I will give one. Blame me as pessimistic, it is not all positive, or at least dubious: http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/29/iraq.italians.return/index.html Another link: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1341920,00.html EDIT: No doubt they were delivered, but it looks like the italian government might have payed a ransom. But they deny it. But ok, let us be happy that the hostages made it back alive.
Has everyone been so busy with the pessimism that you just let the good news go by? No, the release was applauded in a previous and still active thread on this subject. We are busy around there with traffic generalizing Islam as being "atechnological", "barbaric" etc. and obsessing on religion, and flaws in someone else's culture, as the cause of all such mischief. "But ok, let us be happy that the hostages made it back alive." Indeed. Let's also recognize that in a society dominated by "evil Muslims", the thugs who abducted them could find no buyers at all for their Western damsels (none in Iraq, anyway). Let's also recognize and be thankful that these criminals (assumed to be Muslims) did not harm their prey, in spite of their assumed submission to what many find a mysterious and dark religion, but that somehow didn't cause total depravity in this case. Hmmm. But there is cause to be happy: Let's also celebrate the release of 4 Egyptian hostages on the same newsday. Let's joyfully celebrate the release of the Simonas' 2 Iraqi coworkers. Let's remember to be joyous on each release of the the hundreds of Iraqis that have been abducted for ransom- at least for those who don't dissappear forever, or turn up dead. Let's be happy for the lucky Iraqis who are not blasted to bits in this "pre-emptive" chaos America chose for Iraq. Let's wish them well, shall we? Better that we try and look deeper than the media's pornography and extreme ethnic bias in narrating the destruction of Iraq, because what happens there is certainly going to affect us all. Considering the big picture, there is no cause whatever to be happy about what is occuring in Iraq. In this little interlude, I'm hoping that The Simonas will take advantage of the limelight they will now endure, to help educate a woefully confused Western world on what is happening to Iraq. I hope the Simonas summon even greater personal strength now- more courage than it took for them to serve and endure through sanctions, invasion, occupation, civil war, and abduction- strength to somehow keep on-message as coherently as possible through the overwhelming dissonant chorus of the major-media circus.
