James Foley’s Mother Is Grateful Baghdadi Is Dead
Americans are prone to apathy. Attention is a finite resource; empathy can be, too. But there are still moments that shock and galvanize—news events that can serve as strong antidotes to moral lethargy. This ethos is what drove the journalist James Foley toward conflict zones—first in Libya, and then in Syria, where he was kidnapped and eventually killed.
James’s mother, Diane Foley, spent nearly two years fighting for her son’s release, through distance and false hopes and failed attempts at rescue. In August 2014, however, ISIS released the video that depicted Foley’s gruesome murder: An ISIS fighter stood in front of a camera and decapitated the 40-year-old journalist. The video of Foley’s death was, for many in the American public, an early introduction to ISIS as an agent of
