Ferris Bueller Hassan interview

COSBY:  Was this about publicity?  Did you want all the attention, 15 minutes of fame?

HASSAN:  No.  I felt so guilty on when I was returning to the United States and I saw on the news two soldiers had been killed in Iraq, and they were sidelined.  And my story was in the headlines, in the center. 

I thought about the soldiers in Iraq, a soldier just watching what‘s going on, and he‘s thinking, you know, I‘m here, risking my life every day to help these Iraqis rebuild their lives, and my friend was just shot the other day, and this 16-year-old—this rich 16-year-old comes to Iraq, nothing happens to him, we go through a lot of trouble to get him back to the U.S., and he‘s getting all the press coverage, and no one‘s giving us attention.

Rita Cosby from MSNBC interviewed the wayward Florida teenager, and the transcript is here. Dumb trip aside, this kid seems to have a pretty good head on his shoulders and a good heart to match. I would *still* ground this kid for the rest of his natural life if he was mine.