, unlike the hikers and the woman killed outside Cape Town, all of whom went abroad to help the natives, they didn’t learn about the world at the University of California at Berkeley.
UPDATE I: The regime says the hikers will be prosecuted. We’ve heard that one several times already;
UPDATE II: Welcome Instapunditeers! Laugh and cry with us.
An exposé on Israeli “war crimes” eh? Well, here’s a golden opportunity to do a real investigative piece on Evin country club, er, Prison.
Fools. I’m tempted to say to hell with them and let them rot. But I’m guessing that they’ve been “taught” at a university like UC Santa Cruz by some Ward Churchill fiend.
Meh. They’ll wind up getting released and STILL blame the US and the evil Joos.
Of that, you can be sure.
I have to wonder if the female would still feel “touchy feeley” with these people after her solitary confinment…
Amazing, when a bleeding heart gets slapped in the head, it’s..”why?”…I love your people, they’re so good, solitary?,,,why? I love your people.. blahblahblah…
These people aren’t going to see America any time soon. Mr. “let me make this perfeclty clear” has no pull..only rhetoric. The iranians are killing their own people with rocks, what ,
makes us think they have any compassion?
J.J. Sefton wrote: “Fools. I’m tempted to say to hell with them and let them rot.” I am afraid I yield to that temptation. Let them enjoy the hospitality of their fellow anti-semites.
Thank you, Michael; I no longer have to feel sorry about them.
Such a shame that this regime ee kaseef is doing what it is doing and getting away with it. From here on in, no Iranian official should be allowed to enter Canada, the U.S. and the EU. A good start would be to deny the monkey a visa to come and give his hate speech at the UN general assembly. And why all the attention to Chelsea Clinton’s wedding?
I wonder why we all have these pipe dreams.
Although I agree with you, we are too afraid to say ‘stay out monkey man”…yep, fear of not having a warm fuzzy feeling might make us look..well…in control, for a change.
The Iranians have learned from experience that they can paralyze America by simply snatching some hostages. They would assume that having those three people will be their insurance policy against any US attack on them.
“Sarah, Shane and Josh have never worked for the United States government.”
Their captors probably came to that conclusion a long time ago. They simply don’t give a damn. The three naive and guilt tripped Americans are useful to tweak the nose of the American government.
Reminds me of an old Iranian proverb. A scorpion wanted to cross the river but it couldn’t swim. He asked a frog to carry him on his back to the other side. The frog, leery of being stung by the scorpion declined. The scorpion assured the frog that he had nothing to be scared of as he would also drown should the frog be incapacitated. Faced with that logic the frog accepted to help the scorpion. Half way through the river the scorpion stung the frog. The dying frog asked in amazement as to why the scorpion had done such a foolish thing costing them both their lives. The scorpion responded that it was in his nature and he couldn’t help it.
Having said that, I clearly am aware that I may just be insulting the scorpion for using him as a metaphor for the Mullahs. Sorry Scorp.
great analogy…
Horseradish — I thought that was from Star Trek.
It may very well have been on Startrek, but I heard the same little moral tale more than 50 years ago, while living in Libya. It may have even then had a long grey beard. The American Ambassador to the Congo was passing through Tripoli during the ‘Congo Crisis’ and told the same tale, positioning it’s setting on the Nile. He gave a darker ending though: The Scorpian replied to the Frog’s last questio, “. . . but this is the Middle East.” (Use a differemt ending, as you please)
I think that this sort of behavior by the four airheads should be known as the “Rachael Corrie” syndrome.
Obama is a clueless socialist college professor. He has no idea what he’s up against when it comes to the Iranian regime (or other adversaries for that matter). It’s shameful that the current president of the United States is a clueless simpleton who has no idea what the enemy is up to and has no plans to counter the enemy’s evil intentions.
The Iranians have learned from experience that they can paralyze America by simply snatching some hostages.
That seems to be the unfortunate truth. A stronger America might demand that the hostages be released or else there would be consequences to pay beyond the imposition of ineffectual sanctions. We could have learned that lesson from experience too, courtesy of former President Reagan. But the current place-holder of the office seems to know nothing of how to effectively deal with this situation.
