Just want to note that TalkLeft did not make those comments and does not agree with them. We just reported on the escape as being good news. We are not responsible for and often don't share the views of our commenters. TalkLeft gets as many comments from conservatives as it does from liberals.

I agree. TalkLeft is on the very short list of left-of-center sites I can fairly consistently read without needing to shower afterward. I compliment you on it...

I wrote that "offending" statement, and this is why:

From the Reuters article:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=PG1EUXDG44BRACRBAE0CFEY?type=domesticNews&storyID=5017602&pageNumber=1

"Hearing the sound of American Humvees nearby, Hamill kicked down a metal-plate door propped up by a piece of wood and made a stumbling dash across tomato fields with only socks on his feet, hoping to reach a U.S. patrol some 400 yards away. "

AND

"Then, on Hamill's suggestion, they went back to the stone bungalow house near where he was held to see if they could catch his captors. The soldiers found an AK-47 assault rifle abandoned outside the front door and then arrested two men working in the fields nearby. "

So, there was nobody around, and he was able to open the door (albeit with difficulty) and run screaming through fields, and his captors didn't notice?

I think that the hostage takers, once the Fallujah Brigade started up, felt they had won and decided to leave their captive to go join in the celebration, or worse, join the Fallujah Brigadee itself.

I think Hamill is courageous, but it is starting to look like he is destined to become the next Jessica Lynch.

By the time the TV movie comes out, he'll be dodging bullets through a stormy night after achieving a narrow escape where he used a soup ladle and three lengths of twine to unlock a Bank-Vault style prison cell.

Hamill was courageous, to be sure, but let's face facts; if there was no Fallujah Brigade, he'd probably still be in that stone shack, surrounded by increasingly angry enemies looking for a way to punish the US.