{"id":452,"date":"2014-06-03T23:03:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T23:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/06\/i-admit-i-dont-know-what-to-make-of-the-bergdahl-swap.html"},"modified":"2014-06-03T23:03:00","modified_gmt":"2014-06-03T23:03:00","slug":"i-admit-i-dont-know-what-to-make-of-the-bergdahl-swap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/06\/i-admit-i-dont-know-what-to-make-of-the-bergdahl-swap.html","title":{"rendered":"I admit: I don’t know what to make of the Bergdahl swap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I don\u2019t have anything to offer in terms of insights into the Bowe Bergdahl swap. <\/p>\n

CNN reports<\/a> the administration\u2019s line:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t leave men and women in uniform behind,\u201d he said during a news conference in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThis is what happens at the end of wars,\u201d Obama said of the prisoner swap. \u201cRegardless of the circumstances, we still get an American soldier back if he\u2019s held in captivity. Period.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hotair.com (among numerous sites) reports on accusations now flying, for instance, \u201cReport: \u2018Many\u2019 in intelligence community fear Bergdahl may have been an active collaborator with the Taliban<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also now becoming clear that the five released Taliban are not to be imprisoned in Qatar, or under house arrest, or under any restriction at all except they may not leave the country for a year. <\/p>\n

And the claim that immediate health concerns required release without Congressional notification doesn\u2019t seem to have any evidence as back-up, other than assertions from non-credible Taliban sources.<\/p>\n

Did Obama agree upon this arrangement in order to get the VA hospital scandal off the front page? \u00a0This seems unlikely \u2014 unless we are to believe that the arrangement was worked out and just waiting for Obama to pull the trigger?<\/p>\n

Was Obama genuinely, truly, simply committed to getting Bergdahl out due to his status as a U.S. soldier, and operates, in this circumstance, under such a black-and-white view that the high credibility of reports of his desertion and possible treason doesn\u2019t matter? <\/p>\n

One suspects that this was a trial balloon for a wider release of Taliban from Guatanomo \u2014 though why were the first five ones who\u2019ve been described of as \u201cthe worst of the worst\u201d? \u00a0 (And the idea that they have some kind of tracking devices embedded in them is preposterous.) <\/p>\n

After all, if Obama\u2019s pitch is that \u201cthe war is over\u201d because we\u2019ve got the timeline for withdrawing troops and leaving Afghanis to fend for themselves, then we might as well release the remainder of the Taliban anyway, especially since he\u2019s also rejected the notion of a wider \u201cWar on Terror.\u201d<\/p>\n

(This strikes me as odd, in any case: \u00a0what defines when a \u201cwar\u201d is over when there is no formal declaration of hostilities or surrender or peace treaty? \u00a0You might as well say that the Korean War is still ongoing, since we have soldiers stationed there for the express purpose of preventing an invasion by the NORKs.)<\/p>\n

We did this all once before, remember? \u00a0We claimed that the Vietnam War was over, politicians touted the peace treaty, we packed up and went home, and refused the South Vietnamese government any residual assistance \u2014 and almost immediately afterwards, the communists marched into South Vietnam. \u00a0And to this day, we still fly POW-MIA flags, and in both Korea and Vietnam, we did \u201cleave men behind,\u201d didn\u2019t we?<\/p>\n

UPDATE: \u00a0The more I think about it, the more I think that the key is that Obama wanted a reason to release these captives. \u00a0CBS News reports<\/a> (among others), \u201cIn weighing the swap, U.S. officials decided that it could help the effort to reach reconciliation with the Taliban, which the U.S. sees as key to more security in Afghanistan.\u201d \u00a0It\u2019s preposterous to think that the Taliban, would, upon \u201creconciling\u201d with the U.S., lay down their arms and partner with other parties to form a human rights-respecting government, but, if that\u2019s your fantasy world, just like the \u201cpeace treaty\u201d with North Vietnam, then I suppose a prisoner release makes perfect sense.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t have anything to offer in terms of insights into the Bowe Bergdahl swap. CNN reports the administration\u2019s line: \u201cWe don\u2019t leave men and women in uniform behind,\u201d he said during a news conference in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday.\u00a0 \u201cThis is what happens at the end of wars,\u201d Obama said of the prisoner swap. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nI admit: I don't know what to make of the Bergdahl swap<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I don't have anything to offer in terms of insights into the Bowe Bergdahl swap. 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