Works for me. Can't have a court martial if we don't have him, can we? Qatar was the intermediary, they can't negotiate for us. When was that? When were US POW's murdered in captivity? The Pentagon concluded in 2010 that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl walked away from his unit, and after an initial flurry of searching the military curbed any high-risk rescue plans. But the U.S. kept pursuing avenues to negotiate his release, recently seeking to fracture the Taliban network by making its leaders fear a faster deal with underlings could prevent the freedom they sought for five of their top officials, American officials told The Associated Press. The Haqqani and Taliban are very close allies. You should know that. I presume it deteriorated to the point it was now or never. What else can they do? What real victories can they claim? We got what we wanted. They got who we let them have. I didn't mention Oman. Qatar is a major American ally in the middle east. Fact. Even if you dislike them. So what? The Saudis are another major US ally in the Middle east, whether you like them or not. We have bases all over the middle east due to allies like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. Russian doesn't. China doesn't. Al Qaeda is hiding wherever they exist. Bases overseas are what make us a world power. Then you don't know what an ally is. Not all of our allies are exactly like us, but we have mutual interests. If huge US bases and our middle eastern military headquarters don't scream ALLY at you, then I give up. If American universities don't suggest that there is a lot of Western influence there, what does? We do a lot of things that they don't like either, but the bottom line is that we need bases in the region and cooperative allies for logistics. They need protection from Iran and to keep the trade routes open in the Persian Gulf. Mutual interests are why we have allies anywhere.
Yes I do object to getting him back. He went AWOL or he deserted or he became a traitor, etc. He was not captured on assignment or doing his duty. We lost men who were doing their duty looking for this fool. This was not a prisoner exchange. It was us releasing 5 terrorists for a possible deserter. We cannot act as if this were WW2 and think these released prisoner/terrorists will just go back to their civilian lives and family and live out the rest of their lives in peace along with all the other Taliban that hate our guts. These are different times. It is naive to believe that "Bush's policies" put all our soldiers at risk of torture. These terrorists were chopping heads off on TV, but God forbid we even remotely hurt or humiliate a prisoner to gain information. We have been doing similar things and much worse for a long long time and it was well known that it was done away from U.S. soil. The big difference is that evidence of what was occuring was leaked so we couldn't deny it this time. Even in the old days when the majority of Americans, and probably the world, believed we wouldn't stoop so low as to hurt a prisoner our boys were tortured. Senator John McCain is a prominent example.
So then despite what Obama says, we DID negotiate with terrorists. Got it. Can't have it both ways. And we also managed to piss of Hamid Karzai who HAS been a relatively decent ally. Nice. The problem here is first, Susan Rice went on the telly yesterday to say that he was kidnapped from a latrine and served honorably. But the Pentagon already established he deserted. The White House claimed the negotiations didn't start until a week ago and that's why they couldn't tell Congress. The administration is a truth disaster on this one. Allies....if you want to call it that. But again, the point was that we had direct information from the Taliban when they didn't really know for sure. Can't have it both ways. Really? It's not what I wanted. They asked for those 5, they got those 5. What? Was this not your comment? "6. When released these prisoners must go somewhere. Best they go to friendly states like Oman, who has an interest in keeping an eye on radicals. Oman has promised to keep them for a year, probably in fairly comfy house arrest. One wonders how eager they might be to return to the caves and guerrilla fighting in Afghanistan. But they won't be our responsibility any more. If they piss off the Omanis, they will be executed. And anything could happen to them since they are not under our guard and not our responsibility." And they are not under house arrest...."their movements within the Arab emirate are not restricted" So we handed over 5 terrorist to a country that finances international terrorism, supports al-Nusra, and are Wahabbists and it's so what? My oh my. "WikiLeaks revealed a State Department cable last December that labeled Qatar, the tiny, oil-rich Gulf nation, as the Middle East's "worst" participant in counterterrorism efforts, the New York Times reports. According to the cable, Qatari security was "hesitant to act against known terrorists out of concern for appearing to be aligned with the U.S. and provoking reprisals." We have bases there because it benefits those countries as well, not because they like us. You should probably review the transformation of overseas bases at this point. First of all, the US has been kicked out bases in the PI, Panama, and Equador. Japan has gotten tired of the sailors over there. There is a concerted move away from large bases to more strategic and much smaller bases...."a new generation of bases the military calls "lily pads" (as in a frog jumping across a pond toward its prey). These are small, secretive, inaccessible facilities with limited numbers of troops, spartan amenities, and prepositioned weaponry and supplies." Lily pads are all about us....not about the locals. These lily pads won't be offering degrees anytime soon. And if American schools are supposed to represent an increase in Western influence, why are these successes being kept a secret? Perhaps because it ain't working.
Consider also....there is a chance that if declared a POW, he would likely be eligible for up to 90% compensation tax free. The President as Commander in Chief could possibly override the CMJ and claim the deserter can't be court martialed.
Now watch. The usual suspects will come out the woodwork to defend the indefensible. Man, just imagine if you were the platoon sergeant or commander, much less parent, of those boys killed looking for him.
I would have traded the 5 for him. After I implanted remotely activated bombs up their asses so I could blow them and all of their buddies to shit.
Well the resident Obama apologist is already making every excuse possible. Its a shame that it isn't clear. This was a horrible move. It should also be clear that there should be NO doubt that he "bho" is a Muslim. Anything else he says is only a ruse.
Maybe getting him back is necessary. We can't have deserters joining the other side and helping them. We can't have guys stealing our national security secrets and running off to Russia. Somebody needs to answer for their actions. From what I am reading, the Army new he deserted. They experienced a rise in precision attacks shortly afterward. Maybe the entire search and rescue missions were aimed at getting him back and holding him accountable. It is just speculation but hell, someone shouldn't be able to just disappear and live their lives out while their actions harm the country.
No fuck him! He was a Sgt? That equates to him knowing 2+2. I guarantee those 5 assholes that Obama turned loose have the potential to do FAR more damage to this country than that fuck dribble ever could. The issue is he deserted, he wiped his sorry ass with the flag that myself, @CajunlostinCali , @alfredeneuman @SabanFan, @tirk et al served for not to mention the ones that died looking for his sorry ass. Fuck him and his sorry ass dad and that piece of shit president we have. It was a bullshit move to placate the fucking Muslims.
