Boy, no sooner do you extend a bit of patience than you realize how late it really is. I hadn’t done any reading on the three hikers who have now all been released by Iran, so when I saw some comments on FaceBook which I thought were harsh and critical, I responded that I thought they were just granola hippies caught up in the Iranian propaganda. I figured their criticism of America was just reflexive parroting of the Iranian line they had had no choice but to hear for a couple of years.
I wrote, in closing:
“They are hippie hikers who never understood the danger they were in, and I would not expect them to have a moral core to rely on to resist having their thoughts bent.
These are Americans and I’m glad they’re safe. Now somebody worth a damn needs to get hold of them and see if they need de-programming, and at least get them to shut up for a while. Their bodies have been freed–their minds will take longer.”
So then, I bopped on over to a story on Breitbart to see just what they had said. Perhaps you, dear reader, are up to speed on this: I was not.
“Shourd, a teacher, writer and women’s rights activist, met Bauer, a fluent Arabic-speaking freelance journalist, while helping to organize demonstrations in the US against the war in Iraq. The two moved to Damascus together in 2008.
Fattal is an environmentalist and teacher. He traveled in 2009 to Damascus. Bauer proposed to Shourd during a rare moment shared in captivity, presenting her with an engagement ring painstakingly weaved from the threads of his shirt.
Thrust into the media spotlight after three days with their families in Oman, Bauer made more political points than Fattal, who applauded the Iranian authorities for finally making the right decision about the case.
“The irony is that Sarah, Josh and I oppose US policies towards Iran which perpetuate this hostility,” said Bauer.”
— from Breitbart
So. Leftist hippie America-hating love-fest goes wrong (somehow) and they windup in the grip of a real dictatorship. They promptly criticize America.
Perhaps they will someday see things straight, but I cannot ascribe their childish position to their incarceration–they were dead wrong before they went there–that in fact is why they went there.
Criticize America while overseas. 500 Words. Go.
