Posted on 06/04/2014 9:29:41 PM PDT by kristinn
An Obama administration official has floated the idea that Bowe Bergdahl was justified in deserting his platoon in Afghanistan and joining the Taliban over disagreements with the platoon's leadership.
Brandon Friedman, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the Department of Housing and Urban Development posted a series of tweets Wednesday evening in which he speculated that Bergdahl deserted over bad leadership of his platoon and that is why his fellow soldiers were smearing him.
"Here's the thing about Bergdahl and the Jump-to-Conclusions mats: What if his platoon was long on psychopaths and short on leadership? (1/5)"
" What if he grew disillusioned with what he saw, didn't trust his leadership, and walked off? Legal? No. Worthy of sympathy? Maybe. (2/5)"
" If that were the case, the soldiers in his platoon would have all the more reason to smear him publicly now. (3/5)"
" Given other examples, it's not out of the realm of possibility--and more reason to withhold judgment until after an investigation. (4/5)"
" I'm not a fan of such speculation, but this story could not be more unbalanced--with so many premature calls of "traitor." (5/5)"
Friedman's Wikipedia page says he is a decorated war veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and is a veteran of the Democratic Party front group VoteVets. He joined the Obama administration in 2009 at the Veterans Administration. He left in 2012 and rejoined the administration in 2014 at HUD.
These ideas are coming from the White House. This guy has been told to put this meme out and see how it goes.
Obama and his people play with people’s minds. Gaslighting, manipulation, etc. They have finally walked into an area where they don’t understand how people will react. None of them have ever had anything to do with the military nor have any of their friends or their parents. They don’t ‘get’ military people. They assume military matters are just like everything else; ‘find the crack, reach in and tune it to our channel. Then watch people dance.’
Their Machiavellian psychological models and flowcharts are coming up with the wrong answers.
So a Regime official is now bsically admitting he joined the Taliban willingly? It is not even a week since Taliban Bowe was kidnapped by the Regime.
It’s taken them a few days to dig deep down into the Administration to find this guy, who has the appearance of credibility by virtue of his combat experience, to float this latest twisted narrative. Friedman should be shamed and shunned by his former battle buddies.
His Wiki entry also indicates he was a frequent guest on MSLSD.
‘Nuff said.
COUNTDOWN for June 11, 2008
MSNBC - Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Show: COUNTDOWN
Author: Keith Olbermann ; Richard Wolffe ; Eugene Robinson
EXCERPT
OLBERMANN: Four thousand and ninety-five American troops are dead, nearly 30,000 more wounded, 40,000 diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder — all since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Our fourth story on the Countdown: And John McCain says it’s not too important when the others finally come home. To add insult upon their injuries, today, McCain and his dogsbody, Senator Lieberman, insinuated that his own status as a Vietnam vet somehow justifies his contention that the young men and women fighting for our country now should stay there indefinitely.
MCCAIN CLIP #1: My friends, veterans hate war more than anyone else.
MCCAIN CLIP #2: I know that it has caused great heartache and pain because I visited with families and I know them. But I also want to tell you that I believe that in the conflict in Iraq, with this new strategy, we are succeeding.
OLBERMANN: We are joined now by Brandon Friedman, vice chairman of VoteVets.org. He himself served in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Thank you again for your time tonight, sir.
BRANDON FRIEDMAN, VOTEVETS.ORG: Thanks for having me on, Keith. Glad to be here.
OLBERMANN: How do veterans, how do veterans’ families feel when they hear that the man who wants to be the next commander-in-chief does not think it’s too important when they come home?
FRIEDMAN: Keith, this is a morale crusher. You know, if you can imagine, say a sergeant, who’s on his third tour and he’s in the 14th month of that tour and he hears the potential President saying something like this, it kills morale. You know, the troops are over there and, you know, I’ve been there, I’ve had to deal with this. But the troops over there hang on every word they hear from a leader, you know, especially the commander-in-chief, but also someone who could be the commander-in-chief. And when they hear something like this, you know, it really kills them on the inside because, you know, their families want them home. They want to come home, you know, or focus on the real global war on terror elsewhere. But this is really a killer when you hear something like this.
OLBERMANN: What I hear when I hear from servicemen or I talk to vets, more than anything else, is their astonishment when generals or veterans like McCain or the brass, just to use the general term there, don’t get it. That of all people, these are the ones they naively thought would understand risk and sacrifice. Does it, does it matter more that they are abandoned by a John McCain who did serve as opposed to a George Bush who did not?
