Hmmmm, American soldier, who happens to be a Muslim, captured and threatened with death -- in the Mary Queen of Scots style naturally by his captors. Suddenly, the NY Times reports an allegation by a fellow service member that he may have deserted... And with the speed of light conservative bloggers jump on this allegation to throw it out there, Tacitus (although in a sympathetic fashion) and Lucianne's hell spawn I'm writing about you. But rather than just throw this potential slander out there against that guy that buy all appearances is in a really bad spot as it is, how about we wait to find out what the truth is. After all the military still classifies him as "captured" which would seem to indicate that is not a unanimous feeling by any means. One gets the feeling that but for this guy's religion and/or ethnicity this allegation would not be being made so soon. But let's look deeper into this, there are three equal possibilities in regard to Corporal Hassoun: (1) He really did run off and was somehow captured (possibly by betrayal). (2) Somebody over there is just slandering the guy. (3) This is a story the military WANTS his captors to believe. As for number one, if this was the case, you would think the hostage takers would be bragging it up a bit for PR purposes. So many different PR avenues they could take after all: oppressive America, cowardly America, anti-Islamic America, etc. As for number two, you cannot tell me that 16 months of occupation and constant threat hasn't engendered as much anti-Islamic distaste as exposure to it has engendered tolerance...I'd guess there is a lot of the former (Abu Ghraib anyone?). But, how about number three, if word of this got back to the hostage takers, perhaps they would be less inclined to kill the poor man. In short, let us not be condemning to Corporal Hassoun at this moment. UPDATE: Tacitus, in comments, when not wrongly excoriating me (I was ACTUALLY complimenting you Tacitus, okay?) points out a sloppy error on my part, now corrected, Hassoun is in the "Marines" not the "Army", big difference, especially to veterans. Second, the "rumor" has become the official statement now though I think all three possibilities still apply though some are now far more likely than others.