Did the South Korean Government Bribe the Taliban!?!

The South Korean people breathed a big sigh of relief as the remaining hostages were released from the hands of the Taliban earlier this week. Interestingly enough, the reaction has been markedly different than that portrayed by the international media.

One can't help but ask the question, "Why did the Taliban, one of the most notorious, if not the most notorious terrorist group in the world, release the remaining 19 South Korean hostages that they were holding over the past month or so???".

The reason could seemingly be more complicated than what the international media is reporting.

Firstly, the fact that the South Korean government decided to engage in negotiations with a terrorist group, as opposed to the more common policy of refusing to negotiate with terrorist organizations (a policy of most major powers), gives the Taliban legitimacy on the world stage.

Secondly, the fact that the Taliban got something in return for the hostages will further reinforce that kidnapping and killing innocent people is productive, and will undoubtedly cause more of these events to occur.

Thirdly, about 40 % of the South Koreans that I've informally polled believe that the South Korean government likely offered money to the Taliban to secure their safe release. Local Korean news agencies are actually reporting that the actual dollar amount given to the Taliban was 16 billion Korean won (20 billion USD). After all, why would the Taliban release the prisoners on the promise that Korean would leave Afghanistan completely by 2008 when the Korean government had already planned to do this last year, long before the hostages we taken?

Anyways, with all speculation aside, the Koreans are supremely happy with the actions of their government in dealing with this conflict. The government got mega brownie points with the masses on this one ... ohh yeah... did I mention that there is a national election in Korean in the next few months???

One has to ponder, with all politicing aside, the value of human life....

Does it really matter who gave who what, and what the morality and motives of both sides involved were? The fact is that the 19 hostages were released, weren't killed, and are currently reunited with their loving families. Can one really put a price on this???