Posted on 06/05/2014 7:53:25 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
The announcement that the U.S. government had secured the release of missing U.S. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and that it was freeing five senior Taliban figures from Guantanamo Bay has been portrayed first and foremost as a prisoner exchange. But the four-year history of secret dialogue that led to Saturday's release suggests that the main goal of each side may have been far more sweeping.
It was about setting the stage for larger discussions on a future peaceful Afghanistan.
As The Associated Press first reported in 2011, talks about releasing the five senior Taliban reach back to at least late 2010, following nearly a decade of war. In the beginning, the name of Bergdahl, who was captured in mid-2009, was not even part of the equation.
The Taliban have sought a prisoner release from the beginning of their contacts with U.S. negotiators, while the U.S. side was looking for confidence-building gestures to keep the conversation going, with the ultimate aim of bringing hostilities in Afghanistan to an end. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at realcleardefense.com ...
I do appreciate your photoshopping--It is photoshop, right? In that vein, allah (Franco-islamic term) pre-photoshop, my surmise is that the WH supplied the white shirt and tie for daddy (such supplies being common at restaurants in DC). Otherwise, beige pants/white shirt/blue tie? Islamo-convert fashion daftness on display!
HF
Rev. Wright: “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”
That has surprised me but it may be this thing's too big to cover up. The Washington Post even sent reporters to the village where Bergdahl disappeared and what they reported today was that Bergdahl seemed to be seeking contact with the Taliban.
The only future of Azzaghanistan that the Taliban are interested in is getting back to thowing acid on school girls.
Politics aside, to talk about a peaceful Afghanistan without mentioning drug cultivation and drug traffic, is childish.
That kid getting released is just a pretext to cover some OTHER transaction which is much more insidious.
“O” knew there’d be objections to this but for what ever reason, he must feel it is worth the trouble, in the end.
Think about something ELSE even MORE objectionable and illicit... c’mon you KNOW he's capable of it.
I have seen this story before - 70 years ago to be exact!
The Democratic Administration of President Johnson did all kinds of political maneuvering and signal sending to get the North Vietnamese Government to make meaningful steps towards settling the conflict in Vietnam.
In the 1964 Presidential Campaign Goldwater was slammed by the Democrats and their media supporters for proposing a “purely military” solution to Vietnam. Well, guess what folks, 9 years later President Nixon executed a “purely military” solution to get the North Vietnamese back to the peace conference table - an operation called LINEBACKER and LINEBACKER II.
IMHO, the democrats were responsible for most of the 58,000 Americans KIA and I don’t know how many thousands of Vietnamese, North and South killed 1964 - 1972.
Is there anyone out there foolish enough to think this latest Democratic posturing is going to have a better outcome than their efforts in the 1960s?
“Peace in our time.” — Neville Chamberlain
4. Obama wants to foment impeachment proceedings against himself so that he can unify his base and get them to turn out in droves in November.
That’s a real possibility that he’s thinking that.
Personally, I wouldn’t do it because there’s not a prayer it will make it through the Democrat controlled Senate.
An engineering professor in college once told me there should be three good reasons for any unconventional (aircraft) design decision. I think the same mostly holds for politics as well... This was certainly an unpopular and unconventional decision, which begs the question, what were Obama’s ~three-ish reasons? I propose the following:
1) Get the VA scandal off the front page
2) Force Karzai’s hand to sign the security agreement he has thus far refused.
3) Begin the evacuation of Gitmo with the worst... Its easy from here.
4) Thumb his nose at the troops in the process... he traded 5 senior jihadis for one wannabe jihadi.
That was bolstered by “reset buttons” and “Selfies”.
BTTT for a very creative statement of the reality of the situation!
The other thing is whoever controls Afghanistan, controls the worlds biggest stash of opium/heroin. That is where the real money is. Heroin production is up, business is great. These mooks will all end up with a piece of the action.
The real goal was to strengthen the Taliban so that they could further weaken the US military by killing as many of the “psychopaths” who fight for us as possible. No doubt the last 10,000 or so sitting ducks left as we abandon Afghanistan will be some of our best, most experienced troops.
It could have been the VA scandal, but it could also have been Snowden’s list of NSA target names. If that list is real, and has the entire Supreme Court, all of Congress, and every major political official and player, it will be quite a mess.
I assumed it was coming out Saturday, to hit the Sunday Shows fresh, and Snowden’s NBC interview and Greenwald’s interview last week were just the pre-publicity.
That this hit just in time for Sunday makes me wonder if they weren’t trying to pre-empt it, but got out-foxed.
Now when THAT list comes out, it will be be a world shaker for sure.
But it will have to come out first. Then little Barry will do something stupid and create yet another new scandal to diffuse that one.
You make an interesting point. Obama is a lame duck and will likely be judged as a failure. An impeachment and trial would allow him to become a martyr in the African American community and might lead to the kind of violent insurrections that occurred in the 1960’s. Obama might then try to unite the minorities, the illegals, the underclasses and radical whites in a revolution.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.