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spanone

(135,831 posts) Mon Jun 2, 2014, 07:00 PM Jun 2014

Bowe Bergdahl Is the Right’s New Benghazi

Buckle up: The right is going to try to turn the Taliban prisoner swap for ‘deserter’ Bowe Bergdahl into a Willie Horton moment for the president—and they’ll ride it to January 2017.

So let’s imagine that on Saturday night, the news had emerged not that Bowe Bergdahl was being freed but that he’d been murdered by his Taliban captors. What do you suppose we’d 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 we’re hearing from them now that the U.S. Army sergeant, held by the Taliban since 2009, has been freed. And it’s going to get worse. I’m even tempted to say forget Benghazi—Bergdahl may well end up being the flimsy excuse for the impeachment hearings they’ve been dreaming of before all this is over.

The Republicans’ audacity here is a bit beyond the usual. Let’s face it: There is no question that if President George W. Bush or a President McCain or President Romney had secured Bergdahl’s release in exchange for five Taliban prisoners at Gitmo, Republicans would be defending the move all the way. That business about notifying Congress? They’d have a dozen excuses for it. We got our prisoner of war home, they’d all be saying. That’s what matters.

But Obama does it, and Bergdahl’s freedom isn’t what matters at all. It’s that we negotiated with terrorists. Well, yes. We’ve been negotiating with the Taliban for a long time now, trying to end the war. See, they’re the people leading the fighting on the other side. When you’re trying to end a war, that’s generally who you negotiate with.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/02/bowe-bergdahl-is-the-right-s-new-benghazi.html

4 replies

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Highlight:

Bowe Bergdahl Is the Right’s New Benghazi (Original Post) spanone Jun 2014 OP

... napkinz Jun 2014 #1

More than 500 Guantanamo detainees were released or transferred under Bush spanone Jun 2014 #2

I say it will blow back in their whiny face. Cha Jun 2014 #3

I worry about Bowe wheniwasincongress Jun 2014 #4

napkinz

(17,199 posts)

1. ...

Reply to spanone (Original post)

Mon Jun 2, 2014, 07:42 PM

Jun 2014

spanone

(135,831 posts)

2. More than 500 Guantanamo detainees were released or transferred under Bush

Reply to napkinz (Reply #1)

Mon Jun 2, 2014, 07:45 PM

Jun 2014

For weeks, Republicans have questioned the wisdom of closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. President Barack Obama plans to transfer the approximately 230 remaining detainees to other countries or to prisons in the United States.

Responding to the Republicans, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters on June 16, 2009, that it's important to consider Obama's plans in context with the overall number of releases in the past seven years.

"Some 500 detainees were released from Guantanamo during the Bush administration," Hoyer said.

We wondered if he was correct.

Indeed, government documents indicate more than 500 detainees were released or transferred from Guantanamo while George W. Bush was president. A White House executive order issued on the second day of Obama's presidency said, " The federal government has moved more than 500 such detainees from Guantánamo, either by returning them to their home country or by releasing or transferring them to a third country."

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jun/18/steny-hoyer/hoyer-correct-500-guantanamo-detainees-were-releas/

Cha

(297,211 posts)

3. I say it will blow back in their whiny face.

Reply to spanone (Original post)

Tue Jun 3, 2014, 04:53 AM

Jun 2014

spanone

wheniwasincongress

(1,307 posts)

4. I worry about Bowe

Reply to spanone (Original post)

Tue Jun 3, 2014, 05:10 AM

Jun 2014

To return to America and hear how many of his fellow Americans and service members are so hateful of him, and so quick to publicly berate him without knowing any facts or apparently considering mental health.

But if this deal were procured by Bush or a President McCain or Romney, Bowe would not receive one inch of criticism.) But Obama did it, therefore, Bowe is a traitor and a coward.

Drinking game: Take a shot everytime someone on television prefaces their anti-Obama/Bowe statement with "I'm glad that's he's home and safe." I've died several times from alcohol poisoning already!

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