Oh well, I can only hope that I am wrong and that one day I will awake to discover the mullahs’ nuclear weapons facilities have mysteriously gone up in smoke overnight, with our President acting seriously presidential in addressing the nation–and the world (by which I mean, specifically, the Iranian rulers)–that what has just happened is but a prelude for what will follow should the Americans held hostage not be released in the next 48 hours.
http://www.debka.com/article/8940/
Nick Berg, too, meant no harm. I pray that these kids fare better. Thanks for posting the update.
Dr.Ledeen: You would do well to construct a piece hereon, that mentions -in bold face , perhaps- that our extant solons of academia are ill preparing their students for life and, even , for the contemplative life…this is Orwell’s SOMA- writ large-dispensed in the classroom by the hogshead!The demonstrated narcoleptic ahistoricism received as wisdom is breathtaking-demonstrated by the election of an intellectual pygmy in the Presidency. Just ponder the sobriquet Islam is the Religion of Peace. Really? 1400 years of peace-when?Ideas spread by the force of the idea? When? Where? The sword perhaps? Yes…..that is truth, history tells us that -even (lol) Howard Zinn’s version.Jesus wept…and let us have no peace with these takfyri monsters until there are Churches and Synagogues in Mecca& Medina..&Riyahd.
The hallucinogenic euphoriant drug “Soma” was not an invention of George Orwell, but of Aldous Huxley in his novel Brave New World.
That’s funny, I “Pressed 1 for English”.
Mullahs will shiver with fear faced with these Ninjas:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1299440/Iranian-womens-rugby-team-field-wearing-modesty-preserving-headscarves-tracksuits.html
Firstly, I reckon the gal is in solitary confinement for her own safety and
Secondly it is true that a lot of morons are raising more morons in this country. President on down.(or up).
An irony. Progressivism, statism, and socialism are based on group identity and personal history. They classify people as party members, workers, businessmen, rich, poor, white, black, educated, and/or ignorant, and treat them accordingly, not as individuals.
These hikers see themselves as Progessives. The Iranians see them as Americans. Both have a similar philosophy of society, just a difference of opinion about which group they belong to.
These idiot children and I include the parents in this description are the equivalent of the old Ivy League Peace Corps roaming the world, acting as if they were somehow immune from what that big bad world can do to people.
Difference is that then, they’d have said ‘we’re Americans, you can’t do this to us’.
Now? ‘We hate America and it’s horrid imperialistic ways, you can’t do this to us.’
They’ll never understand innate nature is innate nature.
Just like that frog.
These silly hikers, and their even sillier parents, are incapable of understanding the position they are in. They really believe that if they express enough hatred of George Bush and shame for their citizenship they will be granted entree to all the cool trendy Euro-clubs.
The idea that some people hate America even more than they do, and that to them they are just as American as any Tea Partier, is to them grotesque. Citizens of the world, they are, assured of the admiration and respect that is denied we lesser folk.
I figured I would be the minority opinion, but I guess not. The analogy of the frog and scorpion is great, I’ve used it many times in the last decade. I feel little to no sympathy for these snots. The friend claims they didn’t know they were that close. Hogwash, they probably had a GPS daddy bought them, and besides, what are you doing in Iraq. Is Iraq on Fodder’s top ten hiking spots? I seriously doubt it.
As Thulsa Doom said to Conan, “Contemplate this on the tree of woe.” While I don’t wish any permanent harm to them, I’m a big believer situational awareness. These knuckleheads obviously did not have that. Now they get a chance to learn about Persian culture first hand.
Now they get a chance to learn about Persian culture first hand.
But they’ll come out praising it.
From what I can gather their mentality will not let them admit that they were wrong in the first place, unless of course their lawyer pleads Stockholm disorder/disease first.
I wonder if a “Midnight Express” like movie could be made today?
I agree. People like this don’t search for the truth; they search for a way to fit the facts into their worldview. I imagine this: “Our government has so injured these people that not even the Great Obama can assuage their anger. We innocents are victims of George Bush.”
Why does everyone keep referring to these people as ‘kids’? At 25/26/27, they are firmly adults. Just because they act like over privileged, clueless, naive kids, doesn’t mean they are actually kids. And they are certainly hikers and nothing else but again who goes hiking in a war zone? Have you all Google Earthed this garden spot? The MSM loves to characterize this area as a ‘popular hiking/vacation spot’. Desolate mountain area and popular with whom? I feel for their parents and I remember being in college and traveling in off the beaten path spots (never a war zone however) And I’m sure their politics did contribute to their situation. That doesn’t mean they deserve to be in an Iranian jail. Maybe this will dislodge their heads from up their nether regions, maybe it won’t. I hope they get out soon and I dearly hope the administration does not give the mullahs anything in return. Wishful but possible.
