This will piss off millions of Koreans. Niiiiice.

Another crappy article of mine gets published in the Korea Times. I might not show this one to the teachers at school though, they won't like it: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2007/08/137_8093.html

Here's the text if you're too lazy to click the link:

I’m no fan of George W. Bush. In fact, I’d put him right near the top of the list of America’s worst presidents. But when I opened up The Korea Times on Thursday and read Tom Plate’s column calling for a hostage-prisoner swap with the Taliban, I was, for once, in complete agreement with Bush.

To call America’s longstanding policy of not negotiating with terrorists a ``dumb ideology” is naive and callous.

My heart goes out to all the Korean hostages and their families, what they are going through is an awful, despicable experience. And it’d be wonderful if we could just release a few prisoners and send those hostages back into the arms of their loved ones where they belong.

Unfortunately, the world we live in today is bit more complicated than that. Plate says that terrorists don’t need any encouragement, that they will find ways to attack us no matter whether we negotiate or not. That’s like handing over a bag of cocaine to a drug addict who’s suffering from severe withdrawal.

Well, hey, the addict was going to find his next fix anyway and if you can make his pain go away immediately, it’s just the humane thing to do. Or so Plate would seemingly argue.

It’s basic common sense that if one rewards bad behavior that behavior will usually find a way of repeating itself. Here’s another example: Say you tell a child not to eat cookies because snacks cause obesity. The child disobeys the order and instead of being strong, taking a stand and punishing the child, you instead give the child a container of ice cream.

Being strong and determined not to back down to terrorists is what should be beating through every Korean heart today. The second you decide to negotiate with terrorists, you recognize them as legitimate, you suddenly make their hatred worthwhile.

Plate suggests that it’s a ``fair trade” to swap the hostages for female muslim prisoners. A fair trade? We’re not talking about a couple baseball players switching uniforms.

Let’s remember who we are dealing with here. The Taliban aren’t a bunch of lunatic nobodies trying to make the headlines. They are cold, methodical killers, always looking for their next shot to spill blood. Release any Taliban prisoners and not only is there no guarantee the terrorists will uphold their end of the bargain, but it’s also a stirring defeat for freedom and liberty all over the world.

One of my students told me the other day that America was being ``selfish” by not stepping in to solve the crisis. Although he’s only 12 years old, I know that sentiment is shared by many people in this country. All I can say is, it’s not going to be easy, but Korea must find the strength to look at the big picture.

Three years ago, the Korean government rejected terrorist demands to remove its troops from Iraq after civilian Kim Sun-il was kidnapped. Thousands of Koreans protested to urge the government to give in. To their credit, Korea’s leaders refused. Kim was killed.

As difficult as it may be to seemingly turn our backs on innocent people begging for our help, the facts remains this: to show weakness towards terrorists is to only invite them to come back for more. Freeing a couple dozen hostages at the expense of putting countless more lives in danger at the hands of emboldened terrorists is something that should not, and can not, be done.