Supporting the troops is a nice mantra in Washington. But this past week has proved it’s all bunk.

Our View: Demonizing the Bergdahls
June 08, 2014 2:00 am • Times-News Editorial Board

The rush was on to blast the White House last week and congressional Republicans couldn’t care less who got hurt. But the fact that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and his parents, Bob and Jani, were the collateral damage in the GOP’s ruthless campaign to lampoon President Obama is vile.

For five years, lawmakers on the Hill blasted the Obama administration over the Hailey native’s continued Taliban confinement. It only took a few hours following his release last Saturday before Fox News talking heads had Bergdahl labeled a traitor or even a collaborator. Some literally called for blood.

Meanwhile, Republican powerhouses, such as Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, were lambasting the administration for swapping five Guantanamo Bay prisoners for Bergdahl. The five are the “Taliban Dream Team,” Graham said. McCain, only a few months before Bergdahl’s release, told CNN he would support a swap much like the one that got the only American prisoner of war out of captivity. His pivot, and the rest of his party’s, is about attacking the president. Bergdahls be damned. They’re expendable, says the national Republican machine.

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Bergdahl’s parents, too, are nothing but fodder for the 24-hour noise machine. Bob Bergdahl’s beard is too long, apparently, and his Twitter too “ethnic.” The Bergdahls don’t pass the litmus test for true “Americanism,” say the screechers. Sure, they haven’t suffered enough. Let’s torture them a little more. Hailey can’t even hold a celebration for Bergdahl’s release. The enraged zealots were going to crash the party.

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