What was he thinking?

OK, so this kid runs off to Iraq w/o telling his parents. He writes about the evils of terrorists and the "struggle between good and evil". And the blogs on the right fall in love with him (following the link and check out the responses, especially the ones that allegedly complain about the kid). But the only reason they are doing so is because of what he wrote. If he instead had written about the WMD lies, the problems still there and other things that appeal to the left, the blogs on the right would have torn into him like a pack of wolves, complaining about what kinds of parents could let this happen, "stupid kid", etc.

I support the invasion of Iraq and feel we are doing good, long term work towards peace by doing so. However, lets be clear what is happening here. Everything is ok because of his opinion, not for what he did. For those of us with 16 year old kids, this has some gut-wrenching aspects that have nothing to do with the kid's opinion on the war or his family's homeland. The first question, of course, after returning home safely is "What the hell were you thinking!?!?!?".

I'm am very glad he is safe, that is the first and main thing that matters. As for all the blogs glowing about how wonderful he is, you need to look at yourself in the mirror: if you complained about the human shields a the beginning of the war, you need to be very careful about congratulating this kid for what he did. Congratulate them all for standing up for what they believe in or condemn them all for stupidity.

Pajamas Media - Farris Hassan Iraqi adventure

Talk about immersion journalism: Farris Hassan, a 16-year old boy from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, skipped classes one week earlier than the Christmas break was supposed to start. The son of two Iraqi-Americans living in the US for 35 years, and speaking no Arabic, Farris decided sneak into Iraq via Kuwait on his own without even telling his parents, to complete an assignment for his journalism class. He was handed to the US embassy in Baghdad by the 101st Airborne after the Associated Press -who got a nice exclusive- called them when the boy walked into its bureau to announce its editors he was there to do research and humanitarian work. During his adventure, Farris Hassan wrote an essay: "[t]here is a struggle in Iraq between good and evil, between those striving for freedom and liberty and those striving for death and destruction [...] Those terrorists are not human but pure evil. For their goals to be thwarted, decent individuals must answer justice's call for help. Unfortunately altruism is always in short supply. Not enough are willing to set aside the material ambitions of this transient world, put morality first, and risk their lives for the cause of humanity. So I will."