Foreign Army Shoots US Peace Activist; US Does Nothing
Robert Naiman, Just Foreign Policy, March 25, 2009

Here's a news awareness question you might not hear on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me." (A search on the NPR website yielded no results.)

On March 13, a US citizen attending a peace demonstration was shot in the head by a soldier of a foreign army. Eyewitnesses report that the American and his companions weren't doing anything and hadn't done anything that would justify the use of force, let alone shooting him in the head.

Here's your news awareness question: name the country.

The American remains hospitalized in critical condition, reported The Independent Tuesday, describing him as "fighting for life" following three brain surgeries. He suffered a multiple fracture to his skull, severe injury to the frontal lobe of his brain, and a collapsed eye socket. Part of his right frontal lobe had to be removed.

His parents have called for a full investigation. But so far, judging from press reports, the United States government hasn't had anything to say about it. Why not?

I freely concede that I take this quite personally. I was an international peace volunteer once. When you are a US peace volunteer in an international conflict situation, you like to think that your blue passport gives you some measure of protection; foreign soldiers, you hope, are going to think twice before shooting an American, because the US government would have to make a fuss. And if the foreign army in question belongs to a government that has very friendly relations with Washington, and is highly dependent on substantial US military, economic, diplomatic and political aid from the United States, then you might think that foreign army would really go out of its way not to shoot Americans.

But, in this case, you might be wrong.

When I open my blue passport, I find a very nice letter from the Secretary of State asking everyone to gave me safe passage. It would be nice to think that text means something.

But in this case, it doesn't seem to.

Perhaps there is a Member of Congress who is willing to ask why Tristan Anderson was shot?