83 comments?

[sabotabby]

If all I needed to do for a massive explosion of comments was mention gay cowboys, just think of what might have happened if I'd said "gay pirates."

Now that I've got your attention, please take a moment to sign this petition if you haven't already. Standard disclaimer applies -- petitions are useless, and online petitions are more than useless. But the Christian Peacemaker Teams themselves have asked for signatures, so I suppose it can't hurt.

The pointlessness of this kidnapping gets me the most. Apparently, the hostage-takers want Iraqi POWs freed. No doubt. It's one of the many injustices in an unjust occupation. So why capture people who also oppose the occupation and are actively working to end it? Especially since the hostage-takers are, by default, appealing to the American government, which doesn't give a damn about its own citizens, let alone ideological opponents from other countries?

My heart goes out to the hostages, their families and friends, the CPT, and the people in Iraq and Palestine whom they are trying to help.

Comments

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

I don't think many of these terrorists/insurgents are very sophisticated. White Man == Oppression. The Indian Guy == Surely Not On Our Side. I think it doesn't go much further than that. I mean if someone like Robert Fisk, who's been pretty good at getting around everywhere in the middle east, says that it's impossible to report in Baghdad, it means the situation is really really bad.

[ltmurnau.livejournal.com]

frandroid is right, I think. I would not expect the insurgents to be any more sophisticated about the ins and outs of the situation or who might actually be On Their Side than the yahoos who harassed and assaulted turban-wearing Sikhs in the days after 9/11.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

I could easily imagine people in that sort of group, engaged in a very dangerous war against a brutal occupier, getting stuck in some very narrow ways of thinking. So they could easily believe not only Westerner = Oppressor, but then find ways of explaining every contrary piece of information, like them being peace campaigners, and the various Muslim groups' appeal for their release, as US propaganda and deception. A lot of groupthink, self-deception, etc. going on I would guess. And once they've set out on a course like this (the kidnappings), being extremely unwilling to admit they've made a mistake, however much evidence is presented. :(

[see-my-glock.livejournal.com]

thats ghey

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

I'll vote for gay pirates if they all look like Johnny Depp did in Pirates of the Carribian.

[sarars.livejournal.com]

hey, thought you might appreciate this article about Ann Coulter: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/08/coulter.row.ap/index.html

It starts off this way: STORRS, Connecticut (AP) -- Conservative columnist Ann Coulter cut short a speech at the University of Connecticut amid boos and jeers, and decided to hold a question-and-answer session instead.

"I love to engage in repartee with people who are stupider than I am," Coulter told the crowd of 2,600 Wednesday.