Along with students and others, I had the pleasure of gazing on a journalistic hero last week. David Rhode is the courageous New York Times reporter who escaped from captivity after being held for seven months by Taliban militants in Pakistan. He did so by climbing down a 20-foot wall with another captive, an Afghan colleague.

This feat involved tricking their guards into staying up late playing a game with them so that they would become sleepy.  They also took advantage of the noise from an electric generator to drown out sounds of their escaping. When they arrived at a Pakistan army outpost, it took them fifteen minutes to convince the guards there of their identity.

Rhode, in his early 40s, is slight in build and does not look the part of a gymnast who could navigate down that high wall.  He also has a mild manner and, in his remarks, shows himself deeply respectful of Afghani and Pakistani people.

As to progress by the Pakistani army in subduing the militants, he believes it has made some but he thinks they will not go all the way so long the army keeps so many more units on its border with India. But, partly because of this continuing tension with their huge neighbor, Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal remains safe.

About the aspirations of young militants, Rhode has discovered that the only thing that matters to them is their relationship to God.  That outranks family and everything else. “I want to be a suicide bomber,” youngsters tell him when he asks what they want to become when older. Pressed further, they will say: “I want to be a Muslim.”