Have I Got a Vacation For You !

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

Have I Got a Vacation Location for You !

As we begin to stare into the face of fall, and with anticipation of a cold and snowy winter, people begin to think of vacations in the sun. Folks dream of Florida,  the Caribbean and Hawaii. Young people dream of spring break in Fort Lauderdale, or at least they once did.

Well, this week I learned that taking a hike in a war ravaged country like Iraq is right up there on top of the list for the younger set. No Fort Lauderdale for those youngsters.

A great deal of planning, not to mention consultation with parents, must have gone into putting together a way for young American citizens without military or government connections or influence to actually travel to a war zone and just go out for a walk.

I can understand their eagerness to see the countryside. Everybody knows Iraq used to be beautiful. Remember those scenes of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and tributaries when Cleopatra was wooing old Marc Anthony.

But I digress.

So off into the woods of Iraq go our dauntless three American young people. Evidently they went without any sort of map, or an out of date map, typical of kids these days, as they somehow stepped over some sort of unmarked boundary and ended up in Persia. Well, actually they ended up in Iran but I am assuming they used an old map when that country was known as Persia. That would explain a lot!

Their desire to get out of Iraq would be understandable.

Their desire to get into Iran, arguably a worse place for anyone with an American passport, defies all logic.

So the Iranians grabbed them and let the world know they had captured three American spies. Gee how does one jump from finding three hikers/campers to a charge of espionage? One would expect that perhaps the Iranians found it hard to believe that three young Americans decided to take a walk in Iraq and accidentally ended up in Iran without some sort of government encouragement or help. You know those Iranians. They have such vivid imaginations.

Years later, all three are now free thanks to the generosity of the government of Oman that decided, just out of the kindness of their hearts, to pony up $1.5 million in bail. (Note: the Congressional Research Service wrote last month commenting on US-Omani relations:

“The stakes for the Administration and Congress in Oman’s stability are considerable. A long-time U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, Oman has allowed U.S. access to its military facilities for virtually every U.S. military operation in and around the Gulf since 1980, despite the sensitivities in Oman about a U.S. military presence there.” )

Gee, you gotta hand it to those Omanis. And they didn’t even mention previous and future foreign aid from the U.S.

So our government demonstrated again that we do not pay any sort of ransom for any body.

No sir.

The Omanis demonstrated that they could be counted on in a pinch.

Yes sir.

The Iranians demonstrated they could score a cool $1.5 million to use on some “people oriented” national project, say like making nuclear bombs to throw at the Israelis.

And some of us wonder why the CIA continues to recruit on college campuses in the good old “U.S. of A.”

How stupid is that?

For further information:  jacksonblair@gmail.com