Americans Held Hostage in Algerian Gas Field Raid
After an attempt by the French military to assault Islamist extremists in Mali, they reacted by raiding an internationally-run gas field in Algeria and abducting the employees there. At least twenty foreign hostages were taken, some of whom were American. This is a difficult situation for the US since Obama has been trying to avoid Northern Africa despite the region becoming "a new haven for extremists affiliated with Al Qaeda who threaten Western security and vital interests." Islamist extremists actually threatened to attack any Western influence after France's military intervention against them last week. As if the US didn't have enough problems, they now have to deal with a region filled with anti-American sentiment. These extremist groups get their money from ransoms obtained from abducting international citizens, so they will not be afraid to attack another Western company in their land again.
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The most frightening aspect of this article is the tension that emerged between the US and Northern Africa. As much as I agree with President Obama's reasoning for avoiding interactions with Northern Africa, the kidnapping of American citizens has to result in American action. The USA maybe even with the help of France should terminate this issue immediately, before it gets out of hand. Who else to save American hostages than the president of the United States of America?
ReplyDeleteThere is no question the the U.S. should and will try if not succeed in saving those hostages. That being said we also do not compromise with terrorists. I do not think that the U.S. needs to have any other involvement in the area after the hostages are rescued. That is for now. Maybe when we are out of Afghanistan and we are better off at home,we can assess and properly act on the situation in North Africa.
ReplyDeleteI think that all of Sebastian's points that he made were excellent. I do not think that we should be focusing too much on the issues here in Africa. We need to come home and get our country back into a good situation and then later deal with whatever needs to be dealt with at that point. I also agree that in no way should we compromise with the terrorists. I trust that President Obama will make smart and careful decisions with this situation and hope for the best with the hostages.
ReplyDeleteIt's a difficult situation when American lives are involved. On one hand we definitely do need to bring the focus back to our own country and work to get it back on track, but on the other hand there are some of our own citizens being kidnapped. Something needs to be done, not necessarily something insane or large scale, but something to remedy the situation and show Northern Africa we won't stand for our own being injured.
ReplyDeleteI, without a doubt, know that the United States will go back and save the hostages in Northern Africa. We have done it before, we can do it again. Before, I said that our country should stay in our country and get everything settled before helping other countries. I still stand by that and I am glad other people are feeling the same way now. Before, people would say that the United States is the "police force" of the world. That's wrong. Let's fix our own country first before we fix others. I also feel that we need to stop interactions with Northern Africa. If they don't want us near them, leave them alone. It isn't that hard...
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