The Turkish Hostage Crisis

It's never a good idea to negotiate with a hostage-taker, but when it's a NATO ally, there isn't much choice.

The Trump administration has been trying to get back a Christian pastor detained in Turkey since October 2016, and when a possible deal at the sidelines of the NATO summit fell through, decided to drop the hammer.

The administration sanctioned Turkey's justice and interior ministers -- remember, these are top officials of a fellow NATO country. The action hit the Turkish currency and stock market hard. Then President Donald Trump intervened in his inimitable style, with a tweet promisi...