A Carpet Of Gold Or A Carpet Of Bombs?....

A couple of questions:

1. Are the Taliban terrorists?
2. Does Taliban = Al Qaida?
3. Did BushCo ever negotiate with the Taliban?
4. Is John McCain manipulating things when he says: .....Al Qaida/Taliban when referring to this prisoner trade?
5. Could the Taliban be useful in stabilizing things in Afghanistan after the U.S. pulls troops out?
6. Has The U.S. ever made POW trades in the past?
7. Have the Repubs ever been on record of saying they wanted the U.S. to bring home Bergdahl?
8. When it was announced that Bergdahl was freed - did any Repubs speak out positively for his freedom?
9. Wasn't John McCain on record (in Feb 2014 CNN Anderson Cooper interview) that we should free Bergdahl?
10. Didn't McCain mention in his interview something about a prisoner trade?
11. If McCain mentioned a prisoner trade in this interview doesn't it appear that he was informed that something of this nature would happen?
12. Why now when Bergdahl is again back in U.S. custody have the Repubs come out and say he was a deserter when before his release they didn't discuss this and wanted him freed?
13. Does the release of these 5 Taliban in this trade have anything to do with trying to find a peaceable solution in Afghanistan?
14. Could it be that we don't have the full story of what is going on behind the scenes around the circumstances that led to this trade?
15. Will we eventually get the full story?

These are just some of the things that have been going through my mind since this story broke. I'm fascinated by the controversy that has cropped up surrounding this trade. It is interesting to watch the manipulation that is going on by the MSM and talking heads and certain members of Congress.

If I was a young person and contemplating volunteering to serve my country - I think after watching what is going down in this situation I would have to think twice about volunteering. This coupled with the VA scandal of taking care of our vets when they come back from war - certainly makes one question whether or not it really is worth it.

A few final questions - Is this whole volunteer army thing still working for us? Are there any statistics around talking to the issue of our ability to replenish our Armed Services given these two unjust wars that cost this country dearly in terms of lives and money?
Fear seems to be the only way to continue to fuel the war machine. There is certainly enough fear being spouted lately but I'm wondering if this fear and the ultimate treatment of GI's - both while in the service to our country and after returning from service to our country - will backfire and we'll begin to see enlistments going down.

Will this all lead to more discussions of a 'draft'?

I'm sorry - but when I can't sleep because of all the crap that is going on in D.C. and this World in general - I begin to think and ask a lot of questions. I kind of wish all Americans would do the same.

Who is our real enemy? Now that's a question we should all ponder. Do we want a Carpet of Gold or a Carpet of Bombs?