Commanders on the ground debated whether to pull the trigger on a rescue several times in recent years, according to one of the sources, a former high-level intelligence official in Afghanistan, who said the conclusion each time was that the prospect of losing highly trained troops was too high a price to pay for rescuing a soldier who walked away from his unit before being captured by the enemy. (read more)
Starting to look like we traded 5 Taliban fighters for 1 Taliban fighter. http://t.co/a5Mp9hysxl
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 2, 2014
40 comments:
Watched the first 15 minutes of O'Reilly last night.
(OMG! Faux Noise! There. We got that out of the way. Yes, I occasionally affix my aluminum foil helmet to my noggin and submit to the brainwashing!)
O'Reilly's conclusions, as I understand them, were interesting. He seemed to agree that Bergdahl was likely a deserter. He and his guests also agreed that the U.S. military code demands that even deserters must be rescued and returned to U.S. soil.
Oh, and O'Reilly also said that, were he president, he wouldn't have done the deal. Because the guys we swapped for Bergdahl are too dangerous.
I will now go about my day, carrying out the secret plans covertly embedded in my primitive reptile brain by Rupert Murdoch.
Iowahawk nails it. Every. Single. Day.
My primitive brain is in the middle of a brake job on my truck. Brake fluid, grease and skinned knuckles. Good clean work as opposed to the world of politics.
I don't mind that we freed a captive, even though it's looking like he was in fact a deserter.
Obama just freed 5 violent assholes who will probably re-join the fight against the US and her interests.
All done illegally. W/ Holder at the helm - who needs legality?
Nice going Obama. Oh well, the media game him a nice tongue bath over it and that's what counts.
Didn't they used to summarily execute guys like that?
The photos of the five Taliban at the top of Eli Lake's piece today in the Daily Beast give me the shivers.
Interesting article. He says both Clapper and Panetta said these guys were way too high a risk when Obama was pushing for a swap deal in 2012, but this time around Hagel was a pushover.
We're in the best of hands.
Very sobering photos, Lydia. We gave them five warriors in return for a runaway boy.
Obama has set the predicate for releasing all of the remaining GITMO detainees.
It was/is illegal, but in the absence of punishment from a weak Congress, he'll do it.
He cares more about islam than about America. This is nothing new, although libs simply are unable to accept it.
Deleted tweets from dad Bergdahl.
It was/is illegal, but in the absence of punishment from a weak Congress, he'll do it.
He doesn't have to worry about a tough opposition press either, which explains why Congress isn't excited about taking him on.
Also, he is immune to impeachment, and he knows it.
A reminder regarding the Taliban's War-on-women. (hello - leftwing feminists - do you care?)
The Taliban are known for blowing up schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the name of keeping little girls from an education.
hashtag# our president is a fuck up.
It's remarkable how some liberal blogs are treating this as a situation that has nuance that needs to be understood.
The libs have finally found someone in the US military they believe needs to be more carefully understood - a traitor.
And of course, Obama must be defended at all costs, even in the face of an obvious illegal action.
One can only hope that the Congress will grow some balls and hold Obama to account for breaking the law.
I know they will never impeach him but a censure resolution is certainly within their rights.
I know, I know. Never gonna happen.
Obama is a lawless man.
We have become a nation of men not laws. The law is only a tool to destroy those that the government wants to destroy. The NSA, IRS, EPA and all the rest are just tools to be used in that destruction.
Bergdahl's act was so spectacularly stupid that it's probably more symptomatic of madness than of treason. You can argue that it was the right thing to bring him home, but you can't fairly describe his service as honorable or say that his proud parents deserved to take a bow in the Rose Garden.....It has certainly bumped the VA scandal off the front pages, but in a way that reinforces rather than diminishes the reputation of the Obama administration for screw ups and mendacity.
Haz, weren't the folks on the left supportive if that individual who shot up Ft. Hood? Something about it not being terrorism but instead workplace violence brought on by pre-PTSD caused by the awefulness of Bush's warmonering. That's what I recall, at least.
"Well, if the President does it then it's not illegal." Richard Obama
Of course, Trooper loved Tricky Dick.
Current report is that US Forces heard Taliban radio chatter that Bergdahl was looking to talk to the Taliban. More support for the Iowahawk conclusion.
