Secretly-ish - it was announced publicly 7 months prior (Jan 2016) and it was the first instalment of a legal settlement, not just some random or ransom payment.

Obviously Republicans decried it with bad faith bullshit because reality and sanity don't matter to them.

Hmmm… $400M and we got a nuclear deal?

We're looking at 5x that this time around (so far) and no deal in sight. Not sure this admin is doing the smart thing.

While the optics of this may look bad, the same thing happens after armed conflict too; the US has spent boatloads of money in Afghanistan on top of all the military costs, and we're basically in the same situation as before.

And the bad faith keeps on rolling. We get it, you're a MAGA true believer, it's not like you're being subtle. But besides trying to troll the good people at HN, what is your point?