Are we turning people into currency when we do hostage/prisoner exchanges?

Wed, 20 Jan 2016 16:30:07 -0500

With the most recent prisoner exchange and the even more recent kidnapping of Americans are we at risk of turning people in a type of currency in that every time the bad guys want to release one of theirs they will figure out they just need to have "x" of ours to exchange for them.......just looking for thoughts

Response by LTC Paul Labrador made Jan 20 at 2016 4:31 PM

LTC Paul Labrador — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 16:31:22 -0500

The act of taking hostages to be held for ransom is a practice as old as time itself. Nothing new here.

Response by MCPO Roger Collins made Jan 20 at 2016 4:32 PM

MCPO Roger Collins — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 16:32:24 -0500

Short answer and 100 points, YES!

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 20 at 2016 10:06 PM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 22:06:50 -0500

I think the Sailors caught in Iran is more like the old cold war spy exchanges than Iran grabbing hostages for exchange. Like when Pres Eisenhower traded to get Gary Powers back after the Soviets shot down his U2. As much as we hate to accept it, our sailors were in the wrong. Armed military forces from an advesarial country with a history of interfering in their internal affairs and that has openly supported regime change show up in their territorial waters. Can you blame them for being suspicious of the "misnavigated" excuse from the most technologically sophisticated N avy on earth? So an opportunity presented itself and they took advantage of it.

Even as Trump says, politics is about making deals. I really doubt that the Iranians set out to capture Americans to get those prisoners back. I doubt they care that much about any of their citizens. But since we served up the sailors on a silver platter, they took advantage of it.

But in the broader sense, the fact is that it's a rough neighborhood, and you have to make hard decisions. Even Netanyahu, as tough a negotiator as he claims to be, has traded hundreds of Palestinians for one Israeli soldier. In war and politics there are exceptions to every rule. Hell, they remember Reagan selling them over 1000 tow missiles for help with other hostages. So it's nothing new, and nothing tied to any supposed weakness on president Obama's part.

Response by CPT Mark Gonzalez made Jan 20 at 2016 10:27 PM

CPT Mark Gonzalez — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 22:27:14 -0500

The major problem is we negotiate from a position of weakness as the ratios are terrible on the actual transaction.

Response by Capt Seid Waddell made Jan 21 at 2016 12:17 AM

Capt Seid Waddell — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 00:17:28 -0500

I'm afraid so. This is a bad policy and it puts a target on all Americans anywhere we go in the world.