US Army POW is released in swap for 5 Gitmo detainees.

aristotle

Veteran Expediter

RLENT

Veteran Expediter
No doubt, it is a happy day for the Bergdahl family.
No doubt.

Still, negotiating with Taliban terrorists sets a dangerous precedent.
I wonder if Bowe shares your misgivings ...

Understandable if he didn't ... he's actually got skin in the game ...

The Taliban might see an upside to hostage taking in the future.
Well, the upside is that the pool of potential American targets for hostages is about to get much, much smaller ...
 

RLENT

Veteran Expediter
Is it even newsworthy that Obama did not follow US law?
Not particularly ... except to perhaps note that in signing the law, Obama essentially followed Bush's and perhaps other presidents' lead with a signing statement saying how he viewed it and how he would implement it (or not)
 

muttly

Veteran Expediter

RLENT

Veteran Expediter
A little more perspective on this event, covering the typical hypocrisy of the usual suspects:

GOP Hawks Blast 'Illegal' Prisoner Swap for US POW

Rogers 'Extremely Troubled' by 'Fundamental Shift in US Policy'

by Jason Ditz, May 31, 2014

After five years of virtually unanimous Congressional silence about the detention of US POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was released today in a prisoner exchange with the Taliban, House and Senate hawks lined up to condemn the deal that secured his release as "illegal" and a threat to US military interests.


House Armed Services Committee Chair Rep. Buck McKeon (R – CA) blasted the move as a violation of legal requirements to inform Congress 30 days before any releases of captive Taliban.


Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Mike Rogers (R – MI) declared himself "extremely troubled" by Bergdahl’s release, saying he believed it was a "fundamental shift in US policy" that would "threaten the lives of American soldiers for years to come."


The putative “controversy” centers around the idea that the US “doesn’t negotiate with terrorists,” and that anyone captured is essentially out of luck, barring some dramatic, TV news-friendly rescue operation.


Mysteriously, this line of thinking doesn’t flow both ways, as officials assume trades increase Taliban incentive to capture US troops, but don’t imagine that they simultaneously might increase the US incentive to capture trade-bait Taliban. Ultimately, the view is that Taliban "hostage-taking" is a mercenary endeavor, but US military detentions have no ulterior motives.


The most insulting aspect of the hostility toward Bergdahl's release is that President Obama was already openly talking about releasing the five "traded" Taliban detainees unilaterally in March 2012 as a "confidence-building measure." At the time, it was considered comparatively non-controversial.


It was only in 2013, when the Taliban suggested they release Bergdahl in a "swap," that the release of the five suddenly started seeing any real opposition, suggesting that from the hawkish viewpoint, getting Bergdahl as a bonus in the releases somehow made them worse, and that nearly 13 years into a US occupation of Afghanistan, Beghdahl's release is the first real incentive the Taliban have for trying to capture foreign occupation forces.
GOP Hawks Blast 'Illegal' Prisoner Swap for US POW
 

muttly

Veteran Expediter
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paullud

Veteran Expediter
It's being reported that this soldier actually was a deserter and that's how he was captured. Now we sent a message that says we negotiate with terrorists and that they should kidnap people.

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layoutshooter

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
It's being reported that this soldier actually was a deserter and that's how he was captured. Now we sent a message that says we negotiate with terrorists and that they should kidnap people.

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A sgt in his squad said that on the night he was "captured" he left his guard post. That is just something that is NEVER done. There are few greater sins than that.
 

EASYTRADER

Expert Expediter
This story stinks, rumor control has it his pappa is a muslim convert. So its a generational thing I guess. I sure hope Obama leaves when his term is up.

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Dreamer

Administrator Emeritus
Charter Member
The thing that bothers me, is not that they traded....but the uneven trade. "IF" you do negotiate....seems a 1 for 1 trade is fair......but 5 for 1 ?

Dale

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layoutshooter

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
The thing that bothers me, is not that they traded....but the uneven trade. "IF" you do negotiate....seems a 1 for 1 trade is fair......but 5 for 1 ?

