The recent release of the two hikers who have been held by Iran brought the two of them briefly back into the news cycle. Sadly other larger events such as the economy have kept them out of the forefront, but there is one piece of this that has gone almost unnoticed. There are two other events that ran somewhat hand in hand with this incident:
- Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer were arrested in July of 2009 while hiking along the Iraqi/Iranian border. Last year both were sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage in a closed hearing. Upon release they stand by their assertion that they never were spies and were imprisoned simply because they are Americans. Both were freed just ahead of Ahmidenijad speaking before the United Nations.
- In March of 2009 two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling were arrested in North Korea for illegal entry and sentenced to twelve years of hard labor. Only a visit by former President Clinton and some apologies on his part was able to gain a pardon and release for the two.
- In December 2009 USAID worker Alan Gross was jailed for setting up Internet and satellite connections for Cuban citizens. In March 2011 Gross was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Former governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson attempted to visit gross, and was treated none too kindly by his Cuban hosts.
These incidents remind me of a story about two old college buddies, Maury and Richard (not their real names). These two are part of a circle of friends that enjoy that time honored tradition of male bonding via good natured ribbing each other, their families, members of their ancestry, significant others – you get the idea. Maury and Richard were sharing an apartment with two other friends and engaged in this practice regularly. One day Richard hurled a snide comment targeting Maury’s religion. Never one to take such slights laying down, Maury responded with an obnoxious and inappropriate (albeit completely true) remark concerning the mating habits of Richard’s sister. Richard flew into a rage and wound up not talking to Maury for a week.
Maury concluded this story with a grin on his face and summing up with, “You flick my ear; I smash you in the nuts.”
Look at the time frame for the three of these events. The Iranian and North Korean kidnappings all occurred shortly after President Obama took office, and the Cuban one came shortly after it was clear that there would be no consequences to imprisoning American citizens. Of course, that was exactly the point of these three actions.
Each one of these was done to test our president – not quite the “Gird your loins” moment that Vice President Biden promised us on the campaign trail, but more like a probe. These countries wanted to measure how much mischief each could perform, and these were starting points.
Iran wanted to be sure that they could continue with their “peaceful” nuclear program in um… peace. They knew that there would be no consequence to the regime’s rigging their national elections. When the people of Iran were dying in the streets the best that the White House could muster was passionate indifference. Nuclear weapons program can continue as scheduled.
Over in Korea, the Korean War never actually ended – the 38th parallel was only the site of the cease-fire, not an actual peace treaty. North Korea continues its weapons exporting mischief and every so often commits another open act of war against South Korea. North Korea only released their hostages after sufficiently humiliating the US with former President Clinton’s grovelling apology.
And Cuba has been content with just being Cuba – they seem to be hoping to align themselves with Venezuela as the dominant powers in the hemisphere in the post-American world. Bill Richardson’s appearance was not considered a deep enough bow to give them the humiliation of America that felt would make freeing Gross worth their while.
How should the president have handled these incidents? I don’t have the answers. As I like to tell the charges on my tour groups, if I did have the answers I’d probably have a high paying job in the White House myself. But just like not disciplining a child for minor offenses leading to worse behavior, the same happens among nations. All out war would not be the best solution to any of these, but a little bit of creativity could be used.
A nation has to protect it’s citizens. At the risk of going into into a Hobbes/Lockian tangent, how much obligation should any person feel toward a nation when its leaders are unwilling to protect them? For that matter, what is it like to be a citizen of Arizona when the government not only refuses to protect you, but sues your state when it tries to enforce the laws that your federal government won’t?
I actually do have one idea for getting the president’s attention. Does anyone know of a way that we can convince Obama that North Korea, Cuba, and Iran are supporting the Tea Party?
Cross Posted at Brother Bob’s Blog
The Obama administration had to pay the million-dollar ransom to get those guys out of Iran before the election season heated up, because too many people were seeing similarities between their plight and Jimmy Carter’s humiliating hostage situation with Iran a generation ago. Those captives were released almost immediately after he was booted out of office, because Ronald Reagan was laying down some serious ultimatums. Team Obama couldn’t risk having history repeat itself.
That last part “For that matter, what is it like to be a citizen of Arizona when the government not only refuses to protect you, but sues your state when it tries to enforce the laws that your federal government won’t?” should have been an eye opener for many Americans, but unfortunately they have become so used to the dysfunctional and insane behavior in DC by our politicians that it’s now accepted as “normal”. And Iran? They will keep pushing the limits and beyond until we get another leader who will slap them down and send them scurrying back their dens. I did want to add though that you hit upon an excellent topic about how far does a country go to protect its citizens.
And now that Iran continues to have trouble with their nuke program, they’ve decided to send their warships to patrol our coasts and threaten us with whatever they’ve managed to buy, borrow or steal from China, Russia, Egypt and Libya. This should speed up their ability to attack us as well as ramp up the potential damage they can cause. I guess they just couldn’t smuggle enough arms and terrorists across our border quickly enough to satisfy the mullahs.
It gets worse. WND is saying that they have sources in the Palestinian Authority who report that the WH has said they will do nothing to help forge a Palestinian State until AFTER Obama’s re-election…
See what Obama promises Arabs after 2012 election
I’m absolutely serious. I think that for now on the government has to tell all these Stupid, dumb as a box of rocks, young “know-it-all” hikers that if the skirt the boarders between nations and cross over, They are being given advance notice that the US government is not going to pull your ass out of prison or police lock-up. They had also best make sure that they plan where to get any ransom money that their captors will want for releasing you.
Well, while throwing millions around to little or no effect on solar crapshoots that go bel;ly up, at least something was done with this million- not to say I really approve, but at least there was some actual result- not like solyndra or others that will fail.