With Friends Like These. . .

FrontPage Magazine's War Blog is reporting that Germany has released Mohammed Ali Hammadi from prison and allowed him to return to Lebanon. Mr Hammadi is a member of terrorist organization Hizbollah and was serving a life sentence for the murder of Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem during the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight to Beirut. Stethem was beaten and tortured so severely before being executed that the body had to be identified by fingerprints. Fellow passengers said that Petty Officer Stethem endured his ordeal with surpassing courage.

The reason that the Germans gave for releasing Hammadi is that he had served out his (life?) sentence. We get a clue to the real reason in that fact that Hammadi's release came just a few days before terrorists in Iraq released the German hostage they had held since November 25th.
It seems that the Germans have decided to join France and Spain in the axis of appeasement. I guess they remember how Chamberlain was able to contain Hitler and prevent another world war, oh wait that didn't work out so well did it.

Some have called for the US to pull its troops out of Germany and let them defend themselves. While this looks good at first glance I think it would be a bad idea. Given Germany's history I think that if we force them to build up a credible military force we'll be fighting them within two generations. Better to let them keep an army that is little more than a glorified palace guard and spend all their money on an ever more lavish dole.

On a positive note late reports are that Hammadi is "in custody" in Beirut. I don't know who is holding him, but we can hope that he will soon be in the US where he can stand trial. Of course we'll also be treated to the sight of legions of moonbats lining up to see that his rights are protected and that we understand the suffering of his people.

On another positive note the United States Navy had named a destroyer after PO Stethem. The USS Stethem, DDG-63, is an advanced and powerful warship. Let us hope that the Stethem is called upon to participate in operations against Hizbollah.


UPDATE

Lebanese authorities have released Hamadi from custody. US officials have promised to bring Hamadi to the United States and do not rule out the use of force. The whole article is in The Washington Times (free regrisration required).