“The horror that is America is disgusting.”
There was Obama, proud as a peacock:
Good afternoon, everybody. This morning, I called Bob and Jani Bergdahl and told them that after nearly five years in captivity, their son, Bowe, is coming home.
Sergeant Bergdahl has missed birthdays and holidays and the simple moments with family and friends, which all of us take for granted. But while Bowe was gone he was never forgotten. His parents thought about him and prayed for him every single day, as did his sister, Sky, who prayed for his safe return.
He wasn’t forgotten by his community in Idaho, or the military, which rallied to support the Bergdahls through thick and thin. And he wasn’t forgotten by his country, because the United States of America does not ever leave our men and women in uniform behind.
Obama watched proudly as Bowe Bergdahl’s father praised Allah:
At the end of brief event, the soldier’s father, Bob Bergdahl, recited the most frequent phrase in the Koran — “Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim” —which means “In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Compassionate.”
Bergdahl’s father sported a Taliban beard for the occasion.
Susan Rice was proud:
“It was an extraordinary day for America,” Rice told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Hagel was proud:
“This is a very happy day for the Bergdahl family,”
There were many who were not happy, among them those who served with Bergdahl.
“I was pissed off then and I am even more so now with everything going on,” said former Sgt. Matt Vierkant, a member of Bergdahl’s platoon when he went missing on June 30, 2009. “Bowe Bergdahl deserted during a time of war and his fellow Americans lost their lives searching for him.”
Bergdahl made it very clear he hated America and its military in emails to his family.
“The future is too good to waste on lies. And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong,” Bergdahl reportedly wrote his father. “I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be american (sic). The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting.”
He also attacked the army saying it cut down people “for being honest,” and rewarded sycophants. “The title of US soldier is just the lie of fools,” he wrote. “I am sorry for everything here.
There is contention about how Bergdahl became separated from his unit but there is this:
On the night prior to his capture, Bergdahl pulled guard duty at OP Mest, a small outpost about two hours south of the provincial capitol. The base resembled a wagon circle of armored vehicles with some razor wire strung around them. A guard tower sat high up on a nearby hill, but the outpost itself was no fortress. Besides the tower, the only hard structure that I saw in July 2009 was a plywood shed filled with of bottled water. Soldiers either slept in poncho tents or inside their vehicles.
The next morning, Bergdahl failed to show for the morning roll call. The soldiers in 2nd Platoon, Blackfoot Company discovered his rifle, helmet, body armor and web gear in a neat stack. He had, however, taken his compass. His fellow soldiers later mentioned his stated desire to walk from Afghanistan to India.
The Daily Beast’s Christopher Dickey later wrote that “[w]hether Bergdahl…just walked away from his base or was lagging behind on a patrol at the time of his capture remains an open and fiercely debated question.” Not to me and the members of my unit. Make no mistake: Bergdahl did not “lag behind on a patrol,” as was cited in news reports at the time. There was no patrol that night. Bergdahl was relieved from guard duty, and instead of going to sleep, he fled the outpost on foot. He deserted. I’ve talked to members of Bergdahl’s platoon – including the last Americans to see him before his capture. I’ve reviewed the relevant documents. That’s what happened.
And there’s the problem of the Taliban- they don’t take prisoners:
The scene cuts and one of the killers stands behind him and shoots him in the head with a pistol, five times. Another man stands off to the side, out of his victim’s view, and fires three bursts from his AK-47 rifle into his torso, which convulses at each round.
It was yet another example of a terrible truth, one that has been a commonplace for so long that it is seldom commented upon: insurgents in Afghanistan rarely take any prisoners.
The price to recover Bergdahl has been high:
One of my close friends was the company executive officer for the unit at Zerok. He is a mild-mannered and generous guy, not the kind of person prone to fits of pique or rage. But, in his opinion, the attack would not have happened had his company received its normal complement of intelligence aircraft: drones, planes, and the like. Instead, every intelligence aircraft available in theater had received new instructions: find Bergdahl. My friend blames Bergdahl for his soldiers’ deaths. I know that he is not alone, and that this was not the only instance of it. His soldiers’ names were Private First Class Aaron Fairbairn and Private First Class Justin Casillas.
