If you are one of those people who have had it up to your eyeballs with the way politicians in general but especially how the Republicans have come to use every opportunity, apropos or not, to try to make political hay out of non-political situations, then objecting to the release of a young man who fought for his country may seem more than a little overboard, even for them.
Rather than celebrating the release of this young soldier, GOP hatchet men are attacking the President for negotiating for his return. The big problem seems to be that Obama negotiated with terrorists. Okay assholes, who is he going to negotiate with except the terrorists who are holding him? We consistently, over our history, negotiated with all kinds of enemy forces as far back as the Revolutionary War for the release of American prisoners and we are still dong it, but because this deal had to do with either Obama or the Taliban, pick one, the Right seems to think it’s different
Sure it’s the usual dunderheads, Rogers, McCain and Cruz. The only one left out this morning, probably because there wasn’t space for him was Peter King.
The simple fact of the matter that we owed this kid and every other kid in uniform, not to leave them behind. Yes, there is some question that he may have left his base on his own but that looks more like PTSD than anything else and how would he have gotten it if he weren’t fighting in an unjust war perpetrated by the Bush/Cheney war mongers. We have always maintained the doctrine, strongly supported by the Right in all Republican initiated wars, of “no man left behind.” Now that Obama has done just that, the Right is against it because they are already out of the picture in the 2016 elections and need any pretext of a complaint in order to maintain even the minutest grain of relevance.
The argument that the Right presents, like most of their arguments, is flawed and fallacious. They say the in negotiating for this hostage we have opened the floodgates to the kidnapping and killing of more soldiers. But that’s a crock. Do they think that if we didn’t negotiate for Bergdahl that the Taliban wouldn’t try to kidnap or kill any Americans they could? It’s ridiculous. He was a prisoner of war and as such we have an iron clad mandate to not leave him behind. It’s unfortunate that the Roger’s, the McCain’s and the Cruzes, so desperately need an issue to support their lack of national policy, that they want to sacrifice this kid to their Gods of incompetence. It doesn’t make any difference who had the kid, he was an American soldier who we had to get back. We did that. That is to Obama’s credit. Maybe Mike Rogers would have sat around and debated whether or not it was right to negotiate with terrorists until they cut the kid’s head off on TV, maybe they were threatening to do that and that’s why Obama moved so quickly, eliminating a completely non-functioning congress from the equation. Maybe this just couldn’t wait until after the mid-term elections
John McCain, Kelly Ayotte and Jim Inhoffe, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee all made a lot of noise, before Obama got Bergdahl out, about what they saw as the President not doing enough to free the kid. Now that Obama gets him out, those same donkeys are braying all over the barnyard about the fact that he had to swap five half dead prisoners for him. It certainly smacks of phony bullshit to me.
George Stephanopoulos, who occasionally returns to the program that bears his name, was on This Week and asked abut the restrictions on the released Taliban members who had been shipped to Quatr and what would keep them from returning to the battlefield, Well, if they are like most of the poor slobs that we kept at Guantanamo, it will probably be years before they can walk and talk okay let alone fight. These are broken men, victims of our inhuman treatment at that infamous institution. Said treatment will probably act as a considerable deterrent to any further fighting by the men released.
As already stared the prisoners released are now being held in Quatr a nation long noted as a rendition location used by us. Consider that fact in any debate about how they will be allowed to return to combat.
Ted Cruz was at the Republican Leadership conference and had to put in his two cents about this whole situation. So the first thing he does when he gets his desperately fought for two minutes on national TV is to lie about what Susan Rice just said. He claims that she said that US policy has just changed with regard to negotiating with the enemy but what she actually said was just the opposite. What she did say was that our policy was exactly the same when it came to negotiating for the freedom of American soldiers; that it is our duty to support them and leave no one behind. There were other sings she said that were not accurate but Cruz just isn’t smart enough to figure out what they were and I’m not about to help him. Why have all the pseudo-patriot right wingers conveniently forgotten about “leave no man behind?” What Cruz desperately needs is to have a couple of Taliban terrorists shooting at him.
Would any of the current Republicans actually have the guts to back up their complaints and refuse to make the deal that Obama just made? Yeah, maybe in some other dimension. Obama has done just exactly what is required of the President of the nation. He got the kid back and in exchange for damaged goods. Now the kid himself may be damaged goods and we will, I am sure, find out about that shortly, but whether or not he is, makes no difference. The message sent to all American troops is what is important. Obama told all those kids in uniform that we will never leave you behind. That we will move heaven and earth to get you back because we recognize and respect the service that you are giving to your country.
I don’t know why it is but the administration for all its desire to do the right thing in most situations can’t seem to get its foot out of its mouth, even when it acts as it should. The idea of bringing Bergdahl’s parents out into the Rose Garden for an interview is probably one of the most brain dead moves since McCain chose Palin as his running mate. Didn’t anyone in the White House look at these people? Didn’t anyone register on the fact that the father was in Muslim cleric drag? Didn’t anyone think it might be a good idea to tell this fugitive from Duck Dynasty to shave his Muslim style beard and not to converse in Pashto? Were they all so wrapped up in their minor achievement that they refused to see any possibility that the Right would find holes in their triumphant scenario? Everyone knew, or at leas suspected before the release that this kid was damaged goods. Maybe, just maybe this whole move should have been done with less than Super Bowl publicity.
The question has been asked and re-asked; why such a rush, all of a sudden? These negotiations have been going on for five years. There are two possibly compelling reasons and one theory that has not as yet made its way into the national media.
First, the war in Afghanistan is winding down and the President still wants to close Guantanamo. When either of these things occur all prisoners at Guantanamo will probably be released and so the value of these five has dropped exponentially. They would probably have gotten out anyhow in a short time.
Second, maybe the Taliban started hinting that a chopping block was in Bergdahls immediate future. There is probably no image that an American president wants to see less, than one of his soldiers getting beheaded on world wide TV. You think the Republicans are having fun now? Just think about what they would have to say if that scenario actually unfolded.
Then there’s what might be the hidden agenda. An old and dear friend suggested to me today the distinct possibility that Bergdahl just may be a CIA plant. Crazy right? Except it’s exactly he kind of hair brained operation that has dribbled out of Langley time after time. I’m not saying it’s true. What I am saying is that it’s so half-assed that it just might be real.
Think about it.