A very intersesting story in the NYT today. First, remember that young US soldier who disappeared months ago - you probably don't because the military and the media totally stopped talking about him. His name is (was) Keith Matthew Maupin. This is him:
According to Al-Jazeera, he just got murdered by the militants holding him captive. Why did we hear nothing about this man all these months? That's a damn good question.
Then, we also receive word today that the militants are threatening to behead US Marine, Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun. Hassoun is a Lebanese-born Muslim. Note how now the military - with no definitive proof - is implying in these stories that Hassoun is a deserter. They pretty much say it outright, and in other stories the US military won't even confirmt that the guy got kidnapped at all. The line they're clearly implying is that "once an Arab, always an Arab," and that he packed up to join his fellow dark people in the desert.
Now, apparently, there's no real proof of this, and certainly none that the military is releasing. But it is ok, apparently, for them to release their suspicions that the guy is a deserter and therefore a traitor. Reminds me of when those US sailors died way back in the early 1990s, on the USS Iowa I believe, rather than admit that it was an accident the military concoted some phony story (that was later proven to be untrue) that star-crossed gay lovers blew the ship up.
