Ten notorious hostage situations

GOP holds economy hostage in effort to slash jobs, programs. – The Stand

The MAGA Republican “Default on America Act,” sets up a game of chicken that risks a first-ever default on the nation’s debt. It would be catastrophic for the U.S. economy. Republicans are making this threat to permanently cancel student debt relief, create new work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps, slash IRS funds targeting wealthy tax cheaters, repeal renewable energy incentives, and claw back COVID relief funds earmarked for veterans’ health care, troubled union pension funds, and other priorities. – The Stand

How does the MAGA Republican hostage crisis compare with other notorious hostage situations? Judge for yourself with this infographic?

Hostage situation infographic

Hostage situations

Hostage situations vary greatly based on the motivations of the hostage-taker but have three things in common:

The hostage-taker wants to obtain something. This can be as simple as money, personal safety or safe passage to another country, or it can involve complicated political goals.
The target of the hostage-taker is not the hostage; it is some third party (a person, a company or a government) that can provide whatever it is the hostage-taker wants.
The hostages are bargaining chips. They may have symbolic value (as at the 1972 Munich Olympics, in which the target was the Israeli government and the hostages were Israeli athletes), but the hostages themselves could be anyone. – How Stuff Works

Don’t negotiate with terrorists

Margaret Thatcher’s Government (1979-90) had an express policy that “we do not negotiate with terrorists”. According to the textbooks, terrorists are those who (1) use violence (2) to get political change, and (3) through affecting a larger audience than its immediate target. And the “…no negotiation” strategy is based on the premise that to deal with terrorists will in some measure legitimise violence, give credibility to unreasonable or non-negotiable demands, and (worse of all) encourage others to do the same. – Concordian

TakeAway: Don’t negotiate with terrorists.

Deepak
DemLabs

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