Readers React: Would President Trump or Cruz be able to deal with Iran?

To the editor: It used to be said that partisan politics ends at the water’s edge. But Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Sen. Ted. Cruz (Texas) take their angry campaigns to new heights of hypocrisy in their criticism of the Obama administration’s negotiation of the prisoner swap with Iran. (“Ted Cruz and Donald Trump join in criticizing the U.S. prisoner swap with Iran,” Jan. 16)

Through quiet diplomacy, our government secured the release of four Americans. Under normal circumstances, all Americans would find some way to cheer about this news. But not Trump and Cruz, who bring up such nonsense as “false moral equivalence” and “it should have happened years before.”

There is no doubt in my mind that if Trump’s or Cruz’s prescriptions for diplomacy with (or threats to) Iran had been followed, that nation would continue to pursue an atomic weapon, those four Americans would continue to languish in its prisons, and the Middle East would be an even more dangerous place than it already is.

Frank King, Coronado

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