During the 2004 Presidential election cycle, Hugh Hewitt played a sound clip most of the times he talked about John Kerry. It was from Die Hard III: "I don't like you, because you're going to get me killed!"

That quote applies again, this time about France. According to News 24 (South Africa), France has paid millions in ransom to the terrorists to get French journalists released (HT: Betsy's Page).

Roger Auque told the August-September issue of Afrique Magazine that - despite official denials - the French government had paid $6m to free Liberation newspaper correspondent Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi interpreter in June.

Two other French journalists who had been released last December, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, were handed over in exchange for $2m, Auque said, relying on what he described as "a reliable source" for his information.

Rule number 1 about punishment and reward is that whatever behavior you reward, that behavior will increase in frequency. France has now guaranteed that its journalists will be targeted in the future. While the ransomed French journalists are probably ecstatic about this policy, I'm sure all the others are reconsidering the idea of reporting from Iraq.

But that's not bad enough. France has also given the terrorists a lot more money that can be spent on weapons to be used against the coalition forces as well as against Iraqis--both their military and their civilians.

As much as I love France as a tourist destination (and I do--no sarcasm here), the French government is a completely different story. Their policies up to this point seemed designed to get Americans and Iraqis killed. But from now on, France's policies will get their own people killed as well.

Merci, M. Chirac!