The only difference between Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Ruhollah Khomeini is the number of American hostages each Islamic tyrant is responsible for holding. Khomeini had more hostages, but Erdoğan’s kidnapping of Pastor Andrew Brunson is every bit as egregious, and requires just as harsh a penalty from the United States.
Then again, Iran never really did pay a price for what it did. Hopefully the same won’t be true for the present regime in Turkey, and that includes that absolute imperative that we not give them what they want in exchange for Brunson, whose trial started yesterday in Ankara: