[Criminal Number 18F]

Some thoughts:

1. Damn, I like this kid.

2. He's seen more of Iraq than Patrick Quinn now, or any of the non insurgent-local-stringer reporters of AP, NYT or WaPo.

3. Compare his experiences ("I got ripped off by taxi drivers!" with the reports that Arab Propagandists are putting out on behalf of the insurgents to whom they're loyal. I wonder how bad the country is when a kid can be-bop around. Notice that the last several hostages taken have been pro-insurgent hostages trying to get captured to put ransom money in the hands of their terrorist pals, or in the case of Suzanne Osthoff, to get a murderer sprung.

4. He's lucky Bilal Hussein wasn't the first AP-nik he ran into, or he and his head would be resting separately.

5. Come to think of it, he's also lucky that his motivation was journalism, or Quinn might well have turned him over to his insurgent pals and we'd never have heard of him again unless the Marines tripped over his head in Ramadi. Quinn's true loyalty may be to the Ba'athist/Islamist side, but apparently journalism-as-nationality comes up trumps.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

5. apparently journalism-as-nationality comes up trumps.

Yup.