2-3-4 Challenge Book Discussions #1 discussion

Tom asked Khalia to help with the hostage rescue and attempt to shut down the terrorist cell. Were you surprised they didn’t try to talk her out of it? Should they have?

I was surprised since she was a civilian

I was really surprised. Maybe because they never planned to let her go in but...

It was a really bad idea to have her play bait. They didn't have the benefit of knowing what the baddies were thinking like the readers do, but we know they were going to kill her. I still don't know why, but they wanted her dead.

She was a symbol. It wasn’t “personal” in the normal sense. Take out the symbol and the cause for women is broken. Such is the thinking of an extremist’s mind.

I think it was more than her being a "symbol". There was something else going on. Why didn't they just bomb the school if they wanted an end to the education of females?

It’s just not how those extremists work. They like to abduct a person who symbolizes the cause they’re trying to eradicate, brutally murder them (on film) and display it to the world. They go for maximum shock value. Khalia was very definitely symbolic of the Western meddling.

Symbolic maybe, but not something that would end western involvement. There are hundreds od foundations doing the same thing. For them to have thrown so much blood and treasure at her is just not good business. Symbolic maybe, stupid for sure.

I was surprised by Tom's request for her to help since she was a civilian. Of course, it gave the story more action and suspense, but I don't think it was really realistic.

I was surprised they did because as many of you mentioned, she was a civilian. Also, they knew it was a trap and had no way of knowing the area like the Taliban does to scope it out before hand. I think this set the entire operation up for disaster. There was no way the hostage was going to live no matter what Khalia did or didn't do.