President Bush says our 24 stranded airmen in China are being treated well — staying in officers’ quarters, eating catered food.
To hear him, they aren’t hostages at all. Not even
detainees, but houseguests.
Would you like some duck sauce with that load of bull?
Reality check: They’re still being held against their
will — and illegally, since they aren’t prisoners of
war.
Bush is spinning the media away from doing what we do
best, which is calling things by their proper names —
raw, unvarnished, hold the duck sauce.
He doesn’t want to see news stories referring to the
crew as “hostages,” because it conjures up images of
the Iranian hostage crisis.
For the most part, the Washington press has obliged
and called them “detainees.”
So what are they? There’s an easy way to find out.
Bush could order U.S. Ambassador Joseph Prueher and
his military attach? back to that Hainan airport and
right into the compound where our crew are being held.
Then, the diplomats could march out with all 24 and
try to board them on an official plane back home.
If the Chinese military tries to stop them, they are
hostages. If it lets them go, then they were political
pawns in a game of Chinese chest-puffing. And we
called their bluff.
Of course, Bush could never risk ordering such a bold
move (assuming “Panda-Hugging” Prueher would ever
agree to carry it out), because if Chinese soldiers
did draw their weapons, it could be viewed as an act
of war.
They would be holding our soldiers by force … unlike
now.
