http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/world/middleeast/as-us-bombs-fall-islamic-states-british-hostage-warns-of-another-vietnam.html 2014-09-23 05:28:04 As U.S. Bombs Fall, Islamic State’s British Hostage Warns of Another Vietnam The terrorist group issued a new installment in its propaganda “lecture series” delivered by British hostage, John Cantlie. === As American airstrikes began raining down on the capital of the self-declared Islamic State in In the propaganda “In this program, we’ll see how the Western governments are hastily marching towards all-out war in Iraq and Syria without paying any heed to the lessons of the recent past,” Mr. Cantlie says. “Not since Vietnam have we witnessed such a potential mess in the making.” The 5-minute, 55-second forced “lecture” is the second in less than a week, following the first circulated last Thursday. Of interest is how the Islamic State, also known as “So, let’s get straight to the point with a quote from former- C.I.A.-chief-turned-vigorous anti- intervention-campaigner Michael Scheuer: ‘President Obama does not have the slightest intention of the defeating the Islamic State,’ ” Mr. Cantlie says. Later on, he quotes Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, who he says acknowledged that intelligence officials failed to anticipate the growing threat. “Western governments [were] caught napping by the sheer speed of the Islamic State’s growth,” Mr. Cantlie adds. A freelance journalist for The Sunday Times of London and The Telegraph, Mr. Cantlie was traveling with James Foley, an American reporter, when the two were kidnapped on a Syrian road just 25 miles south of the Turkish border on Nov. 22, 2012. They were the first of nearly two dozen foreign hostages abducted over the next 14 months who ended up in the same jail in Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State’s self-styled “caliphate.” They included 19 men and four women, and starting in March of this year, the Europeans were released for ransoms averaging 2 million euros per captive, according to one former hostage. Britain, like the United States, is one of the only countries in the world that has held to a strict, zero-concessions policy — and by June of this year, the only prisoners left in the jail located on the outskirts of an oil installation in Raqqa were three British and four American citizens. Starting with Mr. Foley, the group began beheading them in August, with videos of their murders posted on YouTube. Mr. Cantlie is one of only four hostages from the original group still in captivity — a group that includes one other British man, and two Americans. Mr. Cantlie ends by inviting viewers to watch for the next installment: “Join me again for the next program.”