Political Crossfire Forums

This one happened to be killed by an American drone, which I'm sure will lead to some heavy investigations as to how it happened. http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/w ... 17292.html

However, I'd like to know what others think about the situation in general. Basically, this situation:

- American (or other Western citizen) travels to known hot-spot (terrorists, civil war, warlords, etc.)
- Citizen is captured/kidnapped and held for ransom (can be money, prisoner swap, or other concessions by the government)

Given that this person knowingly and freely put their own life in danger, and not as part of a government-sanctioned operation (ie: not military or intelligence), how far should our government(s) go to get them back?

My opinion is somewhat pragmatic. On one hand, they went freely and made a choice, and they should suffer the consequences. However, that ideal doesn't hold up well in the light of real life. They are not helping the "enemy", but are instead helping the people. A major side effect is that the populace may realize that "Americans" aren't all bad. They may not be directly helping the government or Americans, but in spreading goodwill, they are certainly working in parallel.

Until I hear other opinions (since mine may well change depending upon others' insights), I think that the government should talk with the kidnappers, and perhaps even offer non-warmaking (there is a term for this and I can't remember it) supplies, like food and medical supplies. But, no money and no arms.

Any supplies will be traded for arms or money

Yeah - I thought about that. And, it's a very valid point.

I'm thinking that we are probably already giving those same things to the populace, thought. Therefore the demand for them will be fairly low and they won't fetch a good price. However, the caveat to that is that the captors probably know this and a) either have the supplies already because they took them from the populace, or b) will refuse the deal because there's no market for them to resell them.

There is a reason terrorists don't ask for blankets and penicillin for hostages

neat, he was a professor at my college

Then what is everyone's opinion as to how we should handle it? I'm certainly NOT fan of Bergdahling it again.

We should just put it into law that the government won't be allowed to retrieve them so that they know the expectations of going.