No Stockholm Syndrome For This Swede

A Swede who had been held hostage in Iraq for 47 days has "hired bounty hunters to track down his former captors, promising to eliminate them one by one". Ulf Hjertstrom told reporters, "I have now put some people to work to find these bastards,...I invested about $50,000 so far and we will get them one by one."

If Iraq had a fully functioning, effective, rights-protecting government, I would not condone this sort of action. But given that it doesn't, I don't have the same sort of objections that I normally would. Or as Doc Holliday said of Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, "It's not revenge he's after. It's a reckoning." (Via Rand Simberg.)

In a related story, Douglas Wood (the Australian hostage who had been held captive by the same terrorists) recently called them "a**holes" during his press conference. In response, Andrew Jaspan (editor-in-chief of the Australian newspaper The Age), said that Wood's remarks were "boorish" and "coarse". According to Jaspan,

"The issue really is largely, speaking as I understand it, he was treated well there. He says he was fed every day, and as such to turn around and use that kind of language I think is just insensitive."

I guess he thinks Wood should have sent the kidnappers a thank you note, instead. (Via Volokh.)