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October 7, 2023

This past week marked the 85th anniversary of the Munich Agreement that annexed the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Hitler’s Germany. Despite the political murders, the persecution of Jews, the genocidal rhetoric, the fact Germany illegally occupied the Rhineland and annexed Austria less than two years prior, British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, along with French diplomats strong-armed Czechoslovakia into letting Hitler annex the Sudetenland, emboldening Hitler and enabling him to seize the rest of the country six months later. A year afterward, Hitler invaded Poland and World War II started.  Refusing to see him as who he was, Chamberlain insisted on dealing with Hitler “in a practical and businesslike manner.”

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Biden’s recent prisoner swap with Iran suggests we haven’t learned a thing from the lessons of Munich, and the dangers of appeasing evil.  While everyone is glad to see families reunited with their loved ones, there was an enormous cost to this deal that will leave Americans less safe. 

Let’s just call it what it is: the Biden administration paid a ransom to the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world.   

The U.S. recently agreed to release five Iranians mostly charged with stealing military and sensitive technology, in exchange for five American citizens held as political prisoners.  Additionally, the U.S. waived sanctions allowing the transfer of $6 billion dollars to Iran. The administration says it will be able to restrict this money for humanitarian purposes.  In fact, once the money is in Iran it will be difficult to track, and along with the money currently used for humanitarian purposes, can now be reallocated for purposes of terrorism. 

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Such a deal paints a target on Americans around the world.  It legitimizes taking hostages for use as bargaining chips and fundraising tools, but even that is not the worst of it. 

The Iranian regime begins and ends with Islamic totalitarianism, and its spread.  Iran funds the terrorist groups Hezb’allah and Hamas, and have ties to dozens, if not hundreds, of terrorist attacks.  The 1983 bombing of Marine barracks that killed 241 Marines, embassy and USS Cole bombings, attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, all have bloody Iranian fingerprints on them, as well as a foiled 2011 bombing in Washington D.C.  Their parliament regularly shouts “Mar Dar Ameerka,” (Death to America).  Political dissent and homosexuality are both punishable by death.  “Morality police” brutally enforce Shariah law.  Last year, they killed 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for not hearing a hijab.  Widespread protests ensued, which the regime suppressed by killing 500 people. 

The Biden administration evades this when they enter into deals with Iran on such terms.  An agreement implies both parties benefit.  If Canada and the U.S. agree to eliminate tariffs, both countries deem that beneficial to them.  The assumption in this example is that both nations have friendly relations and a basically freedom-oriented worldview.  But if one party sees your existence as incompatible with its vision of a religious theocracy, what possible benefit can come from making them stronger?  $6 billion dollars buys a lot of suicide bombers, and bankrolls a lot of caliphate-rhetoric imams.  That is not a deal, but a capitulation. It is a surrender of the principle that we stand firm in the values we uphold.

Most alarming, it’s a lot of cash to support a nuclear-armed Iran.  The Iranian regime has been enriching uranium for years, inching closer to nuclear armament.  It claims that it is for peaceful purposes.  Given its history, we would have to be delusional to believe them. (If it’s for peaceful purposes, why do they develop it in an underground bunker?)  When Russia invaded Ukraine, the world witnessed how delicate it is to manage a nuclear regime when it decides to use force.  Putin and his state-controlled media use nuclear blackmail basically every night.  There is one fundamental difference, however.  I believe Putin is not suicidal, which makes his threats mostly hollow.  Imbued with religious extremism, the Iranians are much more likely to be unafraid of death, making a nuclear-armed Iran much more dangerous. 

The Biden administration seems to think that if only we show kindness and make goodwill gestures, the Iranians will soften their stance, as if by a law of physics.  But human nature is not mechanistic, and doesn’t automatically respond in this way.  The Iranians are animated by an ideology of Islamic totalitarianism.  When we blank out that fact and enter into deals with them on the grounds of pragmatism, we will get duped every time.  

You wouldn’t hire a contractor for your house or a babysitter to watch your kids without judging their reputation and character.  If you did, it would only be a matter of time before it was met with disastrous consequences.  I fear that, just like Chamberlain’s appeasement, America’s will also end in war, with the biggest question being on how large a scale, and how many kidnappings, terrorist attacks, and proxy wars, we’ll tolerate in the meantime.