Prisoner of War released from Afghanistan. SJ Dodgson MJoTA 2014 v8n1 p0604.
We awoke today to video of the release in Afghanistan of a young man who had been held captive in Afghanistan for 5 years. For 5 years, the young man's father lived and breathed getting the young man home. He learned the language of his son's jailers, he learned all he could about Islam, he lobbied, he spoke. And every day he worked towards getting his son home. Because his son was alive.
Immediately I started hearing complaints, that the son had somehow deserved to be captured, that he was the cause of deaths of other Americans during the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, the the father was a militant Islamist.
No to all. The father was a father doing what he could, and doing everything he could. The bright story in this week of tragedies: the new owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer was killed 3 days after buying out his partner for $44 million; the search for the Malaysian airplane that vanished 3 months ago has been searched for in the wrong spot; the search for the nearly 300 Nigerian girls kidnapped from Chibok 2 months ago has stalled. And now we have a beautiful story of a Calvinist who has done what it takes to get his son home.
All you people outside Chibok running out to rallies to wave flags saying "BringOurGirlsBack"; if you are serious about the girls, you will be learning Hausa and finding out how organized crime (the Boko Haram and the federal Government of Nigeria) has been encouraged to hold Nigerians hostage.
Follow the example of a Calvinist who loved his son more than anything in his life, and knew the only way to bring him home was to treat the captors with respect.
