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And How Do We Thank Colombia?
IBD Editorials ^ | July 3, 2008

Posted on 07/03/2008 6:15:06 PM PDT by Kaslin

War On Terror: A foreign country puts its men on the line to rescue American hostages and pulls off one of the greatest rescues in history. Might a little gratitude from Congress be in order?


Not since the 1976 Israeli raid on Entebbe has a rescue of hostages held by terrorists ended so spectacularly. Wednesday's liberation by the Colombian army of three Northrop contractors and 12 others will go down as one of history's great strikes against terror.

In the wake of the rescue, Democrats' caricature of Colombia as a night-haunted right-wing dictatorship, a la 1976 Guatemala, looks increasingly hollow.

The American contractors were taken hostage during a coca-spraying mission in 2003. Their flimsy aircraft went down in the jungle after their engine failed with no backup. One of their colleagues, Thomas Janis, was shot dead by FARC on the spot as he destroyed classified documents, and Luis Cruz, a Colombian on the same mission, was tortured to death.

In his 2005 book "Imperial Grunts," Robert D. Kaplan writes that the survivors were then lost to the jungle as crucial time was lost in the initial hours of the accident because of Clinton-era restrictions on U.S. engagement.

So Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell spent five years with brutal terrorists tied up in the jungle with little hope. Last week's rescue ended that nightmare, and today the longest-held American hostages are free.

(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: colombia; farc; foreignpolicy; hostages; latinamerica; terrorism; thugs; uribe
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To: Mind-numbed Robot

Why thank you!


21 posted on 07/04/2008 6:27:57 PM PDT by IBD editorial writer
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To: denydenydeny

I find your hurling out insane charges more disgusting than Indian food wrapped in babies’ used diaper.


22 posted on 07/07/2008 10:00:00 AM PDT by The_Republican (Conservatives are in trouble because they hate Scarlett Johanson.)
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To: livius

With an ultra paranoid mind like yours, I am sure you find them in everywhere. Must be tough to have your little world overrun by trolls. LOL!


23 posted on 07/07/2008 10:04:26 AM PDT by The_Republican (Conservatives are in trouble because they hate Scarlett Johanson.)
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To: Cronos

My wife just bought a Juanes CD.


24 posted on 07/07/2008 10:11:59 AM PDT by dfwgator ( This tag blank until football season.)
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To: livius
Thank you for spelling "ColOmbia correctly. Misspelling the name of that country is a pet peeve of mine.

FWIW, I spent a couple of months in Bogota. It's a great place, the folks are very warm and affectionate. It has problems, but so do we.

25 posted on 07/07/2008 10:15:28 AM PDT by Theo (Global warming "scientists." Pro-evolution "scientists." They're both wrong.)
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