USS Clueless              Voyages of a restless mind

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Stardate 20011008.0829 (On Screen): There is a difference in my mind between someone who is killed while going about their daily routine, and someone who actively seeks out an extremely perilous situation (no matter why) and gets into trouble while doing so. If that latter person does get into trouble we are right to be concerned about her, but we should be less than sympathetic. She is no victim. Someone who plays with fire, and so on.

Yvonne Ridley is a British reporter who illegally crossed the border into Afghanistan in disguise, and was caught and detained by the Taliban. She played a high stakes game with her own life and got caught. Regardless of what we may think of the Taliban, Ridley was breaking the law. Had someone from Afghanistan done the same thing to Great Britain, they would have been imprisoned, too. And it is arguable that Ridley was acting as a spy (her purpose was to get in, find out what was going on, get out and report on that), and if so she could have been shot. So she was unreasonably lucky when the Taliban decided to release her (for propaganda purposes). Unfortunately, the timing was a bit wrong, and she was still in Afghanistan when the bombing started. Now they claim they have released her anyway.

Her mother has been extremely worried, and rightly so. She was elated when she discovered her daughter was going to be released, and then again worried once she heard that the bombing started. She said the following to reporters:

I last heard from the Foreign Office last night and they were doubtful that the hand-over would take place at the border. The Taleban said they were going to release Yvonne yesterday. She was coming home. My daughter Yvonne was a free woman. The British Government said she was coming home. Why then could they not delay the bombing for a few hours? I just cannot accept that.

She can not be serious! For crying out loud! Did she really think that they were going to delay the attack just so that her daughter could be extracted from a problem that she had gotten herself into? It's a good thing that she's free, but her safety could not be an issue in the timing of this attack.

The father of one of the American missionaries being held in Afghanistan, who have not been freed, is in Pakistan right now. He is remaining out of the public eye and refusing to talk to reporters, and that is the correct thing to do. While he cares about his daughter, it's clear that he understands that she is not what this war is about. I respect him much more for his silence than I do Ridley's mother. (discuss)