Grab that principle before it blows away

The following Op-Ed, by columnist Melanie Reid, appeared in the London Times' Comment section a few days ago:

Blow the principle. Pay the Chandlers' ransom now

In her article, Reid argues that the UK government should pay the pirates' $2 million (£1.3 million) ransom demanded to release the Chandlers, the British yachting couple captured in October as the Royal Navy watched close by.
"By my reckoning, £1.3 million is peanuts in terms of public spending," Reid writes. "It’s probably what they spend on paper clips in the FCO; or at close to the cost of repairing the upholstery in Gordon Brown’s limousines."
Barely giving her readers enough time to figure out what the FCO's paper clip budget has to do with British policy on ransom payments, Ms. Reid continues her assault on the ministry:
"In 2009 three quarters of FCO staff were given bonuses. And the ministry was criticised this month by the National Audit Office, which found that, since 2002, building projects on embassies had run over budget by nearly £57 million." In other words, enough wasted money to free 43.85 pairs of Chandlers.

Clearly, the most logical way to address this fiscal waste is to break with precedent and pay a ransom high enough to free the entire crews of most commercial tankers (who, to be fair, are generally not white Britons). I am usually offensively unsympathetic to the malcontents who whine about an international media that is so much more attuned to the plight of white people, but in the case of the Chandlers it is an apt criticism. It is because of the inevitable kneejerk demagogueries of journalists like Ms. Reid, who have little understanding of the history or complexity of the Somali piracy issue, that the Chandlers' captors felt confident enough to open negotiations with a demand for $7 million-- equivalent to the highest ransom ever paid, recently paid to free a Greek oil tanker and her crew of 28.

Not only does the British government refuse to pay pirate ransoms, it strongly recommends that British shipping companies follow suit. Indeed, if international shippers had heeded this advice back in late 2008, the piracy epidemic never would have progressed to its current severity. Ironically, the Chandlers suffered as a result of the very purse string-happy prodigality advocated by Ms. Reid.

The Chandlers were among the earliest victims of pirate expansion deep into the Indian Ocean, which began in September of last year. Hijacked more than 1,000 miles from the Somali coast, they were hardly to blame for their unfortunate fate; they were not reckless, they did not flout international piracy bulletins-- they were simply unlucky. Not to pity them would be heartless; to disregard a sound policy would be senseless.
The UK government must stand firm.

Not related to piracy, but it seems that Gaddafi has climbed out of the deep end and jumped into a deeper pool:

Libya's Gaddafi urges 'holy war' against Switzerland

Congratulations to NATO

Meant to post this a while back, but anyway:

Danish forces free ship captured by pirates

The first time that a NATO ship has successfully repelled a pirate attack once the hijackers had already boarded the ship. I'm glad NATO is finally getting something for the $400 million (my estimate) they are spending each year on its counter-piracy mission.