{"id":7515,"date":"2014-06-02T07:38:04","date_gmt":"2014-06-02T14:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=7515"},"modified":"2014-06-02T07:38:04","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T14:38:04","slug":"our-bad-habit-of-negotiating-with-terrorists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-bad-habit-of-negotiating-with-terrorists\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Bad Habit of Negotiating with Terrorists"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bruce Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo via Wikicommons By Chris Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Every parent should be happy for the Bergdahl family, whose son was returned to them after five years of captivity among the Taliban. But every parent is not the president of the United States, whose primary responsibility is to protect the security and interests of all Americans, both now and in the long-term. The release of 5 \u201chigh-risk\u201d\u2013\u2013a phrase meaning they\u2019re eager to kill Americans\u2013\u2013 Taliban jihadists held in Guantanamo Bay is nothing more than ransom paid to kidnappers, and an invitation to the enemy to take more Americans captive and to hold them as bargaining chips for more concessions. And the release of hardened, high-ranking Taliban terrorists means there will be more dead Americans after theses soldiers of Allah return to the battlefield.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We shouldn\u2019t give credence, however, to the criticism that Obama\u2019s action uniquely violates the principle that \u201cwe don\u2019t negotiate with terrorists.\u201d Obama\u2019s administration has already been negotiating with the Taliban in order to craft some chimeric \u201cpeace agreement\u201d with the Afghan government after we leave. And talking with Iran, the world\u2019s leading state sponsor of terrorism, is de facto \u201cnegotiating with terrorists.\u201d But before Obama we have negotiated with terrorists on numerous occasions, and each time we have confirmed the moral hazard that attends trying to talk with fanatic ideologues that, like Auric Goldfinger, don\u2019t expect us to talk, but to die.<\/p>\n

How else did we secure the release of the 52 Americans held for 444 days by the Iranians starting in 1979, other than by negotiating ransom with hostage-takers? The hostages came home after Jimmy Carter issued a series of Executive Orders that released billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets in American banks, and that indemnified the Iranians from any lawsuits suing the regime for the destruction of American property and the abuse of the diplomats. So much for Carter\u2019s bluster that \u201cwe will not yield to blackmail.\u201d During the negotiations the Iranians serially humiliated the Americans. For example, Carter aide Hamilton Jordan donned a fake moustache and wig\u00a0to meet with the Iranian negotiator in Paris. After weeks of negotiations, with a deal seemingly close, Ayatollah Khomeini killed it with a public speech in which he called the embassy kidnappings \u201ca crushing blow to the world-devouring USA\u201d and left the decision to the new Iranian parliament, which was months from being seated. Negotiations continued with a series of concessions offered by Carter, all of which were contemptuously slapped down by the Iranians. As a result, the prestige of Iran as the foremost jihadist foe of the infidel West expanded across the globe, providing inspiration and material support to other jihadist groups convinced by America\u2019s weakness that we were a civilization with \u201cfoundations of straw,\u201d as bin Laden put it, and ripe for destruction.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the sorry spectacle of the 1985-86 Iran-Contra affair that unfolded during Reagan\u2019s second term. This was a Rube-Goldberg plot to secure the release of 7American hostages taken by Iranian terrorist proxies, and to improve relations with the Iranian regime by providing them with 2200 TOW anti-tank missiles and over 100 HAWK anti-aircraft missiles in violation of an arms embargo, with the profits going to arm the Nicaraguan Contras. These were the same Iranians, by the way, that only a few years earlier had trained and funded the jihadists who had murdered 241 American military personnel in the Beirut Marine-barracks bombing, and that were funding numerous other jihadist groups like Hezbollah. The na\u00efve belief in improved relations with these murderers and so-called \u201cmoderates\u201d has no better symbol than a cake in the shape of a key\u2013\u2013apparently the \u201ckey\u201d to better American-Iranian relations\u2013\u2013 that the American emissary brought to Iran along with a Bible signed by Reagan, both items bespeaking a criminal ignorance about the nature of the Iranian theocrats with whom they were dealing. In the end, only 3 hostages were released, only to be immediately replaced by three other kidnapped Americans.<\/p>\n

Once again, the willingness to provide advanced weaponry to a regime that publicly and frequently expressed its desire to destroy us only confirmed the mullahs in their belief that we are weak and can be manipulated. Indeed, the intervening years suggest their insight has been correct, as they have murdered with impunity Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, trained and funded numerous terrorist outfits, and continue to pursue nuclear weaponry even as they engage in specious negotiations spiced with contemptuous public statements.<\/p>\n

Worse than even these examples are the decades we have spent negotiating with the Palestinian terrorist gang known as the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which was rebooted as the Palestinian Authority after the 1993 Oslo Agreements. A whole atlas could be filled with the cities hosting these futile negotiations, many of which delivered nothing but concessions to terrorist murderers. Camp David, Madrid, Wye River, Sharm el-Sheikh, Taba, Annapolis\u2013\u2013all have been the sites of negotiations with terrorists for whom violence against Israeli civilians is a negotiating tactic used to complement the tactic of attending \u201csummits\u201d and \u201cconferences\u201d at which the Palestinian leadership has no intentions of negotiating in good faith, instead extracting concessions from gullible Westerners. PLO honcho Yasser Arafat, a die-hard terrorist whose creed was \u201cjihad, jihad, jihad,\u201d was feted and hosted at capitals around the globe and treated as a legitimate chief of state instead of as the head of a murderous, kleptocratic gang that he was. During the Clinton years he visited the White House more often than any other world leader, only in the end to betray Clinton at Camp David by refusing the offered \u201cnational homeland\u201d he supposedly wanted, and then launching the Second Intifada that killed 1000 Israelis.<\/p>\n

