Negotiating with terrorists sucks, South Korea.

International observers were shocked a few days ago when it was announced that the South Korean government had paid $20 million to the Taliban to free 19 Korean citizens who had been taken hostage while illegally performing Christian missionary work in Afghanistan. South Korea’s allies were quick to criticize Seoul’s negotiations with terrorists, and many of them voiced concerns that rewarding terrorists for their actions would only lead to more terrorism. The Taliban agreed:

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi vowed to abduct more foreigners, reinforcing fears that South Korea’s decision to negotiate directly with the militants would embolden them.

“We will do the same thing with the other allies in Afghanistan, because we found this way to be successful,” he told The Associated Press via cell phone from an undisclosed location.

It wasn’t just one press report either:

“We got more than $20 million dollars from them (the Seoul government),” the commander told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “With it we will purchase arms, get our communication network renewed and buy vehicles for carrying out more suicide attacks.”

“The money will also address to some extent the financial difficulties we have had,” he said, but did not elaborate.

Reports today indicate that the Taliban is pissed off by the continued presence of South Korean NGOs, which were supposed to be withdrawn from the country by the end of August. They will proceed to target South Koreans in Afghanistan in retaliation and have put the South Korean embassy in Kabul on their list of places to blow up. Boy, negotiating with terrorists sure did work, President Roh!

It’s too bad that nobody in the South Korean government listened to liberal blogger Michael Hurt when he wrote this warning on his blog on August 01:

…you cannot play the terrorists’ game, because there is only one way to win: by taking them out, or biting the bullet. And as horrible as the latter choice seems, giving the terrorists what they want is as good as pulling the trigger for the next group with guns, who, emboldened by the previous “success” (because, from the terrorists’ point of view, that’s what this would be), kill more people in the future.

Seriously – the South Korean government should stop acting like a group of frightened schoolchildren and act like a responsible government, and not bend over when a group of wackos engages in terrorist threats.

And the behavior of the Korean government is and will make South Koreans even MORE of targets of opportunity for terrorists, who will now learn that taking a few South Korean hostages prisoner can exert political force over that nation. If you were a terrorist, whom would you choose – an American, Italian, or a South Korean? I’d go with the country that would be more likely to give me what I wanted.

Which is exactly the point and modus operandi of terrorism.

And which is exactly what the South Korean government is doing by even entertaining the idea of negotiating, and embarrassing itself by saying it has no power to do anything about this.

Hurt also wrote about how Korean missionary organizations disguised themselves as cultural exchange and aid NGOs with official South Korean governmental cooperation, going to Afghanistan and putting on “cultural performances” such as the following:

Does that look bad to you? How about the video from a couple months ago showing South Korean missionaries [some have said this is the actual group that was later taken hostage] visiting Afghan schools and making the the little kids repeat Christian prayers and renunciations of Islam in an language the children don’t even understand:

When you think about things like that, it’s really not too much of a shock that these missionaries were targeted and captured by Islamic militants. Their actions were so blatantly stupid, it’s an outrage that the South Korean government would give jihadists $20 million to save them. What do you think about this issue, Who-Sucks readers?

PS: If the information in that post made you angry, please calm down by watching this hilarious but sad depiction of the situation from Korean expat blogger and humorist the Big Hominid: