Conservative Critics of the Bergdahl-Taliban Swap Have Some Explaining to Do

It's difficult to work up sympathy for the conservatives second-guessing the negotiated release of an American POW in Afghanistan, when they and their fellow travelers spent Monday doing things like this and this and this and debating whether Bowe Bergdahl should have been rescued at all on Fox News.

But despite all that, they take tremendous umbrage at the suggestion that their actions provide any insight into their beliefs, and particularly at the suggestion that they think we should've left Bergdahl behind.

The emerging conservative position on Bergdahl's release—and the many ways they've articulated it—has fueled the vitriol of abandonment supporters, but amounts to something different and incomplete. Not opposition to his return, per se, but a belief that the trade-offs the United States accepted to secure his release are unsupportable—a determination they've based in large part on an unforgiving examination of his conduct as a soldier.

That's the charitable interpretation.

But if the deal was bad, and was bad largely on account of Bergdahl's unworthiness of sacrifice, then this is an endorsement of the idea that he should be in Taliban custody today, perhaps traded down the line for something less valuable than five Guantanamo detainees who probably would've had to be released anyhow. If conservatives genuinely don't believe he should've been left behind, and find the suggestion offensive, then they must name a price they'd deem acceptable and that his captors would have deemed sufficient.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117988/conservative-attacks-bergdahl-deal-suggest-they-oppose-rescuing-pow

OP's RANT: If anyone who has ever served overseas sides with these unpatriotic morons, yeah, I'm looking right at Malkin, Palin, Ms. Lindsay Graham, and the rest of 'em, just remember, IF THEY WERE THERE, they would indeed S.T.F.U.
Basically, they have no say in it. I have spoke to several vets, and everyone of them stands with Bergdahl. He may have walked off, he may have PTSD, he may well be a part of the CIA...we don't know. it's for the military to decide whats' what..NOT some ass hat who would gladly send 'Someone Else's' kid to war, but not their own. Those phonies can line up and kiss my ass.