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Kayla Mueller This Was for You
The “dark and dangerous” operation that claimed the life of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was named after 26-year-old Kayla Mueller, an American who was kidnapped by the extremist group and killed in 2015.
Mueller, who was described by her family as a “compassionate and devoted humanitarian,” traveled to Turkey in 2012 after her graduation and then crossed the border into Syria, on a mission to help those fleeing the civil war in the country. She was leaving a hospital run by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders in the Syrian city of Aleppo when she was kidnapped in August 2013.
A friend of mine, who was a detective, had a sign on the corner of his desk; “The only reason some people aren’t dead yet is because it’s against the law to kill them.”
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi met the demise he deserved. My tears are reserved for Kayla Mueller, and for the victims of ISIS. She was from Prescott, AZ. From the Arizona Republic:
On Sunday, the Muellers praised President Donald Trump and the soldiers who pulled off the mission.
“We are so grateful for them … we are so grateful,” Marsha Mueller said. They were glad there was no loss of life on our side. They are grateful their daughter and the others who were tortured and killed by ISIS have not been forgotten.
“I still say Kayla should be here, and if Obama had been as decisive as President Trump, maybe she would have been,” Marsha Mueller said.
“For me what matters most I’m hoping now we will finally get the answers we have been asking for all along,” Marsha Mueller said. “I think this administration truly might help us. I don’t think they are as closed about what happened.”
There are times that death comes for those that deserve it. Kayla Mueller did not deserve death, Baghdadi did.
Published in Islamist Terrorism
What Marsha Mueller said about Mr Obama should be on every TV between now and November 2020.
It was not just Obama. It was the Deep State.
Yes. This.
I heard an interview with the Mueller’s on Sirius XM yesterday. On the whole it was very good. There was one thing they said that I had a problem with.
They were very upset about that fact that before Kayla was killed, family and friends had raised ransom money. The government told them that if they ransomed Kayla they would be subject to prosecution. After Kayla was killed, the government said that funds would (and could) be used to find and punish the perpetrators. They said, “If we could have ransomed her, Kayla would still be alive.”
It’s understandable that their personal situation was paramount in their considerations. But…..they are overlooking the fact that if other people had not been ransomed in the past, it’s possible that Kayla would not have been kidnapped. Ransoming the victims of terrorists, shows the terrorists that kidnapping works.
If Kayla never went to Syria, She’d still be alive.
It sounds very harsh, but I have to agree. It doesn’t in any way excuse what was done to her, but reading the Wikipedia page about her (and the NY Times article after her death) is…instructive. In short, she was a “human rights activist” in the Rachel Corrie mode, and a member of the same misbegotten group (though I must say she doesn’t appear to have harbored the hatefulness of Corrie–so, perhaps just an innocent abroad in a very nasty world). According to Wikipedia, FWIW, she traveled to Syria with her Syrian boyfriend, who was also kidnapped with her, but was (conveniently?) released. Apparently, the Doctors without Borders group were horrified at her showing up there at all and recommended she leave straight away. Unfortunately, the kidnapping occurred on the way out.
What happened to her was horrible and I’m very, very glad the monster who tortured her is dead. She was also extremely foolish for being there in the first place.
Jimmy and Caryn, I agree with you.
I’m not one to stand up for the Obama Administration often, but I do not blame them for this, and I think that it is unfair to do so.
Here is a copy of a Syria Travel Warning issued in August 2012 by the State Department, which includes the following:
Ms. Mueller disregarded this warning. What happened to her was terrible, criminal, and tragic, but traveling into a war zone was a terrible idea.
I am reminded of two other tragic cases — Otto Warmbier, who unwisely traveled to North Korea, and three American hikers held by Iran for a few years after allegedly crossing into Iran in 2009 while hiking in Iraq near the Iranian border.