01-21-2015, 07:55 PM
(01-20-2015, 04:51 AM)crash Wrote: I see two Japanese Nationals have now been kidnapped by ISIS with a 48 hour deadline to pay $200 million, or they will be executed. I would link the article but I really don't feel like giving these pieces of shit excuses for humans any more air time than a few lines of text. My feeling is that Abe will pay the money; he will want to avoid a repeat of last time.
It's a catch 22. You pay, you fund them. You don't, two people, who don't deserve to, die.
Japan is in a tough spot, for sure.
I don't believe Prime Minister Abe will pay the ransom. There would be too much condemnation from other countries and he'd be putting a price tag on other Japanese nationals in Islamic countries.
If IS really expected payment, I think they would have approached Japanese officials privately, not in a very public forum. And, I think the ransom amount would have been more reasonable. This is a show of power and global-reach by IS, in my opinion, not an income-generating strategy. IS doesn't want to be dwarfed by the resurgence of al-Qaeda.
Japan has very limited military and very strict protocols for using it. To the best of my knowledge, they don't have the types of operatives to facilitate a rescue attempt on their own. Even if they did or they got assistance from other countries, I don't think the hostages have much of a chance. The US and Britain sadly haven't been able to rescue the last four hostages.
But, I sure hope the Japanese hostages can somehow be saved, without paying off the terrorists.