Korea Finds Escape from Its Real Issues,
Rewards Terrorists Again Instead
South Koreans can rest easier knowing that their government is following many an EU member’s lead and doing something a Taliban affiliated group likes. This sounds horrible when I stop the sentence there, of course, but South Korea is trying to do only enough to expedite the release of two of their unfortunate expat nationals being held hostage. Nevermind that the hostages have already demonstrated their fatal misinterpretation of reality by deciding to go there and spread the wacko Korean version of Jesus in Afghanistan; even if they are returned to South Korea what is to prevent them from getting killed another day when they try to kiss a speeding train for world peace or crash the party aboard Shoemaker-Levy?
So negotiating for worthless individuals. Negotiating is something terrorist groups like because it prolongs the public agony and enhances the effect of the kidnapping. The whole point of the kidnapping is either to gain publicity or get paid — or sometimes both. Government negotiations ensure publicity (which is all terrorism is, in a sense, when its not just business) and give the appearance of a fresh crisis daily simply by being on the news every day. The average media consumer doesn’t remember what he saw the last hour, much less what he saw the other day, so the more times the same story runs the more crisis situations there appear to be.
There are downsides to negotiating with terrorists, of course. Doing something a Taliban group likes means doing something that successful civilization has found to be detrimental to itself, which means doing things at odds with the philosophies that promote human progression. It demonstrates what misguided Koreans do when imbued with a warped sense of post-Puritan Christianity (or what some of their leaders do…). Then again, the Korean thought process is a bit baffling at times, their special brand of fervent Christianity aside.