Right on. I was 25 and 26 and 27 some time ago, and stupid as I might have been then, it would not have occurred to me that hiking in Iraq near the Iran border (war or not) was a good idea.
They sound like the offspring of prototypical red diaper families. When will these people just give up and accept reality? Their children are astonished because their DUMP PARENTS had set the example during their formative years and somehow they thought they knew it all. Their belief systems are in reality based on mind numbing stupidity leavened with personal hubris and should this situation resolves itself to the benefit of all, it STILL would not stop them from believing what they do. They will only cast about looking for a reason to blame something else for their downfall.
… We do not know why Shane, Sarah and Josh are still being held … why their human rights are being violated, why they are not allowed regular consular visits or to make calls and write letters home and why they have had no access to their “lawyer” …. we do not know why Sarah (is) in solitary confinement … etceteras …..
We do not know and nor are we capable of ever knowing.
Leave the knowing and the understanding of Evil to the evil. It is enough that the rest of us recognize Evil — and destroy it.
We do not know why Shane, Sarah and Josh are still being held
Of course we know why Shane, Sarah and Josh are being held – the Iranians are demonstrating the powerlessness of the American government. Better yet, they’re Jews (something that generally gets ignored in reporting on this), which makes them even more desirable as hostages. Since the Iranians think that Jews are running the American government anyway, I’m sure that the Iranians think that holding Jews sharpens the point.
BINGO!
Kids! Everyone calls them KIDS.
OK. They’re kids. Products of our school systems. Stupid, not adventursome.
Using Daddy’s credit cards to travel, not the “best we have” as O wants to say.
If they cavort their way around rocky desert war zone landscapes, and they’re NOT spies, then they need not contribute to our gene pool. And given the Iranian care they receive, they probably will return unable to do so.
While the situation the three are in is bad, I doubt the “hiker” story. One of them, Shane Bauer, is a “freelance” journalist/photographer who just happens to be fluent in Arabic and just happens to be wandering the border area with two other people. Really? What kind of people wander around a known ill-defined and ill-secured border area?
And sure, Obuma says they’ve never worked for the US Gov. OK, so they’re “contractors” for one of the myriad companies who do work for the USG. Technically, he’s correct.
Face it, the backgrounds and circumstances of the three “hikers” screams cover story. They weren’t innocent “hikers” any more than Laura Ling and Euna Lee were innocently screwing around the North Korean border when they were picked up.
BRAVO!!!!! When will we stop trying to rescue these people who venture into enemy territory just for the thrill of it all! Leave them there…..like we should have done with Gore’s girls……and see if others will want to venture into the unknown..or stay home and just be good citizens!
Thanks to you and to PJM for providing perspective on this tragedy. Sad that something similar didn’t happen to Thomas Friedman on one of his jaunts through the Middle East. Along with others I could list.
Bit like a crocodile snapping up the occasional rodent. May such tragedies multiply. Ken Yirbu.
RE: Thomas Friedman
The Useful Idiot is much more useful to the other side here, free to write his drivel, than in an Iranian prison. Though I do agree with your sentiments.
Two of the hikers’ mothers showed up at the Iranian embassy in London with a film crew in tow. Wearing head scarfs to show their respect for the religion of peace and perhaps also to show their solidarity with the downtrodden mullahs, they pleaded for the hikers release. Of course, this little stunt didn’t work. An embassy employee shut the door in their faces.
American hostages held captive by Iran,and the President is baffled as to what he should do. Doesn’t Obama remind you of Jimmy Carter more every day.
Actually Carter is starting to look good compared to Obamy.
“After it bit me, I realized it was a wild animal.” An oft heard phrase by those who are recovering from an encounter with nature red in tooth and claw. They acknowledge it was an animal and that they were in the wild but somehow couldn’t put the two together enough to act appropriately.
Same goes for those who venture to close to “the misunderstood regimes.” The family and the “kids” should look upon this as a private lesson in international politics, human psychology and foreign penal systems. Sort of a school of hard knocks, abroad.
