Dispatch from the Homefront

My correspondent is enjoying the green green grass of home, and is working on a wrap-up of his experiences. I shall post that when that is done. In the meantime, here are some brief thoughts from him on the kidnappings in Iraq.

(As background, as I surmised in this post, Germany almost certainly paid a ransom for Susanne Osthoff. Two more Germans were kidnapped last Tuesday.)

War is very very expensive and unless you concoct some revenue raising scheme (ala iran-contra) there must be outside sources to generate the cash flow that sustains operations.

Oh, let's just hijack a ____ like we always do. Seems like the bad guys in Iraq figured SOMEHOW that kidnapping certain foreigners is a GREAT way to make cold hard cash!!!

Ergo, some deutschers just got scarfed up. Again. Surprise surprise surprise says gomer. I wonder if there could be a study to indicate in a certain area associated where the capture took place and if there is an associated rise in certain type(s)/attacks after a certain time of the repatriation transaction since that could represent the time it takes to convert the cash into weapons.

Maybe not since certain groups operate all over and the kidnappers themselves might just be contracted to grab or sell to the highest bidder etc. Regardless, those moneys in every single ransom case, and there is near incontrovertable proof it goes on especially with spineless euros (and it is proven fact in hundreds of cases regarding iraqis or other middle easterners), those moneys are later used to harm me and my buddies.