The Biden team, Kamala, and their media are the exchange of criminals for hostages as some sort of diplomatic triumph. The reality is that Biden once again encouraged and rewarded taking Americans hostage. The only outcome of this “diplomatic triumph” will be that when Russia, China, Iran, or any other enemy nation wants to spring some of its operatives, they’ll lock up a few Americans.

It works so why not keep doing it?

The only way to disincentivize hostage-taking is to stop rewarding it. And if the United States is going to keep trading for citizens who get locked up in countries like Russia or Iran, there needs to be a hard ban on traveling to those countries backed by serious financial penalties. Anything else just feeds the same cycle.

While the families of hostages, whether in America or Israel, understandably want their loved ones released, sometimes at any cost, governments can’t function that way.

Worse still, Biden didn’t make this deal to save Americans, but to prop up a presidential campaign. If the deal appeared somewhat less bad than previous deals it was because Putin was rushing to get this in ahead of a possible Trump presidency. He knew he was going to get a better deal from Biden than Trump and he wasn’t disappointed.

Paying a ransom to kidnappers isn’t good policy and it isn’t a triumph, it’s an admission of defeat.

But that’s all the Biden era has been. One defeat after another. Bouts of appeasement followed by more of the same.