Comments on: Paying Ransoms: A Dangerous Precedent http://bobshepherdauthor.com/2010/11/15/paying-ransoms-a-dangerous-precedent/ Insights on Hostile Environments & Security Politics Sun, 12 May 2013 22:45:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Carl http://bobshepherdauthor.com/2010/11/15/paying-ransoms-a-dangerous-precedent/#comment-204 Tue, 16 Nov 2010 12:27:56 +0000 http://bobshepherdauthor.wordpress.com/?p=444#comment-204 It is great news to finally hear that the Chandlers are free and well.

What surprises me however is the lack of international action to prevent acts of piracy occuring on such a frequent basis.
This is not helped when ransoms are paid as Bob has pointed out above.

It will be interesting to see how our involvement in Afghanistan develops under the current government and if they can tackle the problems with have with extremism at home.

]]> By: Julian Raithby http://bobshepherdauthor.com/2010/11/15/paying-ransoms-a-dangerous-precedent/#comment-203 Mon, 15 Nov 2010 23:05:32 +0000 http://bobshepherdauthor.wordpress.com/?p=444#comment-203 I agree that paying a ransom just increases the problem but as always its not that straight forward. The government should always refuse to be drawn in on this paying for hostage release but I’m not sure how many people could sit back if it were their loved ones held hostage and not try to raise the money for their release, risky as that may be. If my mom or dad were in that position then I know that I would do all I could to help them even though there is no guarantee of release and that my actions would make future hostage taking more likely.
In my humble opinion, our government should have come down like a ton of bricks on these kidnapers and put all their vast resources into finding them and getting them back whilst also showing future kidnapers what happens when they mess with the wrong people. Who knows how much our government knew about their location and position and if they could have rescued them if they had wanted to earlier or maybe they knew that a release was coming up soon. To me it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack but to our well trained forces and SF, maybe it’s easy if the will power is there. Who knows!!!!!!!

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