So the International Red Cross is up in arms over the fact that the Red Cross emblem was used as part of the daring raid by which Israeli-trained Colombian commandos last month won the freedom of three American defense contractors who were being held by the terrorist group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The Red Cross accused Colombian military intelligence of misusing the Red Cross and thereby violating the Geneva Conventions, the Associated Press reports from Geneva. “It seems to be a deliberate, improper use of the emblem,” a Red Cross spokeswoman told the wire. The organization went so far as issuing a formal statement deploring the emblem’s use in the rescue operation.

We can understand the argument that, as a general matter, unauthorized use of the Red Cross emblem will impede the access of Red Cross personnel in emergency situations. We’re sympathetic to that argument. But this particular rescue strikes us as an operation worth celebrating rather than condemning. As we noted in an April 28, 2008, editorial, “Hostages of FARC,” the three hostages — Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, and Thomas Howes — were identified by the American military as contractors working for California Microwave Systems, a unit of Northrop Grumman Corp., on assignment for the Defense Department.

On February 13, 2003, they were flying a plane over Southern Colombia on a mission to survey the crops of coca, the plant that ends up as cocaine on the streets of New York. The plane crashed, and the pilot, Thomas Janis, an American citizen, and a Colombian army sergeant, Luis Alcides Cruz, were killed by the FARC terrorists, according to the American government. The others on the plane included Mr. Gonsalves, a Florida native who had served in the Air Force and has a wife and three children. Mr. Stansell, a former Marine, is a father of two. Mr. Howes has a wife and two sons.

Would it have been a better outcome had the Colombian military failed to mislead FARC, and failed to free the hostages? In that case, the Red Cross emblem would have maintained its precious sanctity, and the Geneva Conventions would have been untrammeled, but Messrs. Stansell, Gonsalves, and Howes would have been stuck in the clutches of terrorists who themselves didn’t have much respect for the Geneva Conventions. The hostages would still be separated from their wives and children. And it wasn’t only the three Americans who were freed but 12 other captives, including Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.

Whatever efforts the Red Cross undertook during the five years the three hostages were being held by FARC to obtain their release were unsuccessful. The Colombian military rescue operation was successful. A brigadier general of the Israel Defense Force, Israel Ziv, who helped plan and advise the rescue, told Haaretz that it was “a Colombian Entebbe operation.” He said, “This is an amazing operation that wouldn’t shame any army or special forces anywhere in the world.” The only people it shames, apparently, are the neutralists over at the International Red Cross, who put the sanctity of their symbol ahead of the freedom of American hostages.