So what can we conclude about Aruba all these weeks since Natalee Holloway disappeared? For one thing, if you let your kids go there after high school or college graduation, or for spring break, you are out of your bleeping mind. If you permit your kid to go there without you at this point, you just aren't thinking.

It is patently obvious that there are boys there just waiting to try out their date rape drugs on your daughters. These boys hang around the clubs just looking for something, someone on which to sew their oats. Natalee was not into drinking or drugging. That has been made clear by all who knew her. Maybe she had a beer that night. And quite possibly somebody put something into it. How else can we view the reports that she was falling down drunk before her disappearance? What is there about a last night in Aruba after probably several graduation parties and several other nights in Aruba that would make a kid drink all of a sudden? Nothing.

Next, it is also patently obvious that the local authorities can do virtually nothing to protect your child. Investigators blew this right from the get-go. They allowed crucial time for the perpetrators, whoever they are, to destroy any evidence. And anything missed in the crime coverup was destroyed by the elements. Heck, they couldn't even manage to do a decent search for the girl if she had been alive in the days following her disappearance. I would assume at least that would be done. I would be absolutely furious to learn they hadn't. They didn't do a reasonably diligent job of this and that is the bare minimum.

It is less obvious but somewhat apparent that the Dutch authorities there do what they can to protect their own. They had these boys immediately and believed they had the right people. But they let them go to cover up whatever evidence remained. What other conclusion can be drawn from the events as they actually transpired? They just had to be protecting their own. That is hardly the Utopian beach paradise thing to do. They get to live their thanks mostly to our dollars. They have a duty to protect us when we are there. They have a duty to search for us when we are missing. It's a small place. We send a lot of dollars there. They owe us to expend those dollars for our safety because we pay them.

The two items from this that are most obvious and indisputable, without American dollars there, the place becomes just a poor island; and there are many other beaches your children and you can visit for some fun in the sun at that time of year. Don't plan you vacation in Aruba. Go someplace else.

Labels: Natalee Holloway