POLL: Should the US trade Viktor Bout for Brittney Griner?

Russia hasn't responded to that offer. They are waiting till the guy with the passwords to all that bitcoin gets to US soil and make it a 2 for 2

 

With a suspension of habeas corpus, I’m pretty sure I could make that happen.

 

This is sounding way too much like the WWII internment camps. Let's not violate people's rights.

 

For your metaphor to be apt, we would have to be discussing Russian-Americans, not Russian citizens in America. If we don’t want to play the game as dirty as Putin, that’s fine. But then let’s take off the table the idea of unequal trades. If you can’t see the moral hazard in trading an actual bad guy for Griner, then I don’t know what to tell you.

 

Perhaps I'm misreading this, but are you suggesting that U.S. officials should arrest all Russian citizens in the U.S.?

 

Don't make the trade or any trade. Tell BG that she is an athlete and should understand the concept of taking one for the team.

 

I’m not actually suggesting that we do that, no. I understand the American people would not find that kind of move acceptable. I am against the idea of a trading a legitimate Russian criminal for someone the Russians just grabbed as a hostage. I would rather grab a Russian hostage of my own (impractical as I recognize it to be) than be stuck in trade after trade.

 

Yeah, I agree with this. If I recall my history correctly, only 2 presidents have ever suspended habeas corpus (Lincoln during the Civil War and GWB after 9/11). And only one essentially told Congress to pack sand when served with a writ (Lincoln).

 

(sighs) Fine. I’ll give them show trials, but it’s just going to be more work, work, work. Now I have to make sure the federal “trials” all take place in communities heavily populated with Ukrainian-Americans and that the juries are stacked with them.

 

I'm not saying that Russia is playing by the rules. They're obviously not. And I wholeheartedly agree, as I've said, that trading an entertainer for a scumbag is not the solution here either. But I also firmly believe that that one of the major things that differentiates the US from every other country in the world is that we won't play (at least publicly) by those same rules and lower ourselves to that level.

 

All dark humor aside, I do agree with you. But then that means no trade. We can’t be trading with the Russians while playing by different sets of rules. We Americans don’t seem to understand the concept of face the way other countries do, such as China and Russia. When we make unequal trades, we don’t look “righteous” or like “we care for our people more” just because we tell ourselves that. We just look weak and vulnerable. If we want the Russians to smell more blood in the water, then absolutely make this trade.

 

Why doesn't Israel look 'weak and vulnerable' when they do unequal prisoner swaps? We spend nearly a trillion dollars on defense and people still talk about "face" lol. Its delusional.

 

Thanks - I agree with this thought (of a more comparable trade), but the problem might be that Russian leaders don't care about any "hostages" we take. Would Putin the humanitarian care about a Russian female basketball player if they were incarcerated in the U.S.?

 

Speaking hypothetically, no, he probably wouldn’t care about just one citizen, basketball player or not. Would he care if we seized them all on trumped-up espionage charges? Yes, he would. But only as a matter of face, not because of any humanitarian streak.

 

At least she won’t have to look at or stand for that hideous flag of the United States of America or listen to the 'Star Spangled Banner'. She should feel lucky and relieved.

 

I tend to agree that this will only encourage Russia to take more hostages.

IMO we should just ban all travel to Russia and make it clear that we cannot help any citizens who decide to go anyways and end up getting themselves captured.

 

I’m am in violent agreement.

 

Obviously if we told her to plead guilty then we need to live up to it. Otherwise, no, I would not start trading people with Russia.

 

This should be a general statement for any travel to a country that is hostile to America. Traveler beware!

 

Ban all travel to Russia? This suggestion was in jest, yes?