But then, unlike the hikers and the woman killed outside Cape Town, all of whom went abroad to help the natives, they didn’t learn about the world at the University of California at Berkeley.
Actually, Amy Biehl, the woman killed in South Africa, was a Stanford graduate. Same thing.
sorry, Observerx, and many thanks for the correction. as one of my philosophy profs once said, i don’t object to lies but inaccuracy drives me crazy…her parents spoke recently at Berkeley, and they seem to have some sort of foundation to honor her memory that is associated with Cal.
I’m afraid I can’t work up a great deal of sympathy for these pampered young idiots and their clueless parents.
Eventually they will be released. Maybe it will be before Iran is struck mulitarily by Israel and/or the United States. The bottom line is that their predicament is self-inflicted.
Barack Obama is a clueless incompetent and nothing he does or doesn’t do is going to affect their captivity. The Iranian Mullahs and their crazed President have bigger “fish to fry”.
The continuing development of a nuclear capability which will allow Iran to threaten Israel, the entire Sunni Middle East and of course the Great Satan – America – is their goal for the near future.
The ONLY THING that will get the Islamofascists in Tehran to pay attention is the DESTRUCTION of their nuclear plan and Revolutionary Guard. Perhaps we should make it painful for everyone and eliminate the single Refinery that produces half of their gasoline requirements.
But we have a weak President with a Marxist view of the future and his goals are primarily concerned with changing the United States from a Nation of Entrepreneurs and doers to a Nation of Parasitical slugs. To state the obvious, that we have a clown for a President, is to understate our peril in today’s world.
I saw their whiny parents on television the other day. They all are getting what they deserve. Generational stupidity unchecked for decades. Meh…
Why hasn’t Jesse Jackson gone over to free them yet? Oh, right…
I guess the crocodile ate them first after all.
These folks are nominees for Darwin awards, as are many wishful, idealistic, leftist, Islamic-sympathizing fools.
“We do not know why Shane, Sarah and Josh are still being held without charge, why their human rights are being violated.”
These poor clueless parents raised these children for this moment and they still don’t understand it. These bloody tyrants kidnapped these children for the express purpose of violating their human rights. It increases their value as hostages. The Iranian regime probably finds these people as confusing as these people find them.
These “adventerous young people” will, in a few months time, break the record held by the last contestants of AMERICAN HOSTAGE: IRAN. USA USA!!
As a Berkeley grad, I agree with the assessment. Aside from the twice-yearly ‘Deir Yassin exhibit’ that welcomed those entering campus from Telegraph Avenue, there was also the phenomenon of Muslim students and their American-born cohorts disrupting any seminar on the Israel-Arab conflict. BTW, it was a widely-known fact among the Jewish students there that most or all of the ‘Palestinian’ demonstrations were led by Iranian radicals. Some of them actually got killed by Khomeini after fighting the Shah.
Dear Mr. Leeden, I appreciate reading your articles and your insight. Lets keep in mind that Iranians do not consider this regime an Iranian or as you refer to it as the “Iranian Regime”. There is nothing Iranian about this regime. Iranians see them (mullahs) as the second (Ghadesieh) Muslim (Arab) invaders, the first one which happened 1400 years ago. Time and again this regime has shown that it has no respect for Iranians, our culture and past history and civilization. The more we educate Americans about the Iran situation, the better off they will be. The majority of Iranians are pro-west, modern, democratic and secular leaning. there nothing democratic, modern and pro west about these thugs who do not have any regard for basic human life. Next to China, mullahs are the second most violator of human rights in the world.
as a fellow Iranian, you said it best!! we will prevail!!!
Arash, the statistic that you quoted, if I am not mistaken, was supplied by Amnesty International. As an Iranian like yourself, I am afraid I must disagree with both you and AI. The PRC may quantitavely supercede Occupied Iran in human rights violations, but I am fairly certain qualitatively Occupied Iran wears the Blue Ribbon. As atrocious as the Chinese may be towards those who question central authority they do not hold a candle to the vile and medieval tortures and attrocities committed by agents of the Islamic Republic. The only close analogy to IR modus operendi are the methods of entertainment employed by Dr. Hanibal Lecter. So, respectfully, I will put Occupied Iran above the PRC.
