All he had to do was Enlist
Florida teen survives solo field trip to Iraq
When the tall, lanky 16-year-old in the white Nikes, unaccompanied and unable to speak Arabic, explained that he had come to downtown Baghdad for the sake of a school project in “immersion journalism” and humanitarian work — all without his parents’ permission — Patrick Quinn’s heart nearly jumped out of his chest.
Within minutes, Quinn, the Associated Press’ editor in Baghdad, picked up the telephone and called the U.S. Embassy, to get the young man from Fort Lauderdale out of what he called “the most dangerous place in the world.”
Friday, with Farris Hassan safely on a plane back to Florida, the U.S. consul-general announced that the youth’s impetuous journey was at an end, while military officials sputtered angrily about his naive jaunt into a war zone.
“This was a thoroughly stupid thing to do,” a U.S. military official in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, said in a brief interview Friday. “This is an extraordinarily dangerous environment. It’s not only his life, but the life of service members responsible for securing him.”
“If he wanted a free trip to Iraq, all he had to do was enlist,” said an enlisted soldier who spoke on the condition that he not be identified.
National Guard Recruiting Up
Iraq executes 13 terrorists
Scientists enlist clergy in evolution battle
“If you want jihad, the U.S. military is there.”
More Sheehanigans