Posted on 06/07/2014 1:38:06 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
On Saturday, Bowe Bergdahl was a hero, and the five members of the Taliban being freed in exchange for him were the worst of the worst.
By the end of the week, it seemed that neither is actually true. The parade in Bergdahl’s Idaho hometown was canceled. Four of the five aren’t nice guys, but they aren’t war criminals, either.
As for Bergdahl, I don’t pretend to know whether he deserted his unit. That is a question that can only be answered in a properly and fairly conducted court-martial.
But the account that broke my heart was the interview with the widow who had only just learned that it was while he was out looking for Bergdahl that her husband was killed. She was pregnant with their second child at the time. I don’t know how you explain that to your kids, especially when they are old enough to understand.
And of course, what made it so much worse is that we really wanted a happy ending to this story. I was watching the coverage on Saturday in the green room at Fox, and Tammy Bruce reminded me of all the questions that had been raised in the past about Bergdahl’s disappearance. Jake Tapper had already tweeted about it. It was there. And if you listened to the coverage clearly or read the whole story, it was there: the continued uncertainty as to how it was that Bergdahl was seized. But who listened so closely? The army promoted him twice. They must know. Besides, I wanted to be happy for Jani and Bob.
Saturday belonged to Bowe’s parents. They lived through every parent’s nightmare, and then after years of pain and grief, they got the call. Their son was coming home. I defy you to find a mother who did not relate to Jani Bergdahl, who did not want to share her joy. To a mother, it’s worth five of the worst of the worst or, as John McCain put it, “the hardest and toughest of all.”
Well, maybe not so hard and tough. Three of the five, it is now being reported, were political officials during the period that the Taliban ruled and were thought to be among the moderates in the Taliban government; one of them was a student working for a relative, who offered to help the United States after we came in, and we arrested him instead. Another was a midlevel police official.
One, the former army chief of staff, looks to be among the worst and is accused of war crimes. But in terms of his likely role in the Taliban today, even he is more than a decade out of date, and as some of the experts have not so charitably put it, all of these guys are old, at least in terrorist terms.
So should the administration have done the swap?
Probably. But like so much of our politics today, the answer isn’t very satisfying.
It’s important to send the message to our soldiers that we leave no one behind. Bergdahl deserves his day in court, at least, and until proved guilty, he is an American soldier whom we are all bound to support.
But my heart still goes out to the widow who is wondering exactly why her husband was out searching for this guy.
On the bad guys, the hardest question, as to four of the five, is not whether we are endangered by their release, but whether this is whom we have been keeping Guantanamo open to detain. Why?
As to the fifth, the really bad guy, my assumption, which the reports seem to confirm, is that he was the price of the deal. You want to get your soldiers home? You give up bad guys. Ask Israel. War is an ugly business. Not much to be happy about. The left and right can scream at each other, but neither side has great answers. It is what it is.
Gotta love Susan Estrich's use of the familiar with Bergdahl's parents. If she's sympathetic to them, they must be raging Marxists.
By the way if you google up “who were the five terrorists traded for Bowe Bergdahl” using google all you get are three pages of links that are uselsss. They never ansewer the question asked.
I used dogpile and the second link popped up as answering the question.
We are under attack from the enemy from within and have been for some time.
Bergdahl was not “our” guy, Bowe Bergdahl is a deserter and a collaborator.
We need to find out if Bowe participated in attacks on US troops.
Bring back Bowe, sure!
Release the Taliban Dream Team, NO!
The absolute best version of “Pretzel Logic” with the great Drew Zingg on lead guitar and Mike McDonald singing bridge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt2zKrx0iYE
Susan Estrich. Even her name screams hormonal imbalance.
LA Crimes ran a front page story yesterday. Only 1 in 5 of the released terrorists is really dangerous.
So move on (and I don’t mean dot org).
Moderate Islamists?
Does that mean they will be nicer and use a sharper knife to behead people?
==
Other than Team Obama, the only one smiling about this is Jimmah Carter, because Obama has surpassed him as the worst president.
We still live with the aftermath of the Carter ME policies.
We will be living and dying with the aftermath of the Obama ME policies for decades.
Botoxic Susie pops up on these occasions like a tin soldier silhouette in a penny arcade shooting gallery. It's time for this subversive, long-time propagandist be put out to pasture in a salted meadow....along with her alter ego, Obama mouthpiece, lefty Lanny Davis.
Leni
This guy Bergdhal was no deserter he was a defector no different than a soldier crossing over the DMZ between North and South Korea. Also they say he escaped from his captors five times, I say BS. If it were true they would have simply killed him not put up with his antics. They better lock this guy away when he gets back because we don’t know that another reason they swapped him was that he will perform a suicide mission for them.
hear, hear.
2. Previously consulted with congress
3. Swiftboating
4. It was an oversight, sorry
5. Platoon full of psychopaths
6. Taliban threated to kill
7. "What differences does it make?"
8. Stockholm Syndrome
9. PTSD
10. No evidence converted to Islam, fraternized with Taliban, and declared jihad
11. Physically abused, confined in cage
12. Racism
13. Moderate Taliban
14. “Raggedy" platoon
15. "No matter what, to leave an American behind in the hands of people who would torture him, cut of his head, do any number of things"
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.