It is a close race, Radish. It really depends on how many horrors in China are simply hidden. I suspect there are many. For overall depravity per political prisoner, I agree, Iran probably ‘wins.’
If Obama was to send Military personell to rescue these members of the liberal soft white underbelly,The kids would take the enemies side in any ensuing battle.
Obama probably does a little dance whenever an American soldier is killed. So if soldiers and rich white kids were killed, he would probably put on a filthy stinky haji suit, and do the hokey pokey.
While I was in the Army, I did convoy security from Mosul Iraq to the border with turkey. I once talked to a couple people “vacationing” in Kurdish Iraq. They were SOO proud of themselves. Kurdish Iraq is as safe as can be. People there love Americans.
Watch out for those Northern borders though, oops, too late!
The sinister minister.
WHENEVER I THINK OF IRANIANS (PERSIANS)AND WHY THEY DO THE THINGS THEY DO, I’M REMINDED OF AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE SON OF A UPPER CLASS IRANIAN ANTIQUITIES DEALER I MET IN COLLEGE…HE WANTED TO SELL A THOUSAND YEAR OLD SCROLL THAT WAS HANGING ON HIS WALL,RED LEATHER WITH GOLD FARSI SCRIPT.WHEN I ASKED WHAT IT SAID, HE TOLD ME,”FOR PROCREATION,A WOMAN…FOR PLEASURE,A BOY…FOR ECSTACY,A MELON…” I NEVER BOTHERED TRYING TO FIGURE OUT THE PERSIAN MIND AGAIN…
How sad, Terry, that the behavior of one deviant individual should be enough for you to form an opinion about all Iranians. Should I also base my opinion about Americans (I am naturalized) on a conversation with a member of Nambla? You are missing out on some very good people. But that is your loss.
Actually, the first time I heard that, it was identified as an “Arab proverb.” I’d be interested to know its provenance – especially if it’s authentic at all.
And Horseradish, I was in college in the ’70′s, and while I never had any first hand contact with Iranian students (probably my school – UCSD – was not high on the list for them) friends at other schools with Iranian students had a universally low opinion of them. I concluded that whatever process selected them for study in the US was not choosing the best and brightest, at least in an academic sense. Everyone I knew who had first hand contact with Iranian students considered them arrogant, ostentatious, and more prone to partying than to study. I concluded that most were spoiled rich kids, children of the ruling class, taking a holidy in the US under pretense of study.
Arrogance and partying is not an Iranian idiosynchracy. Just ask the students at Chico State or any of the hundreds of fraternities and sororities of any campus of your choice. Lord knows I did my share of partying as an undergraduate and I turned out semi OK (wife disagrees). However statistics argue against you. The Iranian expat community has consistently been on top of the success chain compared to other expats. Statistics from prestigeous colleges (MIT, Caltech, The Ivies and, because of my respect for Dr. Ledeen, the Claremont Colleges) show the opposite of your stipulation. You may also wish to refer to your own Revel College and Jacobs College of Engineering at UCSD.
#8-And Berg’s father blamed George Bush, referring to him as a coward, and essentially praised his son’s killers, because, he said, at least they looked into his son’s eyes. Any sympathy I had for the family disappeared at that moment and was replaced with sheer anger and frustration. What an utterly twisted mind to arrive at that conclusion. Especially since Berg was in Iraq on his own terms and had already been told to leave. It is beyond disgusting and starkly shows the depth of some of the left’s deranged thinking.
Well if they are “open-minded and adventurous” then this little jaunt should fit the bill. Enjoy yourselves. Try the veal.
I’ve known Shon Mckfessel for a long time. They weren’t spies.
The 3 hikers were jews…
Jews that hated Israel & the west…
It was reported that the 3 (if not captured by Iran) would have been on the Flotilla or they would have been doing something in the realm of Rachel “St Pancake” Corrie…
I have realization lately that a full 30% of American Jews would line up for the “summer camp” trains if given an opportunity.
They will keep their heads in the sand until it’s too late…
But to be fair?
When a bear comes crashing though your campsite attacking everyone, you dont have to be 1st, but as long as there are morons questioning the reality of the bear? You dont have to be last….
