Surprise!
Looks like Erdogan blinked.
5.56mm
EXCLUSIVE: Turkey ready to release pastor but US offering nothing
Good and bad - Trump has a long memory...
Ditto !!!
Erdogan is going to hold a grudge about this, and try to stab us in the back at some future date. Mark my words.
He’s suffered a major loss of face.
This is a direct result of a culmination of strategic efforts taken by Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Diplomatically, it’s easy to stipulate that we don’t negotiate with countries who take prisoners. It’s an act of war, and will be handled as such (economic or otherwise).
In this case, Trump is LEADING with economic warfare. Nobody is giving him credit for it.
Aggression against the US in exchange for economic and/or military concessions is stupid, but has been policy since Reagan.
There is a story that I learned since has quite a lot of truth to it that the Iranian hostages were released the day Reagan took office, because the first thing Reagan did was authorize the kidnapping of family members of the hostage takers. They clipped off a few digits, put them in a box, and sent them by diplomatic pouch to Iran’s government.
Bribery should be a shooting offense. It completely undermines good government. It’s why we are in the situation we are in today.
Releasing a political prisoner is a small price for Turkey to prevent an economic catastrophe.
Good. And they better hurry up.
Trump demonstrates a very good knowledge of foreign policy...far more than critics claimed.
Tafiffs work.
Obunghole would have let him rot since he hates Christians.
I am reminded of Samuel which has one of my favorite stories in the Bible. The Philistines capture the ark but it does not go well with them. They eventually say and I’ll paraphrase — “send it back to them before it kills us all”. I know it is not exactly the same thing but I was reminded nonetheless.
Samuel
11 They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there.
12 The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
I love this president.
Erdogan must have been kicking himself. “One measly pastor and I could have avoided my economy crashing!”
Uncle !
and no pallets of cash required
0bama to be congratulated by CNN for the release.