![]() Hostage-takers, including states under a pretense of “law enforcement.” are fundamentally illegitimate kidnappers seeking bargaining chips. Trading hostages with terrorists or rogue states is not comparable to well-established Western practices of exchanging prisoners of war and, more recently, intelligence personnel. The United States erred again by its utterly inadequate response to North Korea’s savage, ultimately fatal treatment of Otto Warmbier, taken hostage by Pyongyang in 2017. This was Ronald Reagan’s mistake in Iran-Contra. As painful as it is for hostages’ friends and families, a President’s responsibility is long-term, protecting the future security of all Americans, not placing more of them in jeopardy. Deal-making is congenial for terrorists and authoritarian states severe punishment is not. Instead of incentivizing hostage-taking by trading prisoners, the correct response is harsh action, either economic or military, depending on the circumstances, against those who engage in such atrocities. ![]() Bargaining with hostage-takers epitomizes the moral-equivalency fallacy, legitimizing and publicizing their status often advances their cause by providing them resources or returning important personnel and invites more hostage-taking, thus endangering other Americans, by putting a price on our citizens. That policy has at times been breached, as in the dismaying Iran-Contra affair, but the underlying rationales are clear. policy has rejected negotiating with hostage-takers, whether terrorists or lawless states. Weakness and uncertainty on these seemingly unrelated matters, and others, comprise a pattern heartening to adversaries and alarming to friends.įor example, long-standing, bipartisan U.S. On issues as diverse as prisoner swaps with Moscow, American re-entry into the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, or Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the White House betrays a propensity to crumple under pressure. Both substantively and in diplomatic tradecraft, his Administration is hesitant, submissive, and erratic. ![]() The wrong countries, notably Russia and China, are learning dangerous lessons about President Biden’s lack of international political resolve.
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