"pro-American US citizen of Iranian origin." Here is a hint. An actual American does not need qualifiers to his identity. An American should rate his national extraction right down there with what what street he grew up on. Liberals are the ones who feel driven to hyphenate themselves.
If I had found a taxi with a trunk full of IED parts, I would have shot everyone in the cab, out of hand. It's why I'm not in Iraq.
That is an insanely incorrect reading of what I wrote above.
An actual American does not need qualifiers to his identity.
Whaaaa??? He didn't put qualifiers to his identity. I mentioned his ethnicity because it is relevant to the story. I don't know how he describes himself.
He is an American citizen, travelling in Iraq. If you don't agree with him going there, he doesn't give a rats hiney. He is of Iranian origin. He is doing a project that involves travel to the cities of the ancient Persian empire, a topic that is alway interesting to Iranians, who are history buffs and proud of their heritage. He believes it will advance his career. He gets in a cab at a public taxi stand, hits a US checkpoint, and then finds himself in prison for 55 days.
Your Tokyo 1944 analogy is so inapt I won't bother to explain why. Maybe you can figure it out for yourself.
Fortunately, the soldiers at the checkpoint are not criminals, and did not do as you would have, which is execute a passenger in a cab because of suspicion of the cabbie. I don't have any problem with anything they did, except for they threw this guy in the slammer and just left him there, instead of checking it out. Turns out he was right about all he was saying. Not just that they can't prove anything but have their suspicions, but that there is clear proof that he was doing nothing wrong, and was not one of the bad guys. I think a week, maybe two, would have been ok to hold him. Do that, and I say, crap happens in war. But they got a little malicious with him, and that's why he's suing now.