Carroll criticized by conservative bloggers

I agree.

I think if there is criticism to be given it should be addressed at the policy that allows civilians to travel into a combat zone without any kind of armed escort.

I agree. Someone in our little Virginia world here raised questions a few months ago, and I confess to having my doubts at the time. I disavow them, and am glad to have been wrong.

Even though Iraq is not a "Free country" yet, we live in a free country, and if a reporter wants to travel in a war zone and take the chance of getting captured or killed, we should allow them to do so, of their own free will.

Further, I don't mind that, when they get caught, we do what we can to free them. I guess if it got to be too big a burden we could announce we weren't helping any more people, or would charge them, like we do with hikers in bad weather in the back country.

I've noticed that more than a few liberal bloggers had adopted her as their poster child before the retraction.

And the Post's Outlook this Sunday had an entire opinion piece centered on how "normal" it was for her to say what she did, which was funny reading after knowing of her retraction -- because this guy was telling how he was just like her, and it turns out he wasn't so much.

And if you want to see slime, you might want to visit some well-known liberal blog to see what they are saying about her not that she's retracted her statements.

I've always thought that it should be the open, widely announced and publicized policy of the United States to encourage its military (and civilians who get caught up by hostiles) to say anything their captors want them to say. If it is widely stated in advance that our citizens have full license to mouth any absurdity captors want them to speak, the propaganda value of such statements is almost completely devalued.

Good idea NoVa Scout... an interesting approach to this issue.

Charles-

I'm with you. Anyone who uses a captive to their rhetorical advantage should think about how similar their methods are to those that kidnap for propaganda.