American Pastor Freed After Two Years of Imprisonment

Pastor Andrew Brunson returned to the United States over the weekend after being released by Turkish officials. The officials had met with President Trump at the White House and come to an agreement that allowed the pastor to come back to his family and his home. Pastor Brunson was originally imprisoned for “conspiring” in an attempted military coup in Turkey two years ago; however, the charges were evidently unjustified as authorities could not come up actual evidence that he was involved with the plot. In fact, all Pastor Brunson was doing was being a missionary and spreading his beliefs, something he had been doing in Turkey for over 20 years. Nevertheless, the Trump Administration could not stand for this and pressured Turkey to release the pastor. Officials in the country eventually agreed to move him out of prison and place him under house arrest in July, but even that was not enough. After Trump threatened to impose sanctions, the Turkish courts finally released Brunson even though the prosecutors wished for him to be imprisoned for at least a decade.

While it is unanimously agreed that the return of a formerly imprisoned American citizen is a great thing, there is disagreement among the political divide on how the matter should have been settled. Many people, mostly those on the left, believed that Trump should have been more ‘diplomatic’ and less threatening. This is primarily due to the fact that Turkey is an integral part of NATO because of its location. Its strategic position is crucial in containing and preventing Russian ambitions in the Middle East. Nonetheless, there were many people, mostly those on the right, who supported Trump’s methods for it being anti-globalist, something on which he campaigned. This idea of putting America ‘first’ before other countries and re-gaining that ‘respect’ that America’s rivals supposedly used to have is an attractive idea to many Americans which contributed to Trump winning in 2016. So even if people disagree on whether this is a step forward for the country, this certainly is a step forward for Trump’s political campaign; he can now use this instance and the other instance of freeing the UCLA basketball players from China to emphasize his anti-globalist sentiment and possibly win re-election in 2020.