Thought Experiment

I had a fiction idea today, in response to a rather lengthy email discussion with a couple of liberal friends. You can probably guess the topic of conversation and who was making what arguments by the twists and turns of the scenario.

***

Imagine if you will a well-meaning American male going about his life. He's got a great job, a beautiful American wife, and a travel expense account. The wife, whom he loves dearly, is passionate about human rights abuses in the Middle East being perpetrated by America, and often goes on travels of her own to join a relief organization.

One day, this man comes home to find the FBI at his door. His wife is not home. The agents ask if he knows where she is. "Out on travel, so far as I know," the guy answers. The FBI guys inform him that, no, his wife is not in Hypothetistan. She's now a prisoner in one of those anonymous prisons elsewhere in Asia.

Flabbergasted, the guy stares in shock and denial as the FBI shows him pictures, documentation, all the cards on the table (as it were) proving that his wife is, in fact, a terrorist. She's been caught by U.S. Marines in a combat zone during a serious fire fight, and was stopped from blowing herself up with a vest lined with C-4 before capture. And yes, she's now undergoing interrogation because she has information about imminent attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, civilians in Iraq, and elsewhere. Perhaps, yes, even waterboarding might be used. The FBI wants to know if the man will help.

What what you do?

Maybe I'll leave that one for Tom Clancy to write. I just throw it out there as raw meat for hypothetical consideration.