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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBowe Bergdahl Is the Right’s New Benghazi
Michael TomaskyBuckle up: The right is going to try to turn the Taliban prisoner swap for deserter Bowe Bergdahl into a Willie Horton moment for the presidentand theyll ride it to January 2017.
So lets imagine that on Saturday night, the news had emerged not that Bowe Bergdahl was being freed but that hed been murdered by his Taliban captors. What do you suppose wed be hearing from Republican legislators? You know exactly what: Barack Obama is the weakest president ever, this is unconscionable. Which, of course, is exactly what were hearing from them now that the U.S. Army sergeant, held by the Taliban since 2009, has been freed. And its going to get worse. Im even tempted to say forget BenghaziBergdahl may well end up being the flimsy excuse for the impeachment hearings theyve been dreaming of before all this is over.
The Republicans audacity here is a bit beyond the usual. Lets face it: There is no question that if President George W. Bush or a President McCain or President Romney had secured Bergdahls release in exchange for five Taliban prisoners at Gitmo, Republicans would be defending the move all the way. That business about notifying Congress? Theyd have a dozen excuses for it. We got our prisoner of war home, theyd all be saying. Thats what matters.
But Obama does it, and Bergdahls freedom isnt what matters at all. Its that we negotiated with terrorists. Well, yes. Weve been negotiating with the Taliban for a long time now, trying to end the war. See, theyre the people leading the fighting on the other side. When youre trying to end a war, thats generally who you negotiate with.
The five guys we returned to the Taliban are really bad guys, as Eli Lake and Josh Rogin wrote this weekend, and its fair to ask whether the price was too high. We cant know the answer to that question today. But other criticisms are bogus. House intel chairman Mike Rogers said on TV Sunday that in cutting the deal, you send a message to every al Qaeda group in the world that there is some value in a hostage that it didnt have before. Thats ridiculous. So al Qaeda groups didnt know until this past weekend that taking an American hostage could give them leverage? Guerrilla forces have been taking people hostage since warfare began. Weve even done lower-level prisoner trades in Afghanistan.
more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/02/bowe-bergdahl-is-the-right-s-new-benghazi.html
hatrack
(59,439 posts)Like Donald Trump's Twitter, this is HUGE!!!
JustAnotherGen
(31,681 posts)They are going to shut the eff up about nothing-ghazi?
I'll take it DonViejo. Anything to get them off that nonsense I'll take!
DonViejo
(60,536 posts)JustAnotherGen
(31,681 posts)Not here - elsewhere.
But regardless of why he was in the place he was when he was 'taken' - he was still held as a POW.
He shouldn't have been there at all - we never should have been in either theater.
monmouth3
(3,871 posts)looking for him. Do we have other info on this?
DonViejo
(60,536 posts)and I saw an account of desertion that ran on FOX five years ago. Aside from the article below, do you know of any others? I'm hoping this guy didn't desert.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025037496
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)I haven't read anything where anyone saw him leave.
It's all just speculation by his fellow soldiers that he deserted as far as I can tell.
monmouth3
(3,871 posts)MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)Fuck the nutjobs.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)American politician screeching that the release of Taliban prisoners will encourage the AQ is both stupid and treasonous lie.
JustAnotherGen
(31,681 posts)Turbineguy
(37,206 posts)It figures. After all, there's an "h" in his name. That proves it.
(and for the trolling morons: )
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)occurred. Once he speaks to these questions honestly, and speaks about his ordeal...( which Republicans
seem to not give a damn about ) the story will likely blow up in the Republicans faces.
Kablooie
(18,571 posts)They are going directly to the part where they think the freed serviceman is a traitor.
bigtree
(85,915 posts). . . got it.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)"When youre trying to end a war, thats generally who you negotiate with."
Peacetrain
(22,836 posts)alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)on this one.
You know it's coming.
Maybe it already has. I have so many of them on ignore that I probably missed it.