The Third Option

Iraq War Resister Among Those Abducted
Among the four Westerners kidnapped yesterday in Iraq (the BBC describes them as "aid workers") is Briton Norman Kember:

Professor Kember, who is believed to be in his 70s, was said to be representing a number of humanitarian aid groups.

Professor Kember is of the "violence never settled anything" school of thought. Immediately after the al Qaeda terrorist attacks of September 11. 2001, War Resisters International began gathering signatures on this statement. Excerpts:

We are deeply shocked and outraged by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11th. Equally, we condemn the so-called war on terrorism.

And they named their, hmm, enemy? Do radical pacifists consider people "enemies"? Probably not. They likely have some bland euphemism to indicate conflict. In any case, their bone to pick is with Dubya, who else? [emphasis added]

Confronted by President George W. Bush with the choice: "If you are not with us, you are with the terrorists", we choose a third option: nonviolence.

Kember is a signatory to this denial of reality, number 21.

Can you say irony? These folks don't believe in violence, but it appears violence believes in them. The way I see it, that leaves three options to win Kember's freedom.

First, a ransom can be paid to the kidnappers. The money paid will then be used to purchase the tools of terrorism, ensuring that more people die violently in Iraq. Perhaps the terrorists will buy some toys to booby-trap.

The second option is for Coalition and Iraqi soldiers to rescue them. The soldiers will have to put their own lives on the line to accomplish this, of course, and some terrorists are likely to die in the process. I shed no tears for dead terrorists, but Professor Kember and his mates might.

Norman Kember's third option is to lie down and die.