Over the past couple of weeks we’ve learned that the Obama administration paid a $400 million CASH ransom to the Iranian government to secure the release of four Americans held in Iranian prisons. It is axiomatic that paying ransom or blackmail is the worst possible course of action. The Obama administration, however, views itself as exempt from history and could not conceive of its new BFF in the Middle East as being a hirsute and unwashed collection of vicious brigands who’d sell their own mothers to a Turkish whoremonger if they could turn a rial in the process. Now the State Department has issued a travel warning to Americans intending to go to Iran:

Iranian authorities continue to unjustly detain and imprison U.S. citizens, particularly Iranian-Americans, including students, journalists, business travelers, and academics, on charges including espionage and posing a threat to national security. Iranian authorities have also prevented the departure, in some cases for months, of a number of Iranian-American citizens who traveled to Iran for personal or professional reasons. U.S. citizens traveling to Iran should very carefully weigh the risks of travel and consider postponing their travel. U.S. citizens residing in Iran should closely follow media reports, monitor local conditions, and evaluate the risks of remaining in the country.

The linkage of this advisory to the ransom payment is unmistakable. Absolutely nothing has happened recently to merit a re-issue of a March 14 warning other than the payment of $400 million in ransom. Indeed, were we to actually believe the administration’s fluffers, Obama has carried out a brilliant diplomatic campaign that has brought Iran into the family of nations. The $400 million in cash was, we were told, a sign that the US and Iran were working collaboratively to clear up old issues. All Obama has done by giving Iran a nuke and paying ransom for US citizens is teach the mullahs that they hold the whip hand and they can do as they please with impunity.

A century ago, Rudyard Kipling commented on the folly of nations paying shakedown money

Make no mistake about it. Americans traveling to any nation that is unfriendly to the United States now arrive at their port of debarkation with a passport, a visa, and a huge price tag hanging about their neck.