Though the 2009 Afghan presidential election slowed the search for Bergdahl, it did not stop it. Our battalion suffered six fatalities in a three-week period. On August 18, an IED killed Private First Class Morris Walker and Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen during a reconnaissance mission. On August 26, while conducting a search for a Taliban shadow sub-governor supposedly affiliated with Bergdahl’s captors, Staff Sergeant Kurt Curtiss was shot in the face and killed. On September 4, during a patrol to a village near the area in which Bergdahl vanished, an insurgent ambush killed Second Lieutenant Darryn Andrews and gravely wounded Private First Class Matthew Martinek, who died of his wounds a week later. On September 5, while conducting a foot movement toward a village also thought affiliated with Bergdahl’s captors, Staff Sergeant Michael Murphrey stepped on an improvised land mine. He died the next day.
And it gets more and more curious. SecDef Hagel said Congress wasn’t notified of the trade because Bergdahl’s health was failing:
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan—U.S. officials had intelligence suggesting Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s safety and health were in jeopardy, justifying a prisoner swap without the required congressional notification, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Sunday.
He said the government believed it had to act quickly to save Sgt. Bergdahl’s life after he was held prisoner for nearly five years. But Mr. Hagel declined to provide details of his condition, citing privacy rules. He spoke on a flight to Afghanistan, where he was to meet with American troops and commanders.
Yet CBS News reports this:
Bergdahl was in good condition and able to walk,
And most curious of all is this- the most transparent President in history of the world forced all of Bergdahl’s fellow soldiers to sign non-disclosure agreements:
Many of Bergdahl’s fellow troops — from the seven or so who knew him best in his squad, to the larger group that comprised the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division — told CNN that they signed nondisclosure agreements agreeing to never share any information about Bergdahl’s disappearance and the efforts to recapture him.
Exactly why would Obama need to stifle the voices of those who knew Bergdahl best? Would it ruin the party?
There is little doubt that Obama’s new policy of negotiating with terrorists puts a larger and larger target on the backs of Americans- especially soldiers- everywhere.
In the days ahead however, we must carefully examine the means by which we secured his freedom. America has maintained a prohibition on negotiating with terrorists for good reason. Trading five senior Taliban leaders from detention in Guantanamo Bay for Berghdal’s release may have consequences for the rest of our forces and all Americans. Our terrorist adversaries now have a strong incentive to capture Americans. That incentive will put our forces in Afghanistan and around the world at even greater risk.
This incident is a convenient distraction from the string of Obama foreign policy failures and the VA scandal but ultimately this action does little more than diminish the US further.
Barack Obama traded five high value Taliban for an America hater who walked away from his post, but is unable to rescue a decorated war veteran from a Mexico jail. Maybe he’ll trade Tahmooressi for more automatic weapons for the cartels.
What I’d like to see is Obama standing at the podium with the families of the six US soldiers who died looking for Bergdahl with Obama telling America how much Bergdahl hated this country. How happy are those parents now?
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 40 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 45 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter who is in the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
@retire05, #47:
Please note that I deleted the reference to ducks and goats, realizing that it would only confuse you. Unfortunately the revised comment most likely won’t be understood any better.
Would you like to explain to me exactly what the parallels between those who died in Benghazi and those who died attempting to rescue Bergdahl were? Other than that their deaths are being shamelessly exploited by the right in an effort to score points against the President of the United States, of course.
@another vet:
Yeah, vet. This reminds me of that female SPC during Desert Shield who was captured by Saddam’s forces – while with another soldier whom the Pentagon never used as a propaganda piece – you remember the one who the took pictures of hugging Gen Schwarzkopf after she was released? One of my college buddies who was commissioned in the MPs was involved in the investigation. Interestingly, this particular female was found to have had over $3000 cash stuffed in her duffle bags when her unit went to inventory things after it was learned she was captured. Turns out our little captured SPC was making money “entertaining the troops”, and that’s what was allegedly going on when she and the other soldier were captured.
But because she was a female in a warzone, no way was this information going to be allowed to be put out. Just like the female physician who was captured when the chopper she was one went down – she had violated a direct order not to get on that chopper and went anyway. She ended up getting promoted to general over her career – even was the commander of Landstuhl back in 2004 when I was there on a backfill mission to help cover for docs who had been deployed out of Germany. You cannot imagine how gut cringing it was to walk into the hospital PX and see this general’s biography – dozens of copies displayed out over more than 50% of the available space of books being sold – while she was the commander of that hospital. No sense of ethics whatsoever.
The left doesn’t actually care about people in uniform. They only care based on how valuable a propaganda piece for pushing their leftist lunacy on the rest of us.
down the slope we go, WORSE AND WORSE WE SEE,
i dread the comming next event, because it will be worse,
the FRAMERS FORGOT TO WRITE THE WAY TO UNDO BAD THING
AS SOON AS THEY APPEAR,
@Pete, #51:
I spent a year of my life in Vietnam wearing one of my nation’s military uniforms. How about you?
@Greg:
Who with? Jane Fonda? Or maybe John Kerry?
@Greg:
As I have already stated in multiple other posts, I retired after 25 years in the army, starting out as an infantry private, got commissioned as a cavalry officer, went to Desert Shield/Storm, then became an army doctor, did another tour in Iraq, and volunteered/served in Afghanistan with less than a year before my scheduled retirement.
Bergdahl is a deserter, based on his own written statements and actions, not to mention the news coming in waves from the real soldiers who served in his unit at the time he deserted. Just because someone wore the uniform, doesn’t mean they served with honor and distinction. Just ask Kerry, Nidal.Hassan, and Gore. Defending the trade of this coward for 5 terrorist scum – illegally as it turns out – is not made any more justifiable simply because of your service in Vietnam.
Since Bowe wanted to give up his American citizenship (but never jumped through all the hoops) I wonder what he’ll do in American now he’s coming back?
I think it is suspicious that he’s going to be kept away from family and friends for months.
Rehabilitation?
Or simply lessons in how to pass as a returning hero when you are really the enemy?
@Pete, #55:
I’ll arrive at some conclusion about Bergdahl once the facts of the situation—including his mental status—are known. In the meantime, I’m disinclined to condemn a soldier who has spent the past 5 years in the custody of the Taliban as a traitor, particularly when I see that a lynch-mob mentality is being worked up in order to facilitate yet another bullshit politically motivated investigation by the GOP. These people are worse than useless.
As near as I can ascertain, a far-right political mindset trumps any other consideration, to the extent that having worn the nation’s uniform and having gone to war wearing it become totally irrelevant. The fact of military service can even become the occasion for personal attack. The vile attacks on John Kerry are a perfect example. To my mind, that was nothing less than a betrayal of a former brother in arms. There were even vicious attacks from the right on the military record of John McCain, from Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain.
@Greg: It takes more than wearing a uniform to make one honorable. One of the guys who went to Iraq with us took bribes from a Kuwaiti contractor. We who did serve honorable did not tolerate his betrayal of an honor code. Just leaving his post dishonored his service.
@Pete: I remember the incident with the specialist and her customer being caught and ending up as POW’s. There was a female officer in Bosnia who refused to carry her weapon because she was there to “help” the people. She was promptly redeployed back to the states before she could get someone killed. It sounds like Bergdahl would have been better suited to the Peace Corps as opposed to the military. Either way, he made his choices and others paid for them with their lives.
Which is what got this started. Had they followed the law and notified Congress and had this guy not been paraded out like a hero, the fallout would have been much less. This was turned into a propaganda event by making it look like this administration really cares about the military and Veterans. It’s just that they picked the wrong person to do it with.
When you look at who has protested against the troops serving overseas, be it now or in the past such as Vietnam, it was the left. When you look at who compared those who served in GWOT to the biggest mass murders in history, it was the left. When you look at who paraded out “veterans” who never served in the military to make false claims about witnessing “atrocities” committed by U.S. troops, it was the left. When you look at who grossly overstated civilian casualties in Iraq, it was the left. There were lefties on FA who bashed those in uniform and Vets who criticized Obama in 2012. The left has a proven track record of bashing those in uniform. The only ones who served that they don’t bash are the likes of John Kerry, himself a basher of the military.
@Greg:
I’ll accept the words from all the former members of the traitor’s platoon, along with the words from the traitor himself as I posted earlier from the NYT. Bergdahl is a cowardly traitor who deserves no praise, but rather a court-martial for his desertion.
