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Showing posts with label Bowe Bergdahl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bowe Bergdahl. Show all posts

Thursday, June 05, 2014

Where Do They Stand?

AmericaBlog has a piece up that illustrates quite nicely the wide ranging spectrum that Republicans have been dancing along regarding Bowe Bergdahl. Interestingly, they were big fans of him until Barack Obama came along. Par for the course...

Tuesday, June 03, 2014

Bowe Bergdahl Breakdown

Here's a great analysis of the Bowe Bergdahl story from one of my questions on Quora.

I've been debating this with a friend in the military. From what we know now he does not deserve it. But it was the right thing to do. Lets break it down. 

1. Leave no man behind. It is not leave no man behind except for people who have yet to be tried for desertion. While it looks like he does not deserve to benefit from this policy, the problem is that once the Commander in Chief starts making exemptions, it becomes a slippery slope. 

2. Prisoner exchange. Warring parties have been doing this for a long time. Israel releases hundreds, even over a thousand prisoners, for one Israeli soldier. 

3. No negotiation with terrorists. He was classified as a prisoner of war, not a civilian hostage. No negotiation with terrorists? So we never negotiate with the Taliban? What about a peace treaty? What about Iran, who sponsors terrorism? No negotiation with them? We negotiate with our enemies not our friends. 

4. The released prisoners will be fighting us. Of course they will. And in most other exchanges, we might put the soldier back into the armed forces. That is the nature of prisoner exchanges. Its part of the deal. 

5. He was a deserter. Yes, it looks like it. He deserves to be held to account for this upon his return. But, he first needs to be returned and then tried. 

6. He was a traitor. I have yet to see any evidence that he took up arms against the US or collaborated with the enemy. 

7. He caused the death of six others. If found to be the case after his trial, I expect the punishment to take that into account. 

8. Failure to notify Congress. At issue, but the executive branch should be held accountable. If this were a war hero, nobody would be complaining under these circumstances. 

9. Glorification. Neither Obama nor Hagel heaped any praise upon him. Rice did exercise poor judgment in her words. All the attention he got is a double edged sword. I think he is going to become the subject of scorn and seen as the undeserving beneficiary of a longstanding policy.

Pretty much hits on all the points quite well!