Grim's Hall

Quirt Evans Returns:

An update to last week's post, brought to you by the fighting men of the Coalition.

We are glad to see that the CPT hostages were rescued in a military operation. Their statement is more principled than gracious, at least to the military; it's quite gracious to the hostage-takers.

Well, I have principles too: I am glad to see the kind-hearted saved from danger, and the smiting of the wicked as well. I trust that any members of the Swords of Righteousness brigade who were captured will be treated far kinder than the Christian Peacemakers were; and granted the protections that the Geneva Conventions say they do not merit, the ones reserved by the Conventions to honorable soldiers, but which we yield to almost everyone.

Of course, it is possible they will instead be turned over to the government of Iraq. In that case, the CPT will get what it says it wants: the Iraqis of the Swords of Righteousness will not be handled by the evil occupiers, but by their gentle fellow nationals. I assume we all understand what would happen to the kidnappers in such a case; but presumably this says nothing about the relative virtue of the Coalition and the Iraqi civil government, as we have already established in the statement that the Coalition is the root of all the problems in that nation.