Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

eridani

(51,907 posts)
Wed Jun 4, 2014, 07:42 PM Jun 2014

Charles Pierce: The Bergdahl Chronicles: Welcome Home, Creep


http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/24025-focus-the-bergdahl-chronicles-welcome-home-creep

Nobody cheered more loudly than the actual editor of this longtime journal of white supremacy, Rich (Sparkle Pants) Lowry, who put his own name on piece arguing that none of us should be happy that Bergdahl's no longer in a cell.

All indications are that Bergdahl, traded for five top-level Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, recklessly endangered himself and his colleagues after walking off his base on June 30, 2009. Then the military appears to have done everything it could to suppress the story of what had happened that day, while expending great effort to get him back.

"All indications" is back for another lap around the track. (All indications? Every one of the indications? Let's see what the investigation reveals.) And I'm not sure when Lowry started hating the troops the way he clearly does.


Bergdahl is a window. When the previous administration took us to war in Afghanistan, the voices of opposition were few and very far between. The previous administration then turned the war in Afghanistan into a sideshow of the war it really wanted, the war it had planned since before it took office, the criminal debacle in Iraq. The effort the previous administration put into the task of lying us into the war it wanted drained money, and energy, and attention away from the war that was (at least partly) forced upon it. The energy the previous administration put into trying to legitimize its criminal "statutory violations," as McCarthy would put it, and the energy the previous administration put into reversing centuries of American policies in areas such as torture, and the energy the previous administration put into covering it all up, drained money, and energy, and attention away from Afghanistan, which was as distant an outpost of the national administration as it was distant from the officials so hellbent on ignoring it. These were the days in which George W. Bush told us that he didn't spend much time thinking about Osama bin Laden, whose attacks on this country were used to justify the entire decade of crimes and bungling. The current president ran for the office he now holds based on the formulation that Iraq was the wrong war and Afghanistan was the right one. This was a debatable proposition, but at least it gave the war in Afghanistan a pride of place in the national mind that the Iraq-centered geopolitics of the previous administration had denied it.
3 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Charles Pierce: The Bergdahl Chronicles: Welcome Home, Creep (Original Post) eridani Jun 2014 OP
The reason that opponent voices were few and far between is because nobody wanted to listen, because Mnemosyne Jun 2014 #1
the afghanistan invasion was no more necessary than iraq. KG Jun 2014 #2
Heh, heh..."an ensemble tantrum." Skidmore Jun 2014 #3

Mnemosyne

(21,363 posts)
1. The reason that opponent voices were few and far between is because nobody wanted to listen, because
Wed Jun 4, 2014, 08:30 PM
Jun 2014
9/11! 9/11! 9/11!

KG

(28,749 posts)
2. the afghanistan invasion was no more necessary than iraq.
Wed Jun 4, 2014, 08:41 PM
Jun 2014

anybody still believe an attack sophisticated as 9/11 (official version) was was conceived and controlled from a cave in the hills of one of the most backward countries on the planet?

Skidmore

(37,364 posts)
3. Heh, heh..."an ensemble tantrum."
Wed Jun 4, 2014, 08:46 PM
Jun 2014

What an apt description for every spittle-flecked, hair-on-fire meltdown the GOP engages in these days. Well done, Mr Pierce.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Charles Pierce: The Berg...