The Global War on Terror 5.0: Putin on the Risk

[Bob Gray]

Re: The Global War on Terror 5.0: Putin on the Risk

Obama's judgement seems to get more clouded by the day. I used to think he was a smart guy, but just not as smart as he thinks he is. I'm having to reconsider my opinion.

[Priceless]

Re: The Global War on Terror 5.0: Putin on the Risk

Huh. It turns out that Congress was notified. Even John McCain approved. What a shock.

http://www.salon.com/2014/06/03/the_..._savage_obama/

And plenty of partisan demagoguery: in 2012 the late Michael Hastings reported that the White House was warned by Congressional Republicans that a possible deal for the five Taliban fighters would be political suicide in an election year – a “Willie Horton moment,” in the words of an official responsible for working with Congress on the deal. In the end, though, Hastings reported that even Sen. John McCain ultimately approved the deal; it fell apart when the Taliban balked.

Two years later, the right’s official talking points are mixed: Some critics focus on rumors (buttressed by Hastings’ own sympathetic reporting on Bergdahl) that he was a soldier disillusioned by the Afghan war who deserted his post. Wrong-way Bill Kristol has dismissed him as a deserter not worth rescuing, while Kristol’s most prominent contribution to politics, Sarah Palin, has been screeching on her Facebook wall about Bergdahl’s “horrid anti-American beliefs.”

But missing and captured soldiers have never had to undergo a character check before being rescued by their government. Should they now face trial by Bill Kristol before we decide whether to rescue them? Is Sarah Palin going to preside over a military death panel for captured soldiers suspected of inadequate dedication to the war effort?

Other Republicans accuse the president of breaking the long-standing rule against “negotiating with terrorists” to free hostages. They’re wrong on two counts: The U.S. has frequently negotiated with “terrorists,” to free hostages and for other reasons. President Carter negotiated with the Iranians who held Americans in the Tehran embassy in 1979, unsuccessfully. President Reagan famously traded arms to Iran for hostages. The entire surge in Iraq was predicated on negotiating with Sunni “terrorists” who had killed American soldiers to bring them into the government and stop sectarian violence.

Besides, this isn’t a terrorist-hostage situation, it’s a prisoner of war swap, and those are even more common: President Nixon freed some North Vietnamese prisoners at the same time former POW Sen. John McCain came home from Hanoi. Even hawkish Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu traded more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit last year.

[Bob Gray]

Re: The Global War on Terror 5.0: Putin on the Risk

Susan Rice claims he served with "honor and distinction." Guess I better get a new "modern" dictionary to find out the new definition of those terms.

[FreshFish]

Re: The Global War on Terror 5.0: Putin on the Risk

I know that 0bama wants to close Guantanamo Bay prison, but encouraging more hostage-taking in order to trade out more of the prisoners there for them is definitely not the way to go about it.

That anyone is defending him over this mistake is just sad. You can still defend the man and his domestic policies while also acknowledging that in this instance to release five who have been described "the worst of the worst" in exchange for a known deserter is just wrong.

[joecct]

Re: The Global War on Terror 5.0: Putin on the Risk

Huh. It turns out that Congress was notified. Even John McCain approved. What a shock.

http://www.salon.com/2014/06/03/the_..._savage_obama/

Except a swap wasn't done. Using the logic cited, I would guess that talking to Congress in June 2014 about invading Syria makes it ok to do it in August 2016 under the War Powers Act?

And if Sgt. Bergdahl went willingly, how can it be a hostage for prisoner swap?

[Priceless]

Re: The Global War on Terror 5.0: Putin on the Risk

And if Obama had let the guy die over there the same people who are now criticizing him would have lambasted him for letting a brave soldier rot in captivity.

[joecct]

Re: The Global War on Terror 5.0: Putin on the Risk

And if Obama had let the guy die over there the same people who are now criticizing him would have lambasted him for letting a brave soldier rot in captivity.

If a guy flips sides, then he's no longer a US soldier.

[unofan]

If a guy flips sides, then he's no longer a US soldier.

There's a big gap between desertion and being a traitor. Care to back up your allegations which are going way past what anyone else is claiming?

[Priceless]

Except a swap wasn't done. Using the logic cited, I would guess that talking to Congress in June 2014 about invading Syria makes it ok to do it in August 2016 under the War Powers Act?

And if Sgt. Bergdahl went willingly, how can it be a hostage for prisoner swap?

What if McCain said this year that he would be inclined to support the release?

COOPER: Would you oppose the idea of some form of negotiations or prisoner exchange? I know back in 2012 you called the idea of even negotiating with the Taliban bizarre, highly questionable.

MCCAIN: Well, at that time the proposal was that they would release -- Taliban, some of them really hard-core, particularly five really hard-core Taliban leaders, as a confidence- building measure. Now this idea is for an exchange of prisoners for our American fighting man. I would be inclined to support such a thing depending on a lot of the details.

[...]

COOPER: So if there was some -- the possibility of some sort of exchange, that's something you would support?

MCCAIN: I would support. Obviously I'd have to know the details, but I would support ways of bringing him home and if exchange was one of them I think that would be something I think we should seriously consider.

Huh.

Odd that McCain doesn't refer to him as a traitor who "switched sides" but as an "American fighting man" instead. Probably more of those Vietnam-induced hallucinations the Tories warned us about back in 1999.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/06/03/cnn-lets-john-mccain-off-the-hook-for-shifting/199561

[Priceless]

There's a big gap between desertion and being a traitor. Care to back up your allegations which are going way past what anyone else is claiming?

Dude, it was all in Sarah Palin's Facebook screed. She's already convicted him of treason. The only question is the method of execution. Personally, I hope they go with burning him at the stake.

[unofan]

Re: The Global War on Terror 5.0: Putin on the Risk

Just read the feature story on Bergdahl by Rolling Stone from a couple of years ago. Sounds like he deserted, but he was definitely not a traitor, and his comrades in arms that are being paraded through the media were a bunch of fark-ups too. Sounds like an all around farked up situation.

If you want to read it: http://m.rollingstone.com/politics/n...f-war-20120607

None of that really goes into whether the trade was good or bad policy, though. I'm of the belief that either way, it's not a new policy, but just SSDD.

[bronconick]

Re: The Global War on Terror 5.0: Putin on the Risk

5 Taliban commanders, i don't even think a POW has that value

The Israelis did a 1,000-1 exchange in 2011. I think we got good value.

[joecct]

Re: The Global War on Terror 5.0: Putin on the Risk

Europe's leanings maps. Kind of interesting.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...right-success/

(If you can't access it directly, try through a search engine by typing Washington Post geography of europe

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: The Global War on Terror 5.0: Putin on the Risk

Europe's leanings maps. Kind of interesting.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...right-success/

(If you can't access it directly, try through a search engine by typing Washington Post geography of europe

Remind me, is "far right" in Europe the equivalent of moderate or Democratic here in the US?

[unofan]

If a guy flips sides, then he's no longer a US soldier.

Still waiting for something to back this up.