76th Edition
Up until just recently, Russia was holding two Americans on seemingly bogus charges. Wall Street Journalist Evan Gershkovich and retired Marine, Paul Whelan. Prior to being released, both had received lengthy prison sentences on trumped up charges of espionage. It seems obvious now that both men were being used as bargaining chips for an eventual prisoner swap.
I can’t help but think what took our government so long to make the swap? Why would we let an innocent American be detained for over a year and have to endure being sentenced to sixteen years in a notorious penal colony, which was the sentence doled out to Gershkovich, when we could have freed him by swapping Russian prisoners in our custody? Perhaps these types of things just take a long time to resolve. I’m surely no foreign policy expert, but I kept thinking – what if my brother was Evan Gershkovich? Would I be content with the way our government handled the issue?
All this reminds me of a comment the late Bobby Knight made about how he would end drug smuggling from Mexico. He said something to the effect that he would tell the Mexican government they had 24 hours to stop it, or we were going to invade and do it ourselves. No messing around.
My sense is that our foreign policy in such situations should perhaps fall somewhere in between Coach Knight’s rather direct approach and how slowly we resolved the cases of Gershkovich and Whelan. I have a close friend, a big guy, great athlete, country strong, as they say. We had a conversation once about standing up for what was right and not backing down when challenged. His comment resonated with me. He said, “I wouldn’t advise messing with me.” Yet, this person is also a peacekeeper. How can that be?
Maintaining peace requires two things. The ability to discern right from wrong, and the courage to stand against the latter. My friend has both abilities. I’m wondering if our government has either. My sense is bad actors around the world are asking the same question. Perhaps they already have answered that question to their satisfaction. It would seem from their actions that they don’t respect our values nor our willingness to stand up for them. I guess it is fair to question whether we have the right values today, or whether we can claim the moral high ground.
More questions… As a nation, are we clear about what we stand for? When it comes to global relations and foreign policy what are our top priorities? Can our allies trust us to have their back? Do our enemies have a healthy fear of our military capabilities and our willingness to use them? Whether we like it or not, how we answer these questions impacts the rest of the world.
While I am relieved that both Gershkovich and Whelan have been released and reunited with their families after their frustratingly long detainment, why did it take so long? Maybe negotiations in these situations just take that long. But maybe our government doesn’t have the backbone to deter these situations from happening in the first place.
I suspect that unless it serves some political purpose, entrenched bureaucrats are not going to be driven by an admirable moral compass. That’s the way politics usually works, perhaps has always worked. But is it the right way it should work? There have been a few times in history when a political leader did the right thing even if it was the wrong thing politically.
Margaret Chase Smith, Senator from Maine, to her credit, spoke out against Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade, even though it hurt her politically. John Adams was known for favoring moral integrity over political expediency. Perhaps no politician since can match Abraham Lincoln in terms of his commitment to integrity and the highest sense of morality.
Where are such leaders today? Has a commitment to morality become completely separated from political expediency making it impossible to reconnect them and foolhardy to even try? Are we doomed as a nation to be led by people we really don’t trust or admire? What kind of future does that portend for us and for the world?
I have noticed, as you may have as well, that many of my recent blogs contain more questions than answers. I’m not sure why exactly. I do hope that some of these questions will encourage people a lot smarter than me to search for answers. How we answer some of these questions might actually matter.
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Michael Kayes
*These views are my personal opinions and are not the viewpoints of any company or organization.