A Bittersweet National Win
Terry H. Schwadron
Aug. 3, 2024
The more we hear about the seven-nation prisoner swap that brought home three Americans who had been held unjustly by Russia, the more respect we should have for the kind of skilled, delicate, intense negotiations that were involved over a long period of time.
It was a deal, as a headline on The New York Times website said, that required “patience and creativity,” two traits sorely lacking in the daily experience of government and politics.
The bittersweet feeling was both that extraordinary effort was required because global strife has made travel and international work dangerous, and that we could hear such discord upon reaching what should be a national achievement.
The effort by Joe Biden and team working with international allies who confirm the intricate nature of layering trust deserve more than the brushoff it is getting from Donald Trump and Biden’s domestic political opponents. If anything, the behind-the-scenes reporting suggested that key agreements from German and Slovenian officials came about only as the result of special relationships built with Biden over time.
In welcoming the return of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Marine veteran Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, what Biden stressed was the importance of international alliances, saying, “It matters if other leaders trust you, you trust them and you get things done,” especially if contrary to their perceived, national self-interest.
Getting the agreements for release of 24 prisoners from the United States, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Russia, had been a “vintage Joe Biden” act of statecraft, said Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser. That Biden closed the deal an hour before he told the country that he would withdraw from the presidential race seems like something out of Hallmark Channel television scripts.
For all the criticism Biden has had to process, here was one outcome that should make all parties proud.
As Always, Politics
Still, domestic politics had to show its face, even in what appeared as an international triumph. Vice President Kamala Harris, who, it was disclosed, had worked secretly to advance these negotiations at critical points, was in all the reception photos, and, via social media, Trump had to pooh-pooh the accomplishments as somehow less than his own hostage returns as president.
Trump, apparently annoyed that the news was not about himself, noted that “murderers, killers or thugs” were released to get these three Americans home and other Russian dissidents to safety, while he claimed never to have paid a price for a few hostage returns that happened on his watch. “Our ‘negotiators’ are always an embarrassment to us! I got back many hostages and gave the opposing Country NOTHING — and never any cash. To do so is bad precedent for the future. That’s the way it should be, or this situation will get worse and worse,” Trump said
But, of course, Whelan was taken during the Trump years, and nothing happened, for one example. FactCheck.org debunked this Trump claim about securing the release of Americans based on Trump bravado when he first made it in 2022. The group examined four prisoner exchanges with Iran, the Taliban, the Houthis, and Turkey under Trump and the various prices paid through the release of prisoners from US detention,
CNN noted that in May, former President Donald Trump said he was the only person who could obtain the release of Gershkovich from a Russian prison Obviously that now is proven wrong. Sullivan said that no money was exchanged, and no sanctions were loosened as part of the Thursday deal involving Gershkovich.
There’s nothing wrong with taking a star turn if you’ve done the work — just ask gymnast Simone Biles this week. But bloviating when you have not even been in the game strikes this listener as self-centered poor form.
##