Would you negotiate with terrorists?

[Athene]

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Let me preface this by that stating that I am NOT the government. 

Right or wrong, I would probably negotiate/pay if one my children's lives was at stake. Ideals, odds, statistics: All pretty much meaningless shit when faced with the prospect of one of my sons languishing in a hole, suffering ghastly torment/torture.

Would that make me a bad person? Perhaps.

Would I care? No, not at the time.

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I understand this completely, I'm sure I would consider paying because the life of a child is worth more than all the money in the world, except to the kidnappers they put a price on that life and in doing so shows they care little for life. If people in the past had never paid any kidnapper, that is no kidnapper has ever received a penny, do you think people today would believe they could get any money for such a crime?
I'm not trying to tell anyone what they should do, that's a decision that they would have to make. I'm trying to show how we as the human race could act to prevent such horrible crimes. If we do not reward criminals they will stop this kind of behavior. I have no statistics on this, however it seems this kind of crime is down because the criminals have found a less risky way to earn money from kidnapping, selling the  child into the sex slave trade. They sale to like criminals so they know they have little to worry about because their fellow criminal want tell on them that wouldn't be mutually beneficial to either party. This is why the sex slave trade thrives, dealing with there own kind keeps them out of the eyes of the law. A child disappears, they see runaways every day and so many they can't begin to investigate all those cases.

GC

So, what you're saying is....

Refusing to pay, leaves the terrorists/kidnappers/common criminals in the position of considering the more lucrative practice of selling children/captives into sex slavery?

Mon dieu! That doesn't sound like much of an improvement, does it? 

Think about it!

And I certainly I  wouldn't consider complying with terrorists' demands to be rewarding them; not when practiced as a private citizen . Under those circumstances, I consider payment to be an act of desperation/survival; more akin to surrendering your keys to someone who shoves a gun in your face, and tells you to get the f*ck out of your car.

"Hey Mister, are you alright? I just saw you reward that guy with your Soo-ba-roo!"