On Wed, 18 Jul 2001, Trei, Peter wrote:

Hitting a US Marine with a stick is not smart thing to do. She took the cane and gave him drubbing. Within hours she was out of the country, on 'medical' grounds. Her health was at stake - the Saudis wanted to have her executed.

Jeez. One problem here is that there's not a damn thing else she could have done. Once she got through boot camp, responding to a physical attack by *AT LEAST* incapacitating the attacker is nothing but a reflex action. Not hitting soldiers is basic survival instincts, almost no matter who trained them. Of course, the saudi probably couldn't wrap his brain around the combination of "female" and "soldier", so didn't understand what the hell he was doing. Bear