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It's pretty early in the process for us to start coming to drastic conclusions, isn't it?
Of course, if you have solid inside info the rest of us lack, please share so we can all join the chorus of criticism.
You're right. It's just as likely that these freed gentlemen will retire to the country to raise sheep and grow roses, and spend their evenings thinking back fondly on their lives.
Me and just about everybody in 'Nam felt the same way about that war and that Army. I still do. Of course, I did not walk off with bottle of water. I really don't care about the release. Who knows what the deal behind the story really was? We have nothing to worry about from Muslims if we mind our own affairs. You don't see them blowing up stuff in China.
That's because China wouldn't play their games, and cater to them.
The O-Team did not just "go behind Congresses back" - they openly defied a law by Congress that had bi-partisan participation AND the Obama signed. They also kept this entire thing Secret from the Government of Afghanistan and the Government of Pakistan - Bergdahl was held in a 'safe house' in Pakistan.
Working to bring him back to the USA is worthy, particularly if he has given "aid and comfort to the enemy" -- giving up 5 Senior Taliban, 2 of which are wanted by the UN for War Crimes against Humanity is wrong on every level. All the Boards (both pre & post Obama) have certified these 5 Taliban Leaders as too dangerous to release. Obama just thumbed his nose as Congress, the UN, Afghanistan, Pakistan, USA Law, US Citizens and the US Military. The big question is WHY.
The O-Team KNEW this was wrong and that's why they kept the entire thing a Top Secret until it was a "done deal" -- it's also why they are now calling Bergdahl a "soldier that served with Honor and Distinction". The White House, John Kerry, Chuck Hagel & Susan Rice put together this "deal". These people are all Political Players masquerading as National Defense. They had to keep everyone else out of the Loop so they could cut a deal that is NOT good for the USA and our National Security.
A lot of your posts make a lot of sense and have good information. If only you wouldn't always try to reflect everything as a smear against the president, I'd give you a lot more credence. Your biased political agenda override's your information and detracts from your credibility.
The military has a doctrine to never leave one of ours on the battlefield. Good soldier, bad soldier, live soldier, dead soldier, deserter or hero, we don't leave our own with the enemy. There are still teams in Vietnam, bringing home our own, forty years later. That's how important the issue is to us.
I agree with bringing him home. I do not think he deserves a parade or a warm welcome. He should return quietly, in the middle of the night and through the back door. He has brought shame to the military and the unit he was assigned to.
As commander in chief, it is one of the president's duties to use every avenue available to bring him home, even if he doesn't reflect the best values of the military or the United States.
I also believe that the truth should be told by his fellow comrades in arms in all the front pages of every news publication in the country so society will have no doubts as to who he really is and how he failed his comrades in their most deadly hours. After all is said and done, he and his parents may well become social pariahs.
Let's face it if Obama didn't make the trade the same people would be offering criticism, he cannot win.
The transfer of POWs always indicates a war is coming to an end soon. Prisoners of war are exchanged with no regard for their rank or importance; Generals have been swapped for privates, soldiers for sailors, in what ever combination there is.
Israel once released 1,270 Palestinians for one Israeli soldier.
We are not going to remain in Afghanistan forever. This prisoner exchange now allows us to leave on our time, not theirs, and we will leave clean this time, leaving no POW questions lingering as it did when he left Vietnam.
The United States has no control after we leave of any political developments or forces that may rise again or not in Afghanistan. There is no surety that the Taliban we released may not become the nation's future rulers.
But we have smashed the Taliban as an organized military-political force. They exist now only as tribal fragments of what they once were as a group. In some provinces, they will never regain their former power, and in others, they will. Since they are largely illiterate, and since tribal rivalries have never abated, there is a greater probability that the northern provinces, which are more populous, literate, and have more ability to govern, will control their government for some time to come.
The border provinces will always lie outside the laws of their central government, just as they have done for a thousand years. If any of those graybeards we cut loose ever become leaders again, they will be fighting each other, not us. We will be long gone by then.
And by then, all this will be forgotten here. Those who hate President Obama will find other things to spew their venom on, and there will always be something to spit it. That's the way it will be with any President who follows until we all decide to be Americans first again instead of pledging our greatest allegiance to only those we agree with most.
Obama just thumbed his nose as Congress, the UN, Afghanistan, Pakistan, USA Law, US Citizens and the US Military. The big question is WHY.
.
Obama has quite effectively used this tragedy to divert attention away from his failures at the VA and Benghazi. That is the only reason that makes sense.
The transfer of POWs always indicates a war is coming to an end soon. Prisoners of war are exchanged with no regard for their rank or importance; Generals have been swapped for privates, soldiers for sailors, in what ever combination there is.
Israel once released 1,270 Palestinians for one Israeli soldier.
We are not going to remain in Afghanistan forever. This prisoner exchange now allows us to leave on our time, not theirs, and we will leave clean this time, leaving no POW questions lingering as it did when he left Vietnam.
The United States has no control after we leave of any political developments or forces that may rise again or not in Afghanistan. There is no surety that the Taliban we released may not become the nation's future rulers.
But we have smashed the Taliban as an organized military-political force. They exist now only as tribal fragments of what they once were as a group. In some provinces, they will never regain their former power, and in others, they will. Since they are largely illiterate, and since tribal rivalries have never abated, there is a greater probability that the northern provinces, which are more populous, literate, and have more ability to govern, will control their government for some time to come.
The border provinces will always lie outside the laws of their central government, just as they have done for a thousand years. If any of those graybeards we cut loose ever become leaders again, they will be fighting each other, not us. We will be long gone by then.
And by then, all this will be forgotten here. Those who hate President Obama will find other things to spew their venom on, and there will always be something to spit it. That's the way it will be with any President who follows until we all decide to be Americans first again instead of pledging our greatest allegiance to only those we agree with most.
That's a great post and thank you. It put's everything in irrefutable perspective.
I, along with over 200 million US Citizens, are more than willing to hand over 14 million Mexicans, for the return of one of our military Mexico is holding in prison.
Five Gitmo prisoners don't even come close to the value of one American soldier!
When you sign up you sign that your life will be sacrificed for freedom around the world.
The sacrifice of one soldier, so five don't go back and get 1000's to kill 1000's.
This crap only happens when we get our asses handed to us in defeat.
It happened in Korea, Vietnam, and now Afghanistan.
We liberated all people held in oppression, after WW-11
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