American kidnapped in Iraq, first since 2008… (Iraqracy VI)
The Washington Post reports on the kidnapping of an American contractor who was kidnapped in Baghdad. Specifically, the upscale neighbhorhood of Karrada, supposedly one the safe areas. (But, really, as any Baghdadi will tell you, there are no safe areas in the city.)
Most troubling: the kidnappers are the folks that I wrote about a couple months back, the Shiite militia group called the Promised Day Brigade. Last month, they had exchanged one hostage–a British contractor, Peter Moore–to get their leader, Qais Khazali, released.(The group had executed the four security guards held with Moore.)
Apparently–and this the very big downside to negotiating with kidnappers–they have taken away the lesson that hostage taking gives them political power. However, it was the Brits who negogtiated(allegedly!) for Moore’s release. Now militants are going to have to deal with the Americans, who usually aren’t too keen to negotiate on this kind of thing…
Also: the Promised Day Brigade is allegedly behind the killing of five Americans in Karbala in 2007.
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“Each war, it is said, produces its own literary classics. All Quiet on the Western Front for WWI, Catch-22 for WWII, Dispatches for the Vietnam War. So where is the masterpiece from the current Iraq War? The outstanding book by Michael Hastings…is certainly a candidate.”
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