The US State Department on Tuesday reiterated its call for Iran to help locate Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who went missing on an island in the Gulf three years ago.

“Mr. Levinson will remain a priority for the United States until he is reunited with his family,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said, reading a statement on the anniversary of his disappearance.

When President Obama ordered the release of five Quds force commanders captured by U.S. armed forces in Irbil, Iraq in 2007 despite the fact that the very commanders and their organization had successfully orchestrated the killing of hundreds of our soldiers in Iraq, he believed that by showing good faith to the terrorists ruling Iran, he will become the first U.S. President to break the ice in U.S.-Iran relations. However President Obama failed to realize that several U.S. Presidents before him had tried in vain to appease the Iranian rulers only to find out their own failure. Iran answered Obama’s good gestures by taking hostage three American hikers, now imprisoned in Iran. Can anyone remember the hostage takings in Beirut and the Iran-Contra affair or our politicians have a short memory span.

Terrorists and hostage takers are just that and when one succumbs  to their demands, they will simply continue with the same behavior. Isn’t it time to confront such thugs so that the future hostage takers would know what will be in store for them if they continued with such behavior?

Robert Levinson went missing in Iranian island of Kish in 2007. The Iranian government has denied any knowledge as to his existence!