Dane-Geld

Rudyard Kipling | Rudyard Kipling

[Clive]

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: --

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!"

[Clive]

The military has come under criticism by the uncle of one of the soldiers who were abducted and killed by insurgent forces.

His view was that ransom ought to have been paid.

[Hegemony Cricket]

Customary to ping someone if you refer to them in your post (j/k)

[Clive]

It took a moment for the penny to drop.

[dhuffman@awod.com]

Good post. Thanks. And that is not a joke, j/k(? whatever). I dispair.

[colorcountry]

Perfect!

Thanks for reminding us. I fear we've already gone down the road of paying the Dane geld. Now it's time to stand up and say, "No more."

The consequences will be the same whether we take them now or wait for them to escalate.

[Hegemony Cricket]

hehehe :-)

[Dane]

I feel sorry abd empathize with the Uncle's anguish, but paying off terrorists only encourages more terrorism.

[JimRed]

Kipling had it right, but we seldom are reminded.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Pay the ransom, and then have open season on US military.

[Publius6961]

"His view was that ransom ought to have been paid."

Obviously and utterly devoid of common sense, ignorant of history, and able to exist only through the sacrifices of better men than himself --- including his nephew.

He is unaware of the Barbary Pirates, ironically the very same cultural barbarians that we are fighting today. One of the earliest and proudest achievements of a nascent nation, "fixing", again ironically, a European problem that the Euroweenies were unable to deal with.

Semper Fi!

[ImpBill]

ROFLMAO. The thought entered my mind while reading as well.

[ImpBill]

Unfortunately Mr. Kipling's poem goes way beyond the discussion of ransom for one soldier.

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!"

How many times since WWII have we been willing and actually practiced "Dane-geld"?

And still do this day.

Great find and timely post.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney

[Mike Darancette]

That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

And then you get the Dane-law.

[Jeff Chandler]

The military has come under criticism by the uncle of one of the soldiers who were abducted and killed by insurgent forces.

Yep. Another unassailable human shield for the leftist Democrat party. He's quite the Drive By Media darling.

Ann Coulter is right.