Dale

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Why even trade for a "person" who walked away from his guard post? :confused: Putting the lives of others in danger? Was anyone killed while out looking for him? IF he was that "upset" he SHOULD have been a man, refused the duty, and taken what ever came his way. Instead, he just left.
 

Pilgrim

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Talk about incompetence in foreign policy - if these reports turn out to be true, the US under Obama has become an international joke to a degree never before seen outside of 3d world countries and banana republics. Trade five Gitmo terrorists for one deserter...sure, why not? Maybe now the Muslim terrorists will like us and leave us alone.:rolleyes:
According to firsthand accounts from soldiers in his platoon, Bergdahl, while on guard duty, shed his weapons and walked off the observation post with nothing more than a compass, a knife, water, a digital camera and a diary.
At least six soldiers were killed in subsequent searches for Bergdahl, and many soldiers in his platoon said attacks seemed to increase against the United States in Paktika province in the days and weeks following his disappearance.

Fellow soldiers call Bowe Bergdahl a deserter, not a hero - CNN.com
 

RLENT

Veteran Expediter
Geezus ... I hope this half-wit loon runs again ... or a least keeps on talking ...

LEAVE NO SOLDIER BEHIND...UNLESS OBAMA HUGS HIS DAD
1:27 PM JUNE 2, 2014

ALLEN WEST PRETTY SURE BOWE BERGDAHL'S DAD MADE THE WHITE HOUSE A MOSQUE


by DOKTOR ZOOM

WH-mosque.jpg

OMG you guys! Disgraced former torturer Allen West, super-patriot and Muslim-Hunter extraordinaire, has been tipped off to some earth-shattering proof of Muslim perfidy and scary creeping — or galloping! — sharia law! After spending the weekend calling Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl a "deserter" and hinting that there’s something "nefarious" about his release from the Taliban, and about Bergdahl's father, Bob Bergdahl (who apparently doesn’t hate Muslims enough at all), West has revealed a "bombshell": Bob Bergdahl spoke Arabic at the White House! Not only that, but he pretty much made the White House a holy Muslim shrine by doing that, according to a very smart person who emailed Allen West.

West says that he got an email from Clare Lopez, a "former CIA operations officer" who knows all sorts of stuff about Islam and the Middle East, and who is a personal friend of one Allen West. Lopez completely blows the lid off a huge cover-up, he says!

She emailed me this morning a very poignant analysis that only someone knowing language and Islam could ascertain. She wrote:

"What none of these media is reporting is that the father’s (SGT Bowe Bergdahl’s father Bob) first words at the WH were in Arabic – those words were "bism allah alrahman alraheem" – which means "in the name of Allah the most gracious and most merciful" – these are the opening words of every chapter of the Qur’an except one (the chapter of the sword – the 9th) – by uttering these words on the grounds of the WH, Bergdahl (the father) sanctified the WH and claimed it for Islam. There is no question but POTUS knows this."


Folks, there is a lot to this whole episode — like Benghazi — that we may never know. And this is not conspiracy theory, it is truth based upon Arabic and Islamic dogma and tradition.​

Is America going to continue to let Barack Hussein Obama invite parents of rescued POWs to the White House and claim it for Islam? This is not a conspiracy theory, this is genuine honest-to-god disloyalty to America. Or maybe — and we’re going to go out on a limb here — it’s a routine phrase in Muslim Prayer that doesn’t actually have any magical power whatsoever, except perhaps the power to freak out wingnuts.

Get ready for a lot more of this idiocy, folks; somehow, the fact that Bowe Bergdahl's dad is sympathetic to Muslims has also been Very Big with the Stupidest Man on the Internet. Here's how terrifying Bob Bergdahl is: He said a phrase in Arabic, and then OBAMA HUGGED HIM! That just doesn’t wash off, you know.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. And while you're at it, maybe you should buy some more guns.

[Allen West / Gateway Pundit]

Follow Doktor Zoom on Twitter. He only hugs people who say certain phrases in French. Like, "Royale With Cheese."
Allen West Pretty Sure Bowe Bergdahl's Dad Made The White House A Mosque
 
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paullud

Veteran Expediter
This is supposedly from the fathers Twitter.


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