What Would You Do? Hostage Crisis

Eli Awbrey, Cole Cook, Clak Hendrix, Sam Turner

Situation Americans are being held hostage in the

Middle East by terrorists. One of the hostages is being tortured. Our administration has a policy that keeps us from negotiating with terrorists. The terrorists are asking that we stop supporting Israel. The hostages have many sympathizers, and rightfully so. A government in the area has implied that if we provide them with weapons, they could arrange the release of “some” hostages.

Notable Hostage Crises Iran Hostage Crisis

November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981

Lebanon Hostage Crisis 1982 to 1992

Somalia Hostage Crisis October 25, 2011 to

January 4, 2012American Hostages in Iran

Options

1. We could adhere to our policy and refuse to negotiate with the terrorists, while subtly negotiating with friendly nations in the area to see if they can help the hostages.

2. We could secretly give the terrorists weapons to free the hostages.

3. We could deploy troops to attempt to locate and free the hostages.

Pros Option 1: By refusing to negotiate with the

terrorists, other terrorists groups will see that capturing American hostages is not how to get what you want.

Option 2: By exchanging arms for the Americans’ release, we could free the Americans. We could also form bonds with less aggressive groups in the area to increase our influence there.

Option 3: By executing an operation to free the hostages, we could rescue them without making any negotiations or appearing weak.

Presidents and Hostage Crises

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Jimmy Carter

Ronald Reagan

Barack Obama

Cons Option 1: Adhering to our policy probably won’t

get the hostages released, and we’ll be publicly criticized by people who sympathize with them.

Option 2: Delivering weapons doesn’t guarantee the hostages’ release, and if we are caught secretly negotiating, we’ll be criticized for abandoning our policy.

Option 3: Our troops may not be able to find and free the hostages, and the lives of the hostages or the soldiers may be lost in the process.

Our Decision

We choose……. OPTION 3, which involves deploying military units to locate and liberate the hostages

Justification Option 3 shows that we will not be pushed

around in situations like these. We need to do all we can to save hostages who don’t deserve to die. It seems stubborn to stand by a policy that could cost lives just for the sake of credibility. None of the options guarantee saving the hostages’ lives, but deploying military units gives us as good a chance as any, and we don’t give away weapons. This really doesn’t endanger the hostages any more than they already were, and we still show other terrorists that taking hostages is not a way to get what they want.

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Iran Hostage Crisis Political Cartoon

Citizens felt very strongly about the Iran Hostage Crisis

Sources http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h2021.html http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-

8105.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/

piracy/9041774/US-Navy-Seals-rescued-American-hostages-from-Somalia-why-wont-Britain-do-the-same.html

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