By Kelly Sloan | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
There were a couple bits of good news to emerge on the foreign affairs front this past week, of which highlight the atrophy of American strength, which is starting to become unmistakable.
Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Russia some 16 months ago was finally, and thankfully, released in a prisoner exchange last week, along with a handful of others who were unjustly detained, including former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, held on false charges of espionage in 2018, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, and British-Russian dissident and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza.
It would be ungenerous, and rather dishonest, to not give the U.S. State Department its due for arranging the release, or to ignore the role played by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. It would be irresponsible not to point out that the price for their freedom was the release of Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov, who was – entirely justly – serving a life sentence in Germany for the murder of a Chechen national in a Berlin park.
We got back our journalists and a tourist, Putin got back one of his chief assassins.
The intricacies surrounding such negotiations are complicated, and none ought to fault any of those involved on our side –- including the Biden administration and our allies — for doing what whatever diplomatic machinations were required to free innocent westerners from the Russian Gulag. The real question is why did this have to happen in the first place? Why, upon the detention of Mr. Gershkovich, did the United States not immediately arrest a handful of Russians on American soil? Or seize some Russian assets or turn the power off at the Russian embassy? Hell, to my knowledge we didn’t even expel some Russian diplomat or reporter.
The premise of the latter questions provides the answer for the former. Tyrants and terrorists take Americans hostage because they can –- because the cost-benefit analysis tilts sharply to the benefit side of the ledger. There was no cost to Putin for arresting an American journalist whose reports belied the official state accounts. Putin is a product of the Soviet Union, and he retained his lessons well.
The other bits of good news were the overdue twin eradications of Hezbollah’s top military commander Fuad Shukr, and Hamas’ top political boss, Ismail Haniyeh, the latter which occurred in Tehran a few hours after Shukr’s demise in Lebanon. Israel carried out the strike against Shukr after Shukr orchestrated a rocket attack on a soccer field which left 12 children, all Druze, dead. Shukr, incidentally, was still wanted by the United States for his part in orchestrating the 1983 bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut that left 241 Americans dead.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the bomb that propelled Haniyeh to whatever grim afterlife awaits him, but that’s just diplomatic formality. Haniyeh, who has been near-idolized by leftist media in the past few days as a “moderate” figure in Hamas –- I suppose the same logic would have Ribbentrop labeled a “moderate” figure in the Nazi party –- was every bit as vicious, albeit better dressed, as anyone else in that organization. He decried the killing of Osama bin Laden, celebrated the “great victory” of the Oct. 7 attacks (from a comfortable luxury hotel room, mind you), and refused to negotiate in good faith with the Israelis to end the war in Gaza. He just so happened to be in Tehran to celebrate the ascension of Iran’s new puppet-president, to chants of “death to America” and “death to Israel.”
Beyond the satisfaction and sense of cosmic justice that the deaths of these two monsters offers, it delivers a very clear message –- Israel has sufficient intelligence capabilities to know exactly where its enemies leaders are, and when they are there, and pairs that with the ability to act lethally on that intelligence, even in the heart of Tehran.
Contrast that with the U.S. administration’s response to Hezbollah’s murder of kids playing soccer: “We certainly don’t believe that, as horrific as this attack was, that it needs to result in any kind of escalation.” So said White House spokesman John Kirby.
Many observers are fretting that the events of the last week risk drawing Iran closer to fully engaging in the war which it is already fighting. Biden’s failure to make it clear to Tehran the consequences of doing so, while unsurprising, makes that outcome far more likely. Though, given the level to which American projection of strength has atrophied in recent years, one wonders if it would be taken seriously in any case.
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.