Best interpretation from the Bergdahl POV:
"Captured on the field of battle" = looking to get in touch with like-minded friends.
Serving with "honor and distinction" = OneWorld Islamic Peace Train DETour.
This guy seems like a wussy version of John Walker Lindh whose only right move was not going into battle against US forces, merely deserting them. No wonder the army didn't pursue any further effort to get him back after losing 5 real soldiers. No wonder.
Now the question is: Obama had to have known all this and had to have known that the true back story would come out. So why bother? Maybe he didn't think it would all happen so fast? Are Ma and Pa Bergdahl big donors? Does he really think this moves the VA off the front page? Did it not occur to him that this would only highlight the disregard he clearly has for the military. Using them as pawns, misunderstanding their code and misapplying it.
Should have droned the creep.
Also, he apparently left behind a note renouncing his US citizenship. If so, we weren't actually leaving "one of ours" behind. We just provided him with transportation to his new country. And training. And information on troop movements.
Dang, check out Drudge. This thing is exploding. #DontDoStupidShit
This has become reminiscent of the scene in 'Lord of the Flies' where the choir boys kill Piggy.
That's not true.
I said I have a Trick Dick.
It is like a trick knee.
Just smaller.
Perhaps they managed to flip one of the Taliban prisoners and this is all part of an elaborate scheme to reintroduce him back into Afghanistan. Perhaps we'll all sprout gossamer wings and no longer gave to endure long flights in cramped spaces......I think the President was right to bring him home. Maybe, more arguably, he was right to give up those prisoners to get him back. But the Rose Garden ceremony and having Susan Rice describe Bergdahl's service as honorable is fucked up beyond all recognition....The President can put the baton wherever he wants, but it's definitely not proper baton placement for the hand off.
That is all well and good William but Obama still broke the law. He did not inform Congress because he knew that there would be an uproar. He just decided to break the law.
Because he is a lawless man.
this bergdalh dude is right up the left's self-loathing alley.
It just gets worse and worse -- from Jake Tapper's interview with Evan Buetow, who was Bergdahl's team leader in Afghanistan:
"Within days of his disappearance, says Buetow, teams monitoring radio chatter and cell phone communications intercepted an alarming message: The American is in Yahya Khel (a village two miles away). He's looking for someone who speaks English so he can talk to the Taliban.
'I heard it straight from the interpreter's lips as he heard it over the radio,' said Buetow. 'There's a lot more to this story than a soldier walking away.' ...
'Following his disappearance, IEDs started going off directly under the trucks. They were getting perfect hits every time. Their ambushes were very calculated, very methodical,' said Buetow.
It was 'very suspicious,' says Buetow, noting that Bergdahl knew sensitive information about the movement of U.S. trucks, the weaponry on those trucks, and how soldiers would react to attacks."
The video of the interview is here.
"Kill the pig. Cut his throat, Bash him in."
Well, at least he isn't a leftie. He is a home schooled country boy who was raised in a conservative Christian home and who worked at a local gun club and participated in martial arts. Then he joined the army.
But those parents, what pigs they are, loving their son and hoping for his return. You can't trust those Orthodox Presbyterians.
ARM,
You're not reasonable. You're just stupid.
I'm trying to make some sense out of your remarks, but it's impossible.
Maybe you should give it up.
And, don't forget, ARM, Hitler was a vegetarian. So, there's that.
The rapidity and viciousness with which you guys will turn on one of your own for some cheap partisan advantage makes me grateful that I am not a member of the club.
I'm not a member of any club, ARM.
Not Republican. Not Democrat.
I continue to struggle to make any sense out of your jabbering.
You don't have anything to say. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to shut up.
turn on one of your own
Do you support Charles Manson?
Allen, you might want to update some of you cultural references.
ARM,
You really don't have anything of any substance to say.
So why bother?
If Obama were smart, he would wait until these five guys are out of US control, and then drone them, and anyone else who is with them. This would shut up the right, and the left would not criticize him. He is morally corrupt enough to do this, but I am not sure he is really that smart.
OK, ARM, I'll wait for permission from you before I express my opinion. Even though I have a son in the Army now and spent a few days of my year in Viet-Nam out looking for deserters, it's now clear that my thoughts on this episode must be thoughtless and vicious, not a chance they would be based on my experience.
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