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 ...
At least he is getting excellent guidance.
Weez duh smawtest peeps evuh...
When the rest of the worlds “chickens” experience the results of this deal Obama made, with increased risk or occurrences of attacks, our country and its “chickens” will experience the result of the worlds wrath as a result of this deal...
I do not see ANY upside to this in the long run for anyone...
Any future administrations will not have a lot to stand on in trying to put the Genie back in the bottle on this, and MANY other issues...
Obama’s legacy is already in work...
Don’t know. Who?
I have not heard it repeated by any others until after he said it, on major networks that is.
No the real deal is that the country is focused on this issue and NOT what the Gub’ment doesn’t want us to see...
Let’s look at the result of all of this. A deserter is able to come home....to what they thought would be a hero’s welcome. The media has let them down. For once, Americans are not accepting the lies. Wowser. Not what Obama expected at all.
AP Media Cover for Omeba.
The read goal behind the Bergdahl deal was to get the VA Scandal off the television screens.
It worked.
Breitbart was right, media is everything.
The real agenda? Give 5 of the ugliest, meanest bearded savages back to the hell hole that they sprung from, so they can go right back to terrorist activities.
Our fearless leader’s real motive is to do his bosom buddies a favor, and not to liberate an “American.”
My theory is that the timeline for the prisoner exchange had to take place last week... so that President Soetero could give him a lift back from Germany on Air Force One this week.
I call BS. This sounds like the AP acting as willing accomplice to Obama as he tries to put a smiley face on this pile of crap. He wanted to help out his Muzzie buddies by returning some of their leaders, and Bergdahl was just an excuse.
“When the rest of the worlds “chickens” experience the results of this deal Obama made, with increased risk or occurrences of attacks, our country and its “chickens” will experience the result of the worlds wrath as a result of this deal...”
I agree, and I think our administration is manipulated by forces who are putting us all in grave danger. They are broadcasting to the world that the radical Muslims have America by the balls. Our heads are being bent back now as I write this, and we are being readied for sacrifice.
Call BINGO.
That was the precise reason behind this “prisoner exchange”. It was not to get Bergdahl back, it was to empty out Gitmo, and finally close it for good and all.
After all, if the very worst SOBs are released, then letting every one of the remaining prisoners there out is no stretch at all.
I think a lot of people don’t know Afghanistan has a really nice stash of rare-earth minerals.
The lawyers advising this “nuance” (which would never fly in front of a real judge of the law) should be disbarred.
They need to have a ten minute chat with a Pakistani fellow I know who has actually been to the frontier provinces and met some of these people.
According to him it would be like trying to negotiate with hyperactive, violent, dysfunctional fourth graders.
I can guess how Karzai is reacting to Obama throwing a hissy fit over their failure to meet and then talking about larger discussions on Afghanistan’s future.
The AP still spinning the news for Obama.
I was thinking the same thing...But hey, Texas has had a long history of being disrespected by better people anyway...
Water off a ducks back as far as I’m concerned...
The author has a pretty shallow answer to what the goal was.
In my mind, it’s an Occam’s razor kind of thing:
1. He wants to empty Guantanamo and that gave him cover.
2. It happened the same day as his decision to gut the coal industry with CO2 standards, so that was the one thing that was pushed off the discussion cycle.
3. It has kicked the VA off the front page.
So, 3 reasons that make more sense to me than “they want to establish a stable future for Afghanistan.”
As dire as you make it sound, I believe our future foreign policy and national security position is worse.
It took Wold War II to establish our place in the world at one point. Vietnam, the 60’s and liberals hurt that in the 60’s and 70’s. Reagan put us back on top. Gulf War I iced world opinion on America’s position and left no doubt that America would put it’s money where it’s mouth was and was not to be trifled with. Clinton farted in the wind and the bad guys got one in on 9/11. Bush effectively reminded the world what we were about (initially) in Iraq, Afganistan and throughout the ME. Then Obama started the Apology Policy followed by the Appeasement Policy which coincided with the Leading From Behind Policy of diplomatic puppet tricks and letter writing. That was bolstered by “reset buttons” and “Selfies”.
It it weren’t so tragic, Obama’s foreign policy could win a “Last Comic Standing” award.
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