Monday, January 18, 2016

Americans Vanish in Iraq

Over the last few days, there has been talk of Americans missing in Iraq. A senior official officer in Baghdad states that a company filed a report about three male American contractors missing. They disappeared in Southern Baghdad on their way to the airport and have yet to been seen since.
It has recently been discovered that the three men disappeared
 during their stay at a brothel. However, it is unknown whether they were lured there or were staying willfully. Sources claim they were taken away in a vehicle convoy in broad daylight.


Many militant groups are known to kidnap people for ransom in this region. However, nobody has yet claimed responsibility for this event.

Many are quick to point out that if this kidnapping turns into a large event, peace and stability in Iraq may be prolonged. However, the US claims to be working peacefully with Iraqi authorities in attempting to locate the lost Americans. The White house has not commented on this event.

Presidential candidate Donald Trump claims that the way our leaders are dealing with this event will showcase to Iraq the weakness of our country's national security. He then connected this to the recent release of American prisoners in Iran and to the Iran nuclear deal, both of which he sees as bad security decisions. 

Questions:
1) If this turned into a large scale kidnapping, how might this affect our relations with Iraq? What might come of this? Or is this no big deal?
2) Do you think this was a militant group's work? Did ISIS play a role?
3) What do you think about Donald Trump's opinion on this issue?

Sources:
CNN: Click Here
NY Daily: Click Here
BBC: Click Here
NBC: Click Here

1 comment:

Teague Bredl said...

I don't know anything about our relations with Iraq except that we've been nothing short of really involved in their domestic issues. We've had a lot of military presence that may not have been necessary and this disappearance case may not make things any better. If it was ISIS or another shady organization that carried this 'kidnapping out' then I wouldn't be surprised but I have no idea. I think Donald Trump will go on to say something really extreme and slanderish to get some more media attention about anything that happens. We don't know what happened to the three consultants so why come to conclusions?