I want to thank the morons that raised these 3 nitwits…
May they be a “teachable” moment for the rest of us…
I agree that is unlikely that these three were merely out hiking. In my opinion, we cannot attribute their presence in a war zone to simple poor judgement, any persons that unintelligent would be still stuck at the airport looking for the right gate. Ultimately, these three hikers exhibit a sort of narcissism ad absurdium. They believe themselves to be so wonderful, so thoughtful, so wise and so important that the situation will improve only if they become involved. (Does this sound like any President we know?) This excessive narcissism may also account for the repeated mis-labeling of these hikers as “kids”; an inflated sense of self-importance is a symptom very common to individuals suffering from extended adolescence.
Of course, another symptom displayed is holding a belief in multicultural egalitarianism while failing to make the minor logical hop (let’s not call it a “leap”) of recognizing that some people are not multicultural.
Americans wandering around border areas of islamic s—holes. Duhhhh.
I used to live and work in a foreign country that had diplomatic relations with Iran. The Iranian Embassy was off a side street on my walk home from work. I used to go a bit out of my way to walk by it and spit on its wall. Always made me feel good.
What the Iranian regime is all about?: 1) Domination of the Middle East, including
all of the Arabian Peninsula. 2. It purports to be a “theocratic” state, hence
its interest is in extending that concept beyond its present borders to the
fullest extent it can. There is no time table.
One should not lose sight of the fact that this country was once known as Persia,
which in fact did dominate the Middle East, attempted to gain a foothold in Europe
only to be met with defeat in Greece and in the 4th centuury BC suffered
humiliating defeats at the hand of Alexander the Great.
Memories of national greatness run fo generations upon generations.
Greetings:
I live out in the San Francisco Bay area and so have had a bit of a catbird seat for this media soap opera, involving these “poor” “kids”.
First, “kids” they hardly are. They may be someone’s children but at approximately 30 years of age, “kids” is not the appellation that I would select. That it is apparently being used to win this year’s Department of Redundancy Department award is as manipulative as it is inaccurate.
Second, the “kids” have some kind of relationship with some kind of lefty San Francisco media group that, after all this time, seems to get rarely mentioned never mind explicated. That they were “hiking” on the borders of a country that is our country’s sworn enemy and so soon after the fiasco of the (hiking???) American journalists on the North Korean border, does not indicate to me that they got much benefit from their taxpayer subsidized UC Berkeley educations.
Third, the melodramatic “mommies” of the “kids”, still looking like the hippy-dippies of their youth, continue to milk the sympathy cow with their “kids” now getting “engaged” and the female “kid” now finding a lump in her breast.
My dear departed mother used to have a pithy expression that I heard from her more than once. It went, “So, sunny jim, you got more than you thought you had bargained for.” Well, that’s my evaluation of this “poor” “kids” melodrama. Until proven otherwise, my take on it is that they came up with some kind of résumé enhancing scheme to make a name for themselves and went off with little or no thought about what they could be involving their country in. Oh, yeah, and their “mommies”.
Hey, thanks for the SITREP from your optimal vantage point! I’m not surprised at all that this is the context and background of these folks.
Reagan is dead. These hostages may be there a long time. To paraphrase a former boss, “Help is not on the way.”
This is a metaphor for the whole Progressive movement – people like the members of these unfortunate families are all of a sudden in a position to act aggressively on their feel-good but wholly impractical theories and world view. It’s as if the 8 year old boy in the family now gets to plan the meals, the 12 year old gets to set the family budget, the 15 year old gets to set curfews and the alarm clocks.
If only the damage could be limited to those who casue it. With Obama, Pelosi et all, we are all going to suffer loss of liberty and opportunity – perhaps not as severe as incarceration in an Iranian jail – but a lot of misery spread over a large swath of population. The dependable relationship between what you contribute to society and what you get to take out of it no longer holds. Their lame-brained ideology has brought us the dramatic rise of a controlling political class that will slowly but surely let the air out of everyone’s standard of living (excepting their own of course). We are so screwed.
Forget it, this people are Iranian expatriate, they sacrifice their kids for their moon God cause, like strapping their kids with a bomb but different methodology.
Dude. Please. Stop. Normally, you are a consistent and welcome critic of the mutts who run Iran.
What did you want the US President to say? “Hey mullah-mutts! Give us back the 3 kids or we’re going to fly over all kinds of semi-friendly countries and bomb Iran back to the stone age. Oh and the planes take off next Monday, just in case you mullah-mutts are wondering.”
