Discussion for article #227433
I can’t imagine the pain the families of the murdered journalists are experiencing. Knowing their sons died such horrific deaths and added to that they’ll never receive the bodies to do a proper burial.
Of course, the family of both journalists will want to blame someone for their sons death and the Obama administration and others will be held responsible by both families.
The government and administration has so much on its plate.
Not good.
Obama and the Administration will take a lot of heat for this because they’re in positions of responsibility.
Interesting, however, that from a policy perspective, this guy’s allegations undermine the McCain argument for helping “moderates” and supports the administration position not to intervene as aggressively as McCain and Graham have advocated.
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Well, if we are going to pass blame around, how about the impact of this bizarre and ill-advised video his mother put out? http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/27/steven-sotloff-mother-video-isis-son-return
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Um. Didn’t the admin send in a special forces rescue operation (unfortunately Foley and Sotloff had been moved), putting American soldiers at risk for private citizens who had put themselves in a very dangerous situation? I know they’re angry, but ISIS is the party to blame for their deaths.
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With all due respect for the pain the family experienced, in order to be: " pawns in that game" you have to play on the board. Blaming Obama, deflecting the real responsibilities from the murders, families or pawns.
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While I do express my utmost sympathy for the family, it is hard to take a spokesman from the new American foundation seriously. This is the same group who harshly criticized Obama for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and called called the status of arms agreed withdrawal from Iraq, signed by bush, Obama’s folly. If they wanted communications with the administration they should have got rid of the New American Foundation as their go between.
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I can’t say that these sentiments from the family’s spokesman have much traction for me, not least of all because (a) as war correspondents, Sokoloff and Foley placed themselves in harm’s way and (b) a huge rescue mission was undertaken - at great personal risk for the rescuers and political risk for the Administration - in an effort to find and free these men and others. There is much that we cannot know right now; perhaps the Administration failed in merely providing comfort to the loved one’s; perhaps they raised false hopes or made conflicting statements; who knows?
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The US military sent Delta Force guys to rescue them.
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With all due respect for the Sotloff family, I don’t see what this or any other administration could have done more to help in this very sad situation. When someone elects to enter an area dominated by people who deeply hate America and has shown no remorse on killing the civilian population in some of the most atrocious ways, this person takes upon him/herself the full responsibility for that decision.
I don’t see why we should risk the lives of our military to save the rear end of those who make very unwise decisions for the next big scoop.
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Thank you for pointing that out. The timing of the comments - so soon after the event and when there are surely a number of questions that remain to be answered - seemed rather odd.
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You can’t imagine too much besides the fact you deplore Obama.
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Let’s get serious here! While we all feel for the families of these journalists, they put themselves in these situations to cover stories that no one here really gives a damn about. One of them had been living in Israel since 2008. We all feel for the people in these countries as well but, if what’s going on in their countries isn’t directly affecting citizens here in the US, we’re not interested in sending more of our troops in to die. Get back to me when people are getting their heads chopped off here in this country!
When I saw the video his mom made appealing to ISIS, I thought, she’s going to get her son killed sooner because ISIS will want the world to see how truly ruthless they are.
My sympathy for the family is two-fold. First for losing their loved one and secondly for being used by a “Foundation” who seeks to politicize the issue.
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NOBAMa COuLD have DOne MUCH more. AS an ISLAMOfaSCist COreLIGIONISt, IMAM BARACK cOULD’ve ISSUEd A FATWa DEMAndING THEIR reLEASE. THIS is WHY MUSLIms and DEMOcracY doN"T mix!!!1!!1!1!one!!1!!11!1!
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I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought this video was bizarre. She
looked like a zombie. My thought was that she looked like those ladies
who pump their faces full of botulism to erase wrinkles, which would be
a really callous thing to do to prepare for a video begging for your
son’s life. There seemed to be absolutely no emotion.
I agreed with everything you said up to this point.
We should be grateful to those who are willing to go into such territories and risk their lives just so we can know what’s happening to people who cannot defend themselves. Sotloff and Foley have my respect.
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Up the dosage on your meds!
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