FRIEDMAN: Absolutely, Keith. You know, we’ve come to not expect a whole lot from George W. Bush. But when you have a veteran like John McCain who has gone through so much in Vietnam, you really expect a lot more out of him because the way you see it as a soldier or a Marine or an airman or whatever, is that John McCain should know better, you know. He’s been in our shoes. He’s had it worst than most of us, you know. He should know better. And, you know, for those of us who’ve been there and who’ve lived through this, we just would expect a lot more, and it really saddens us, you know, to see this happen because there are thousands and thousands of veterans who’d just disagree with him on this.
OLBERMANN: And the Lieberman reaction or the reaction to his reaction, where basically he referenced McCain’s status as a veteran, as POW, as war hero, as carte blanche for the excuse for this, as if McCain is immune to military criticism simply because he was a POW, that the merits can’t even be discussed. Then, that reminds me of every bit of Army red tape I`ve ever heard of or every bit of censorship that a military sometimes invokes in times of war relative to its own personnel.
FRIEDMAN: Absolutely. You know, we all respect John McCain’s service. But he’s not the only person who suffered in war. We have troops coming back from this war who are quadriplegics, who’ve been maimed, who’ve had to go through so much. And, you know, it doesn’t give him a carte blanche reason to say something like that. He doesn’t it get a free pass. You know, we’ve been over there, too. We’ve been in war too. And we know what it’s like. And he doesn’t get a free pass, especially from us, because we hold him to a higher standard. And, you know, all I can say is that we respect John McCain’s service. All we ask in return is that he respects ours. And for many of the people I talked to, who are on active duty, or who’ve just come off active duty but who have served over there, we don’t feel like we’re getting that a lot of the time.
OLBERMANN: Brandon Friedman, veteran of the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan, now at VoteVets.org. Thank you, Brandon.
FRIEDMAN: Thanks for having me.
Well my Friend you just dated yourself. Of course I must be the same age! :)
Could it be the Obama administration has entered the final phase of their collapse plan?
Done.
Sent to 4 contacts at WMAL a few minutes ago.
Silvie
should be Brandon Friedman, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the Department of Housing and Urban Development
This administration is obscene. Wouldn’t that be the Lieutenant be the one who won the silver star giving his life to find Bergdahl?
They are one never-ending obscenity.
This is a troubling catch, Kristinn. Thank you.
This administration is obscene. Wouldn’t that Lieutenant be the one who won the silver star giving his life to find Bergdahl?
They are one never-ending obscenity.
This is a troubling catch, Kristinn. Thank you.
Gotta wonder whar Obama was planning to do with this guy once he got him back.
This administration is so desperate it is hiding behind a veteran and tasking him with “floating ideas”. This could be because the simpering MSM is just BEGGING the WH to give them something to work with, to spin!
This HUD vet makes me sad. What a misguided person.
This line of twisted rationale and blame projection explains, to a large degree, why so many of the military’s senior leadership have been sacked over the past 6 years. What really bothers me is that there are plenty of senior “leaders” in the DoD who are either passively or ready and willing to make policy decisions to support this crap in order to safeguard or advance their careers under lord Obama.
This has completely got out of Obama’s control and his lap dog media is turning on him.
They must now attack Bergdahl’s immediate command.
This fellow soldiers that at speaking out, they will be said to be part of the culture created by Bergdahl’s immediate command. ...wait for it... His fellow soldiers will be said to have been bullying Bergdahl OR making him feel in adequate because he’s a former ballerina or whatever, pick your flavor.
Expect to see “confidential reports” suddenly surface that are dated 2009 and 2010, but were in fact drafted Yester or this morning.
Before this is over they’ll be claiming Bergdahl was gay and his fellow soldiers were homophobes.
This article and the tweets are troubling. Are they going after a dead silver star Lieutenant in order to justify Bergdahl’s desertion?
“What if...”
It’s phased just weaselly enough to say, “I was just saying there are possibilities that weren’t being covered... I didn’t actually MEAN that!” while at the same time being a clear bit of bait for their lapdog media outlets to run with the idea and to “investigate” (i.e., loosely cobble together some unrelated factoids to “prove” the assertion) and report on their “findings”.
I figure Slate, Salon, Politico, MSNBC, NYT, and WP will all fall over themselves to push this line... or it’s so over the top that none of them will go there.
The State Department and low level aides at the White House know every detail about the deserter's err I mean the hero Bergdahl's long and painful ordeal.
People who served with him cannot know the details the above individuals know because well they aren't low level White House aides or State Dept.workers they are just guys who sit around and polish their baby killing weapons and pick on people like the Deserter... I mean the hero Bergdahl...
OK... everyone got it now...?
(yes, the above would be sarcasm)
The LTC Lakin case is worthy of comparison. Lakin refused to obey his orders to deploy as a political stunt. Berghdahl was already deployed and deserted in the face of the enemy in what was at the very least a political stunt, but was more likely both desertion and treason.
They both deserve Court Martial. Lakin got his, Bergdahl will likely never see a court martial.
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.