I mean, come on. You’re not 17 years old. You’re not naive. Please tell us precisely what words you want to shove onto Obama’s teleprompter and thus into his mouth.
Those 3 kids were careless. Yes it’s unfortunate. Frankly, I think it’s a good time to remind all American young people: “Hey, like it or don’t but there are lots of cool places to hike on Planet Earth where Americans are hated. You go there and get busted, don’t be whining about it. Suck it up. We’re not going to come for you. We’re not going to expend any State Department credibility trying to rescue you. You’re F’ed. Beyond belief. So, if you must go hiking in the Pamir, update your will, tell your family and friends goodbye and when you’re on the plane, head back to “Los Banos” and kiss your ass goodbye. Sorry about that.”
Unless you (Mr Ledeen) can come up with some super-powerful, bad-ass mojo-laden statement that you think the President could say and change things. Which, frankly you know as well as all the rest of us that he can’t.
Just sayin’ …
PS – this kind of all-the-time-criticism of Obama with none-of-the-time constructive-yet-realistic suggestions is typical of the spew from the National Review. I suggest that everyone read what Dan Riehl has to say about National Review and the Nancy-boys who man the staff over there.
Geez.
Mr a’barge: I don’t want him to say anything; thought that was obvious. sorry. have you been here before? I’ve had constructive things to say for years. It just gets monotonous to hear myself say the same thing over and over: support the revolution. bring down the regime.
Mr Ledeen,
Been here since before the beginning. And yes I’ve been reading your stuff for years.
“Support the revolution. Bring down the regime.” Sounds good. Sounds great actually.
Come on. We can’t even bring down Castro, and he’s 90 miles away. The only people who are going to bring down the regime are the Iranian citizens, many of whom live either in abject terror or in metastatic denial.
Like I said, it’s either “the planes take off next Monday, just in case you mullah-mutts are wondering” or we might as well shut up… about both the Iranian nukes as well as the sorry lot of 3 hikers whose limitless stupidity sealed their fate.
Well, you did ask, so for starters your President could have reprimanded those three for being irresponsible, criticized the poor education dished out by the parents and the academics on how to deal with life as a reality on Earth especially when approaching too close to thugs and rogues who command power and trash international relations to take advantage.
He could have reprimanded the three and their parents and many in society for their cognitive egocentrism on approaching millennial societies bogged down in the 7th century.
So. Don’t you think someone should have said this to the three barely-kids before they left on their hike in the Pamir?
By the way, I’m guessing that the State Department and the CIA regularly put this kind of information on their websites. If people don’t inform themselves, well then … it’s pretty much “Adios Muchachos, and don’t call for help”, isn’t it?
As for the 7th century barbarians, I’m guessing you’re much like every other humanoid on the planet …. unable to come up with a solution for them as the problem. Or am I missing something?
Is it ok if the Iranians keep them? it can only improve the gene pool.
Truly winners of the Darwin awards.
“It breaks my heart. We are very lucky to have children who recognize evil and have gone to the battlefield to defeat our enemies.”
Yes,Michael, also is including your courageous children who distinguish between good and evil, some now is on the battlefield outside the country, while your president and the other of fools blatantly are “colorblind”. How sad and pathetic!
Outside the topic:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/saudi-translator-seeks-apology-for-embassy-incident-20100801-111gu.html
In this case the Australian ambassador had done nothing wrong. Of course, above all it was an insult to Mr. Ambassador.
In fact, you are in Allah’s sight and his followers are referred to as the worst creatures and with the dirty soul and bodies. The Koran itself promotes violence and teach supremacy, hate and hostility, the Koran itself compares unbelievers “Non-Muslims”, specifically “Jews and Christians” to vile animals.
However, they using your technology, science and medicines…etc, and after all, YOU are cursed and scorned at least 17 times a day by Muslims, where the Saudi petro-dollars are behind of promoting of hatred and scorn against you “Jews and Christians”. But most sadly, they possess their Oil is only thanks to Jews and Christians.
The question here is: What Mr. Bloomberg would be in Allah’s sight when allows the construction of the Ground Zero mosque?! In fact, there is NO escape from the scorn and hatred verses and the violence toward Non-Muslims by the Message from Allah to humanity (the Koran). Alas!
Jassem Othman, Syrian dissident, the Homeland of Holocaust, Poland.
