Posted on 12/29/2005 6:16:36 PM PST by jecIIny
Farris Hassan’s not-so-excellent adventure U.S. teen goes to Iraq to see ‘struggle between good and evil’ By Jason Straziuso The Associated Press Updated: 6:55 p.m. ET Dec. 29, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Maybe it was the time the taxi dumped him at the Iraq-Kuwait border, leaving him alone in the middle of the desert. Or when he drew a crowd at a Baghdad food stand after using an Arabic phrase book to order. Or the moment a Kuwaiti cab driver almost punched him in the face when he balked at the $100 fare.
But at some point, Farris Hassan, a 16-year-old from Florida, realized that traveling to Iraq by himself was not the safest thing he could have done with his Christmas vacation.
And he didn’t even tell his parents.
Hassan’s dangerous adventure winds down with the 101st Airborne delivering the Fort Lauderdale teen to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which had been on the lookout for him and promises to see him back to the United States this weekend.
It begins with a high school class on “immersion journalism” and one overly eager — or naively idealistic — student who’s lucky to be alive after going way beyond what any teacher would ask
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
"struggle between good and evil"
Which did he consider to be the evil side? Not in the article.
He seems to be pro-US. Gutsy, heart's in the right place, but not the brightest crayon in the box.
“There is a struggle in Iraq between good and evil, between those striving for freedom and liberty and those striving for death and destruction,” he wrote.
“Those terrorists are not human but pure evil."
My bad, must not have scrolled far enough. Or was it in one of the sidebars?
It's near the end of the article. On the last page.
The money quote:
"There is a struggle in Iraq between good and evil, between those striving for freedom and liberty and those striving for death and destruction," he wrote.
"Those terrorists are not human but pure evil. For their goals to be thwarted, decent individuals must answer justice's call for help. Unfortunately, altruism is always in short supply. Not enough are willing to set aside the material ambitions of this transient world, put morality first, and risk their lives for the cause of humanity. So I will."
Aha, I read his essay from the sidebar and there it is.
I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't join the Marines when he gets of age.
Definitely foolish thing to do; but he is a kid. Kids don't have the life experience to not do foolish things sometimes. With that said, he IS smarter than any Democrat and someday might do good things for the conservative cause. I'm glad he made it back okay.
going way beyond what any teacher would ask
_______________________________________
Heck he went way beyond what the MSM does in Iraq where they report from their hotel rooms.
He is a gutsy kid. And certainly has more guts and a more reasonable view on the US and terrorism than most mainstream journalists.
I have to call the kid gutsy, but he's too young and naive at this point to be that gutsy!
If he lives to adulthood, we may hear a lot of good things from and about him. One thing's for sure--he will certainly have some tales for his grandkids some day--LOL!
Geez, his poor mom and dad probably aged ten years before they got him back home.
The moment I actually find it automatically routing me to Iraq, even if it's through ten different countries, is the moment I know the country has truly returned to a normal life, and that we have finally won.
A few years back, before the war, I teased my friends at work by suggesting that I would go to Iraq for my vacation, to see it as it was under the evil dictator for the last time. It sure would have been one heck of a trip.
But even I'm not quite suicidal enough to attempt a trip there today. I hope I do get to see it someday. If I do, it will mean the country's free and prosperous.
D
Just the logistics are impressive. Getting from one place to another. Gotta hand it to this kid.
A budding Hunter S. Thompson?
And none of you is surprised about the trip to and from Lebanon, about his father advising him to go to friends in Lebanon and these same 'friends' then abetting him in returning to Iraq? There's something rotten in the state of the story. Before we all laud this kid's heroism/idealism, we ought to iron out the kinks.
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