An American missionary and a Danish national were rescued on January 25, 2012 from Somali pirates who had kidnapped them October 25, 2011. The pirates all were killed.
Military commandos from an elite US Navy SEAL team carried out the raid.
Jessica Buchanan of the United States and Poul Hagen Thisted of Denmark were rescued after they were taken hostage as they were helping the Danish Refugee Council to remove land mines and settle refugees from Somali war zones.
Reported washingtonpost.com:
‘Buchanan attended Valley Forge Christian College in Phoenixville, Pa., and first went to Africa as an undergraduate to work as a student teacher in a private Christian school in Nairobi, Valley Forge President Don Meyer told CNN. Meyer said Buchanan stayed on at the school, which serves many children of missionaries, as a full time teacher, and “fell in love with Africa.”
“She could hardly talk about Africa without tears in her eyes. . .she was living out her love for Africa,” said Meyer, who has stayed close with Buchanan’s family. Buchanan’s sister also graduated from Valley Forge, and her brother-in-law is a student there, Buchanan told CNN.’
And the really big issue in this story is this: Why is the American military intervening – again – in dangerous nations where it has no business? Why are our soldiers risking their lives to save people who are voluntarily entering known danger zones? And where was the Danish military (that’s a joke)?
In short, while we Christians in America wholly support our missionaries in distant lands, the travelers must also be aware that they are operating in dangerous territories. This is like the case of the Christian sailors who were killed by pirates off the Somali coast in early 2011.
It cannot be the role of the American military to save every American who goes overseas and who gets into trouble. These are dangerous nations. It must be the role of those nations’ police or army to rescue the hostages. And if the police or army cannot intervene, then those nations must be seen as lawless and Westerners have no business in those nations or must simply accept the dangers.
Yes, we should do what we can to help out in situations like these. But we are risking losing one or two or three soldiers or ten soldiers for every person that we rescue. This is not acceptable. The Somali rescue involved a risky nighttime mission and a firefight with the pirates. Fortunately no US soldiers were killed, but they easily could have been.
And we don’t even know whether Buchanan and Thisted are pro-American. They could be anti-American liberals. We can assume at least that Thisted is possibly a United Nations-type Euro leftist.
Remember the three American backpackers who were seized by Iran in 2009, and how the US did everything diplomatically possible to secure their release?
Americans were riveted by the story for more than two years. Yet after all three were finally released they appeared together at an Occupy Oakland (Calif.) rally to tout their radical anti-Americanism.
What if we had risked our military to rescue them? What would we think today in risking our soldiers’ lives to free such people?
This brings to mind a much bigger issue – that the world is a very sinister place. And that Americans who travel in many parts of the world are entering perilous waters. And that they must travel at their own risk.
The Somali raid was called after it was reported that Buchanan’s health was deteriorating. But what do you expect when you go to Africa? The whole continent is suffering even in good times. It’s like the guy who gets sick in India and demands the best medical attention. What else did he expect in a nation without anywhere near the health safeguards of America?
So should the American military kick into action risking many lives to save one American?
I say no. Because the American military cannot continue to spend time and scarce money and risk lives to save every American who puts his/her life in harm’s way, much less Danes or other foreigners.
And did Obama approve the rescue in order to get good publicity for himself?
Of course he did. This is a re-election year. He is using our military as a political tool, which is sickening.
Yet this is the same president whose administration called the murder of 13 military personnel by an Islamic madman at Ford Hood, Texas “workplace violence” and not a terrorist attack. So Obama’s sympathies and actions are only motivated by politics.
Indeed it is a travesty to send our troops into harm’s way for private citizens while our Marines are being persecuted for a minor international law violation (urinating on the corpses of killed Afghan fighters).
We must not use our military like this again.
If you grew up in the 1960s, you remember people who traveled footloose abroad or who served in the Peace Corps. And according to the travelers, everything was wonderful in those poor nations… the people, the food, the ambiance etc. And it surely seemed exotic to those of us listening to those stories.
But the fact is that many of these nations are treacherous. And anyone who goes abroad wide-eyed can easily end up dead. Some did.
So to any American who wants to go overseas with good intentions – wonderful. But in a lot of these nations don’t expect that everything will be safe and sound like it is on Maple Street in your town. Or that the American military is going to save you if or when you get into trouble.