The Obama administration confirmed on Tuesday that it was reviewing its policy on securing the release of United States citizens taken hostage abroad, but that the ban on paying ransom would not change.This is being sold as a simple review of hostage policy but make no mistake about it.
Word of the review, disclosed by an under secretary of defense in a letter to a Republican lawmaker, came as the administration was grappling with a series of beheadings of American captives by the Islamic State militant group, which posted a video Sunday announcing the third such killing.
Some family members of hostages have criticized what they see as an unacceptable refusal by the administration to grant concessions, including ransom payments, to hostage-takers.
Unlike European governments, which have paid many millions of dollars in ransom to win the release of citizens held by the Islamic State or other militant groups, the United States has said it will never pay money to rescue its citizens. It has also privately pressed other governments not to pay.
The ground is being laid to face two troubling issues that will smack the American public (the uninformed, not you guys) right between the eyes. First up is the fact that the last remaining US hostage is a female. We haven't seen any pictures of her. We don't know her name but is she next in the cue for those ignorant, inhuman bastards that form ISIS.
When ISIS publishes the video of her being beheaded...and lets hope that's all the post...the US public will go ape. It wouldn't surprise me to see certain liberal groups calling for intensified bombing and for troops to be put on the ground.
But another issue is lurking in the background. Women in combat.
I despise the Obama administration for being so "forward" looking that they're already laying the ground to fight off critics when the uninformed finally see the reality of the Middle East via one of America's daughters having her head sawed off. But I hate them even more for thinking that "equality" for the sake of equality should apply to combat that they're pushing other daughters of this nation into.
America has been sleep walking for the entire term of the Obama Administration's time in office. Fairy dust has been spread and silliness has been the primary concern, not real issues facing our nation. Its a shame that some young woman will have to die to wake up the vast majority of us.
