Hey Matrose, ya want a good time?

Well, when you tart yourself up and stand along the side of the road in your delicates, willing to be taken advantage of by any sweaty, pudgy dirtball that happens by, you start to get a reputation.

With the recent denouement of the Susanne Osthoff story, Germany proved herself to be one willing to sell herself.

It is likely Germany paid a ransom for Osthoff. A ransom that only sent a signal to others that there's gold in dem dar German hills. Germany runs the risk of declaring open season on German citizens by showing a willingness to pay.

And so, it is not a complete surprises that in Yemen, a former German diplomat and his family were kidnapped. From this article in Der Spiegel:

Jürgen Chrobog is no stranger to kidnappings of westerners in the Muslim world. The former deputy foreign minister was in charge of efforts to free 14 Europeans taken by Islamic extremists in the Sahara desert in 2003. But the fate of the man known in Berlin political circles as a problem solver is now in the hands of others since he and his family were abducted in Yemen last week.

On Wednesday, Germany's Foreign Ministry confirmed that shortly after the 65-year-old Chrobog, his wife and three sons began a private visit to the country on Dec. 24, they were kidnapped during a tour of the Yemen's eastern mountain region. The family was apparently abducted by a Yemeni tribe hoping to blackmail the government into releasing imprisoned members of their clan.

Officials in both Berlin and Yemen are confident of a quick release for Chrobog and his family, who are reportedly safe and not in immediate danger. According to German public broadcaster ARD, the crisis task force in the German Foreign Ministry dealing with the incident said the kidnappers' demands were relatively simple to fill and Yemeni officials wanted to resolve the matter as soon as possible since Chrobog was visiting on the invitation of a former Yemeni ambassador to Germany.

Now, from other reports, this does seem like an internal matter, that the Yemeni kidnappers want some comrades released.

Still, you wonder if these Yemenis saw themselves clutching fistfuls of Euros when they noticed the Germans in the vicinity. Negotiating with killers and terrorists is like feeding lions by hand. Sooner or later, they're apt to just gobble up your entire arm.

Along with its opposition to the United States over Iraq, Germany has betrayed its weakness by paying ransoms, and when you're dealing with psychotics, weakness does not suddenly spark tender feelings of mercy, it only makes them want to kick you harder. There is only one way to deal with terrorists, and that's what the US is doing in Iraq and Afghanistans. With divisions of Marines and soldiers.