“We do not know why Shane, Sarah and Josh are still being held without charge, why their human rights are being violated, why they are not allowed regular consular visits or to make calls and write letters home and why they have had no access to their lawyer…”
And that statement should conclusively illustrate that there is no reason to think that “the hikers, their parents and their friends” are able to LEARN anything. And apparently they have no reluctance at parading their utter cluelessness bordering on dangerously stupid….re the world as it is.
How much you wanna bet they voted for obama.
I notice that the Iranians don’t take Russian and Chinese hostages. Perhaps there’s a policy paper in that for some state department bureaucrat.
In the 1970s, Lebanese Shiites kidnapped and killed a Russian diplomat in Lebanon. The revenge that the Russians exacted was persuasive. It never happened again. Would that liberal Israel and liberal American learn at least some of this lesson.
Perhaps its time to send in Delta Force, just to teach the Iranians a lesson. But then if the op is run by Obama, whose to say the result will not be the same as the op run by Carter.
Each and every year, I try very hard to convince my students that people who live in other nations, who have been raised in other cultures are not, in fact, just like Americans. They may well have the occasional McDonald’s in their major cities, like rock and roll, wear blue jeans and running shoes, covet iPods and in some ways, look like Americans, but they do not, they cannot, think and react as Americans react. They do not want the same things for the same reasons. This is very, very hard for them to grasp.
When I explain that in most Muslim countries, women are not treated as well as cattle and can be murdered by their male relatives for real or imagined offenses against family honor. When I explain about female genital mutilation, they recoil. When I explain that the Koran exhorts its adherents to murder in the name of Islam and that it provides precise instructions about how infidels are to be dealt with, they are surprised. Intellectually, they comprehend the horror, the alien nature of what I’m telling them, but it’s unlikely that most have an innate understanding, and understanding that will motivate them to action.
Imagine how much harder it must be for the dedicated progressive. No, let me rephrase that. It wouldn’t be hard at all for them, for they would not make the attempt to understand, choosing instead to ignore reality. Fighting for peace and social justice, they have the conceit of the empty headed, well fed, pampered and praised American, a creature who takes for granted the intellectual freedom to truly make choices about self determination and imagines that everyone else thinks as they do. That they are willing to put their juvenile philosophies and assumptions to the test is, I suspect, further confirmation of the survival of the fittest. And these three have surely wandered among savages who will be more than glad to murder them as slowly and painfully as possible when their value as propaganda tools has expired. One can only imagine their uncomprehending shock when they were not embraced by the oppressed with whom they came to commune.
As always, I enjoy your postings… very astute.
Saw the interview where Ahmadinejad answered the American interviewer, “They crossed our border illegally — they broke the law.”
Speaking of gene pool, thats probably what sarah has between her legs about now. Which filthy haji prison guard’s sperm will win the ensemination race? Don’t think that’s happening? I bet Obamma knows it is, and he’s tickled pink.
Thank God she’s just a traitor, and not a real Amrican. Israel would probably be their best bet for rescue, but they probably don’t want to be written up in another “freedom flotila” type story.
As far as I’m concerned, the Iranians can keep them.
Three losers wanted to go roaming around on the borders of Iran, and then got snagged by the Mad Mullahs?
Tough luck.
Hopefully, our government is spending little time, effort and money trying to secure their release.
Just 3 more moronic Rachel “Pancake” Corrie clones. Sorry, kids, but “your” President is too busy appearing on The View and golfing to do anything for ya.
*facepalm*
Just hoping they get released soon. I had to reread this to a a group of Iranian friends and we all just looked at each other and shook our heads at the irony of the situation. I’m sure there are dozens of other ‘hikers’ willing to ignore all of the evidence and sacrifice themselves to become the next martyrs for ‘peace’ and ‘justice’.
These three knew they were close. According to the Iraqi taxi driver, he repeatedly told them not to go this place along the border. The hotel owner or manage said he issued the same warnings.
This story keeps getting stranger and stranger. Didn’t the kids realize that being Jewish put them at special risk?
@60 Shyannie
Why on earth do you believe they’re Jewish?
Shane Bauer worked for The Nation and Mother Jones and is fluent in Arabic.
Sarah Shourd was working in Damascus.
Josh Fattal was working on ‘sustaining living practices’, he is not to be confused with another Josh Fattal, who lives in NY.