Back in January of this year, Barack Hussein Obama, announced that the Iranians had released four Americans imprisoned in that godforsaken sh**hole. He attributed it to giving the Iranians a nuke and free rein to create a sphere of influence in southwest Asia and to the other trappings of “smart power.” In the words of Obama, “This is a good day, because, once again, we’re seeing what’s possible with strong American diplomacy.”

Actually, the truth, as it always is anytime one deals with the Obama administration, is a lot more disturbing and disgusting than uplifting. Via the Wall Street Journal:

The Obama administration secretly organized an airlift of $400 million worth of cash to Iran that coincided with the January release of four Americans detained in Tehran, according to U.S. and European officials and congressional staff briefed on the operation afterward.

Wooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies were flown into Iran on an unmarked cargo plane, according to these officials. The U.S. procured the money from the central banks of the Netherlands and Switzerland, they said.

The money represented the first installment of a $1.7 billion settlement the Obama administration reached with Iran to resolve a decades-old dispute over a failed arms deal signed just before the 1979 fall of Iran’s last monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The settlement, which resolved claims before an international tribunal in The Hague, also coincided with the formal implementation that same weekend of the landmark nuclear agreement reached between Tehran, the U.S. and other global powers the summer before.

“With the nuclear deal done, prisoners released, the time was right to resolve this dispute as well,” President Barack Obama said at the White House on Jan. 17 — without disclosing the $400 million cash payment.

Senior U.S. officials denied any link between the payment and the prisoner exchange. They say the way the various strands came together simultaneously was coincidental, not the result of any quid pro quo.

“As we’ve made clear, the negotiations over the settlement of an outstanding claim… were completely separate from the discussions about returning our American citizens home,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said. “Not only were the two negotiations separate, they were conducted by different teams on each side, including, in the case of The Hague claims, by technical experts involved in these negotiations for many years.”

hahahahahaha! Pallets, think about that, pallets loaded with unmarked, nonsequential bills, presumably in small denominations, were sent to Iran and coincidentally and serendipitously Iran decided to release four imprisoned Americans. What makes this lie so implausible and transparent and therefore insulting to our intelligence is that the Iranians are taking a victory lap

U.S. and European officials wouldn’t disclose exactly when the plane carrying the $400 million landed in Iran. But a report by an Iranian news site close to the Revolutionary Guard, the Tasnim agency, said the cash arrived in Tehran’s Mehrabad airport on the same day the Americans departed.

Revolutionary Guard commanders boasted at the time that the Americans had succumbed to Iranian pressure. “Taking this much money back was in return for the release of the American spies,” said Gen. Mohammad Reza Naghdi, commander of the Guard’s Basij militia, on state media.

And what did this get us? Well, now that the Iranians have discovered that the going rate for Americans is $100 million each, we’re getting more prisoners to be sold back to us:

Among the Americans currently being held are an energy executive named Siamak Namazi and his 80-year old father, Baqer, according to U.S. and Iranian officials. Iran’s judiciary spokesman last month confirmed Tehran had arrested the third American, believed to be a San Diego resident named Reza “Robin” Shahini.

Friends and family of the Namazis believe the Iranians are seeking to increase their leverage to force another prisoner exchange or cash payment in the final six months of the Obama administration. Mr. Kerry and other U.S. officials have been raising their case with Iranian diplomats, U.S. officials say.

What the White House tried to portray as a breakthrough in our relations with Iran was no more and no less than a banal ransom payment and the public degradation of the United States.

Back in 1797, US relations with France were at a low ebb and war loomed. A US diplomatic delegation was approached by their French counterparts with a demand that a hefty bribe and “loan” be made available to the French foreign minister as a precondition for any negotiations. When the demand became public, Federalist South Carolina Representative Robert Goodloe Harper proclaimed, “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.” A low scale maritime war, the so-called Quasi War, erupted and in a very short period of time a rejuvenated US Navy and New England privateers had France squealing like the proverbial pig. This same philosophy saw us through the Barbary Wars. The reason is simple once you become known as the big, fat, stupid, cowardly kid who will give up his lunch money to the first bully in his path, you find there is actually no end to the number of bullies who will confront you.

What Obama has done here is effectively destroy any US influence anywhere in the world unless and until a future US president spends American blood to redeem it. What makes this more stunning is that as the WSJ article was being released, Barack Obama was proclaiming Donald Trump as unfit to be president.