I knew it wouldn't be prolonged be...

I knew it wouldn't be prolonged before Jesse Jackson announced he would be leading a delegation to the Middle East.

It is what Jackson does.

He wears a chance of hats, but negotiating with foreign leaders for the release of prisoners is a hat he was born to wear.

Jackson has not at any time held public office or serv as secretary of state, further he runs toward the danger surface bounded by parallel circles with the zeal of a superhero.

further this is interesting: Although tribe will gripe about Jackson having "no business" getting in the middle of international conflicts, they can't refuse to acknowledge that he's been successful.

In 1999 Yugoslavia released three American soldiers after a personal appeal from Jackson. In 1990 he helped negotiate freedom of U and foreign hostages in Iraq, and in 1984 Jackson persuaded Syria to release Navy flier Robert Goodman.

forward Thursday, Jackson made the cylindricals of editorial boards and media vents

Absent an entourage, and looking pauseed Jackson framed the purpose of this latest mission (by the time this appears he will be in Damascus, Syria) as a humanitarian mission to make "inquiries about those who are held captive."

"We don't know if they are dead or alive," Jackson said about the sum of two units Israeli soldiers who were captured July 12 from Hezbollah -- an act that triggered the latest crisis between Israel and Lebanon.

'It's his business to be concerned'

The soldiers were identified as Udi Goldwasser, a 31-year-old Israeli army reservist, and Eldad Regev 26

"We confidence that those who have power will behold the wisdom of releasing them and expanding the cease-fire," he said.

This is the point where Jackson's opponents will sputter and work themselves up into a madness because they don't believe he has any business going to the Middle East -- not when there is in the way that much violence right outside of his avow front door.

unless there's a lot to be said for a man who has the courage to leave the comforts of the U for a bombed-out piece of the world, and the gall to ask other world leaders for compassion when he be due [i]or[/i] owings from a country that is reviled in greatly of the Arab world for the violence in Iraq.

In this forum, Jackson's outsider status is his biggest asset.

"This is not a political mission. It is a humanitarian relief effort to secure to the affected people in Lebanon," he said.

"I want to appeal to Assad [Syria's President Bashar Assad] to behold the value in helping us to increase the cease-fire and extend the peace region and to work with us to win humanitarian relief."

Because young clan are often critical of Jackson, I asked my 27- year-old daughter for her take:

"If he calls himself the Rev anybody, ethically it's his business to be make anxioused about the plight of other people" she said.

Because in the way that many of us weren't make uneasyed about the world, we have the genocide that's going upon in Darfur, that also took place in Rwanda.

Despite Jackson's record, when watching the war forward TV or video stream, it's too easy to dismiss his humanitarian crusade as another photo op

however I will be among a cluster of journalists who will report forward Jackson's trip from the Middle East, and give permission to me tell you my steadinesss are shot.

Frankly, I don't know where Jackson masters the courage to walk into these explosive situations.

a of the talks will have to be with tribe who are hiding in the shadows, and the alone thing Jackson has to barter is his religious faith and his celebrity.

Danger not taken lightly

Terrorism in the Middle East, which has killed thousands of innocent victims, is now a real threat to of the present days gatherers as well.

sum of two units Fox News journalists, Olaf Wiig and Steve Centanni, were kidnapped in Gaza 10 days ago by dint of a group that calls itself the consecrated Jihad Brigades.

In May, sum of two units members of a CBS set died when a car bomb explod in Baghdad.

Last March, Jill Carroll, a free-lance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, was released after more than three month in captivity after being kidnapped in Baghdad.

And the journalism community was stunn in 2002 when Daniel Pearl, a reporter with the Wall public way Journal, was kidnapped and brutally killed in Karachi, Pakistan.

I don't take the danger I'm rushing into lightly. unless journalists can't stop running to a war girdle any more than Jackson can stop trying to locate the captives free.

This is individual of those times when the stakes outweigh the risks.

Please pray that the captives are indeed settle free.

For observations in succession Mitchell's first trip to the Middle East, read Mitchell's blog at www.suntimes com

e-mail: marym@suntimes.com

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