And it isn\u2019t just talk we have shared with the Palestinian terrorists. As the\u00a0Congressional Research Office<\/a>\u00a0documents, since the Oslo Accords the U.S. has transferred $5 billion to the Palestinians, with much of the money that escaped the Swiss bank accounts of the PA \u201cleadership\u201d going to fund terrorist outfits. This is in addition to funds channeled through the United Nations Relief Works Agency, the only U.N. entity committed to one refugee group and self-identified as an advocate for Palestinians. The U.S. has provided a quarter of the agency\u2019s funds, which since 1950 has totaled nearly $5 billion. Then there\u2019s the money given since Oslo to train, arm, and support the PA security forces, presumably to fight against terrorists. In fact, these \u201csecurity forces\u201d have participated in or facilitated terrorist attacks. As Caroline Glick writes in her indispensible\u00a0The Israeli Solution<\/i><\/a>, \u201cThe more aid the Palestinian authority receives from the international community, the more terror attacks the Palestinians carry out against Israel.\u201d We\u2019re not just negotiating with terrorists; we\u2019re funding them as well.<\/p>\n

There are many reasons for this compulsion to try to talk or bribe out of their hatred enemies who have no intention of peaceful coexistence. Politics, of course, is ever a factor in such bad decisions. For Obama, ransoming Bergdahl deflected attention from the VA scandal with a photogenic feel-good story. Pursuing futile negotiations with the Iranians creates the illusion of action when the administration has no intention of doing anything concrete to keep a malignant theocracy from acquiring nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

More broadly, the modern West clings to the hoary notion that negotiation and diplomacy are the best means of resolving conflicts and creating peace. Obama recycled this received wisdom in his recent West Point address. In addressing global disorder, Obama said, \u201cwe must mobilize allies and partners to take collective action. We have to broaden our tools to include diplomacy and development, sanctions and isolation, appeals to international law, and, if just, necessary and effective, multilateral military action.\u201d But as his disastrous foreign policy record demonstrates, negotiation works only with those who sincerely share our goal to end violence, coexist peacefully, and create peace. The jihadist gangs from the Taliban to Iran, and our geopolitical rivals like Russia and China, have other plans. With those actors, negotiation works only when backed by a credible threat of force, something Obama has serially squandered with his \u201cred lines\u201d bluster and bluff. Yet ever the foreign policy na\u00eff, Obama claimed in his statement about Bergdahl\u2019s release, \u201cWhile we are mindful of the challenges, it is our hope Sergeant Bergdahl\u2019s recovery could potentially open the door for broader discussions among Afghans about the future of their country by building confidence that it is possible for all sides to find common ground.\u201d If sincere, this statement represents a massive failure of imagination, ever the hallmark foreign policy failure. The Taliban have one aim: to impose once more their hegemony over Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Exchanging Bergdahl for 5 seasoned jihadists is a shortsighted, dangerous deal, but it isn\u2019t unprecedented. It\u2019s a recurring bad foreign policy habit driven by politics and idealism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bruce Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine   Every parent should be happy for the Bergdahl family, whose son was returned to them after five years of captivity among the Taliban. But every parent is not the president of the United States, whose primary responsibility is to protect the security and interests of all Americans, both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[394,28,126,97,152,59,842,22,846,46,196,230],"tags":[1055,1027,1061,1021,1046,162],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1Xd","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":390,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-stakes-in-tonights-foreign-policy-debate\/","url_meta":{"origin":7515,"position":0},"title":"The Stakes in Tonight’s Foreign Policy Debate","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton FrontPage Magazine Foreign policy, the topic of tonight\u2019s debate, was suddenly thrust into the voters\u2019 consciousness by the murder of 4 Americans, including our ambassador, in Benghazi on the anniversary of 9\/11. Intensifying the fallout of this event has been the Obama administration\u2019s incoherent, clumsy, duplicitous, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Libya"","block_context":{"text":"Libya","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/libya\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2545,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-libya-venture-and-double-standards\/","url_meta":{"origin":7515,"position":1},"title":"Obama’s Libya Venture and Double Standards","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The champion of shameless chutzpah has always been the guy who murders his parents then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he\u2019s an orphan. But White House spokesman Jay Carney might be the new champ, given his response to the House\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Libya"","block_context":{"text":"Libya","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/libya\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3351,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/foreign-policy-charity-should-start-at-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":7515,"position":2},"title":"Foreign Policy Charity Should Start at Home","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society The outbreak of protests and rebellion throughout the Middle East have quickly generated an orthodox narrative: When people suffering under brutal autocrats and dictators have finally risen up to satisfy the innate human longing for freedom and democracy, we should support these aspirations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5208,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-folly-of-apology\/","url_meta":{"origin":7515,"position":3},"title":"The Folly of Apology","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 26, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Americans need to muster the necessary grit to win. by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The stories about the video of US troops burning the bodies of dead Taliban are disgusting\u2013\u2013but not because of anything our troops may have done to the corpses of fanatical murderers. What\u2019s disturbing is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2454,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/time-for-a-foreign-policy-paradigm-shift\/","url_meta":{"origin":7515,"position":4},"title":"Time for a Foreign Policy Paradigm Shift","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The greatest danger in foreign policy is a reliance on worn out paradigms and unexamined assumptions. This received wisdom acts as a mental filter that ignores new developments and lets through only that information which fits the preordained narrative. For nearly forty years American\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":971,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-assault-on-americas-prestige\/","url_meta":{"origin":7515,"position":5},"title":"Obama’s Assault on America’s Prestige","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine In 1868, a British army led by Sir Robert Napier sailed from India to Abyssinia (Ethiopia) to rescue several English and European hostages from the mentally unstable, sadistic King Theodore. 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