By Tom HaugheyThe first time a country in the Middle East took Americans as prisoners, we built a navy from scratch and invaded the Barbary Coast to free the captives. Now, of course, we take a slightly different tack. We pay the pirates a billion dollars per person for the return of hostages. Yes, I know the money was the frozen proceeds of oil sales and belonged to Iran. It was being withheld, however, as part of sanctions against that country for inflaming the Middle East and working to build hydrogen bombs to destroy our cities. We turned the money ...