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" There&amp;#039;s a new prisoner of war, and it&amp;#039;s one of our own. The Taliban are touting a newly captured soldier, and he wants nothing more than to go home, and maybe relax by the fire with his master and a well-deserved bone. Yes, one of the military dogs we employ in our war on terror has been taken, during a raid that allegedly killed six servicemen as evidenced in this tweet and video leaked online: We don&amp;#039;t know the dog&amp;#039;s name for sure, though some are calling him &amp;quot;Colonel.&amp;quot; His handler spoke under the condition of anonymity to the Guardian, saying: &amp;quot;You see the ears? They are down, that tells you that the dog is not aggressive and just wants to feel safe. Right now the dog is terrified,&amp;quot; said the handler. K9 soldiers are no stranger to the front lines, where they serve a wide variety of tasks, from sniffing out bombs to detecting ambushes and aiding in security. Their contributions - and sacrifices - are so great that they even now have their own memorial in North Carolina. These heroic pups undergo rigorous training, and are closely bonded to their handlers, often being adopted by them when their tour of duty is complete. As his human partner went on to say: &amp;quot;I can see in his eyes he just wants to get his handler.&amp;quot; Our prayers are with this four-legged hostage of a war he has no way of understanding. Hell, it&amp;#039;s a war we&amp;#039;re starting to have a hard time understanding. UPDATE: The brass at the Pentagon have come forward to disavow the Taliban&amp;#039;s claims of capturing a U.S. K-9 operative. They&amp;#039;re asserting that, while a &amp;quot;coalition working dog&amp;quot; went missing during an operation in December, the pooch was from an ally force and not one of our own. How the Guardian managed to contact an admittedly anonymous handler for their quotes is unclear, though perhaps this pup is so specialized we&amp;#039;ve simply adopted the Bourne Identity/007 plausible deniability approach? No matter, wherever he&amp;#039;s from, like any unjustly held prisoner of war, he deserves to be home. Our hope is that the Taliban terrorists can show a little more clemency to a canine than they do their fellow man, and let the little guy go. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a27155/mans-best-friend-is-now-a-taliban-hostage/>