Michael Totten on the Iranian “ransom”
Not technically a ransom, but effectively a ransom, and one that will encourage even more hostage-taking by Iran.
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Not technically a ransom, but effectively a ransom, and one that will encourage even more hostage-taking by Iran.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the U.S. has made a quid pro quo “contribution” in the past that could be associated with the release of hostages; but, certainly never as ineptly as this gang.
Every Tin Pot around the world can apparently walk over the United States with impunity; and then gloat about it. I guess that is the big difference; although we have allowed ourselves to be played on numerous occasions, seldom did the miscreants have the temerity to gloat. Gulliver lives.
Obama and the Left are willing to encourage the kidnapping of Americans, so as to advance their narrative/agenda. Is there any question that this is an act of treason?
The activist Left is as much America’s mortal enemy, as is ISIS.
But the really hard pill to swallow is that half of Americans are willingly or unwittingly… acting as accomplices to treason.
Obligatory: “If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s a duck!”
Also: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”
I feel we’re living in times where common sense is dead (or has been smothered with a pillow).
Mr. Totten’s writing is nearly always insightful, well-researched, and a pleasure to read. Good stuff.
And yes, I agree with his basic conclusion. Do the actions of the Obama Administration make future kidnappings of Americans more likely, or less likely? Given that more Americans have already been kidnapped by Iran, the answer is obvious.
I’ve already asked, repeatedly, why anyone would volunteer today to be a U.S. Ambassador, given how we’ve seen that they can be left to twist in the wind and meet horrible deaths. I now question why any American would want to visit Iran… now that there’s a precedent, arbitrarily establishing a price of $100,000,000 per live hostage.
Obama should be impeached for this. Andy McCarthy at NR has detailed all of the broken laws. And the fact that Obama paid money to Iran so that it can kill Americans is an absolute outrage.
@ Corhnead:
And it’s impossible to stop him since he’s gamed the system with the help of Senate Democrats. The pattern is now set for every dictator-wannabe in the land: you can get away with almost anything if you have 34 sycophants unwilling to vote for conviction.
The voters *ought* to toss such Senators out of office, but of course many voters like this situation just fine. The voters willing to toss Senators out of office are forced into the classic “shit sandwich” choice the establishment has been foisting on them for the last 30 years: “vote for X, because the other guy is worse.”
After 2014, I got over that thinking. I’m going to vote against McCain in AZ in the primary and for the Democrat if he wins anyway. I’m informed by knowledgeable locals that he’s gonna win in AZ, so it seems not enough fellow citizens are fed up.
The establishment wins again.
P.S. in hindsight, I shouldn’t say that not enough Arizonans are fed up. Plenty are fed up with McCain, but you can’t replace something with nothing, and the GOP establishment works very, very hard to make sure we have no alternatives.
Is it really effectively a ransom?
Let view it differently, let read this:
When I was an advisor in Iraq in 2012, I was implementing a fairy tale policy
Aha should this payment the cost to The Lion of Iran for inhaling Iraq?
No surprise for a nation so fallen to evil that they allow free license for an alliance like the Left to operate freely.