@another vet:
Agreed. Look at the communist hag Medea Benjamin and her Code Pink flunkies. They’ve been rather quiet in their narcissistic protesting since a dem moved into the Oval Office, despite the fact that we have remained in Afghanistan under Obama. And tbe MSM curiously stopped their breathless reporting on the death toll since Obama took over. Strange, isn’t it, since we lost more soldiers under Obama than we did under Bush despite being their longer under Bush…..
@Pete:
include Bowe’s own dad!
Yup.
He joined Code Pink!
@Greg:
Of course you did, Skippy. Don’t think it goes unnoticed that you often go back and change your comments long after someone has already responded to you. It is a sneaky little trick that doesn’t work with us that really watch you and know how dishonest you are.
There are no parallels, Greggie. Four men were shamelessly left to hang out to dry by the Obama Misadministration and six men were slaughtered by Taliban non-uniformed enemy combatants while they were trying to save the life of another soldier. But being the parrot for this Misadministration that you are, I doubt you can see the difference.
Really? Yet you cannot see that Obama shamelessly exploited a U.S. soldier, whose platoon brothers claim is a deserter, in order to be able to clean out five cells at Gitmo? Susan Rice said Bergdahl served his nation with honor. Obviously, honor has a new meaning with the Marxist in Chief. How many families of our fallen has Obama hosted in the Rose Garden? Quick, give me the number without looking it up.
Bergdahl is not being chastised by who you consider the real enemy; Republicans. He is being chastised by those who served in the same platoon with Bergdahl. Now, unless you were there, and served in that platoon, you have no authority to dispute their claims that Bergdahl is a deserter except we know that all progressives, like you, have absolutely no use for our military unless they provide a tony photo-op.
You are a disgrace to the uniform you claim to have worn.
@Greg:
Taken right from the DNC playbook. Do you want a cracker?
Ummm, as memory serves me, it was John Kerry making vile attacks on other soldiers, not the other way around. But then, no surprise you would want to defend a traitor to our nation, such as John Kerry. I guess you belong to the Jane Fonda Fan Club, as well.
Pete
yes, lost a thousand more braves , on OBAMA’S COMMAND’S ROE,
@Pete:They are all living proof that you can’t trust the left. It’s no wonder most of our volunteer military leans center-right of center. The lefties can’t be counted on to do their part. They’d rather just sit back and let the evil conservatives defend their arrogant asses and then sharpshoot everything they do. As the old saying goes, “If you don’t want to stand behind the troops, feel free to stand in front of them instead.”
it reafirm our belief, THAT THE MILITARY LIFE IS NOT FOR ALL,
ANY ONE WEAK MIND WOULD CRUMBLE UNDER WHAT THE SOLDIERS get to be in contact with,
AND WHO ARE EFFEMINEY AND WEAK STOMACK AND SENSITIVITY ARE NOT IN THEIR PLACE IN MILITARY LIFE, THEY CANNOT TAKE THE PRESSURE AND WILL BECOME A WEIGHT ONTO THEIR COMPANION MEANING DEATH OR WOUNDED BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO CARRY THE WEAKLING
on their back,
that was this guy , from what i read and see comming on tv,
he just did not have the cajones to take his job seriously,
and when reality hit him he collapse into a fetus,
@another vet:
Vet, I sat down with my kids one day and explained to them exactly why they need to thank a military person in uniform, and to thank veterans for their service (albeit with the exception of people like Kerry who lied about US military atrocities). Taking roughly 300 million Americans, and an active duty force of 1.4 million (at least until the Obama admin cuts those numbers to 1.2 million or so) that means our liberty is being protected by 0.47% of the population of this country. See my kids grew up while I was in the army, so they were accustomed to all their friends folks being military, and seeing people in uniform every day. Now that I am retired and living in an area with the nearest military post being 2 hours away, the only time they see uniformed military is on TV, or when we are at the airport travelling.
I admit I was lucky in finding my current hometown in Texas. Every house for miles around my home has a flag out on Veterans Day, July 4th, and Memorial Day.
Pete
yes, that’s what i meant by making sure to keep the values public so to compete
whith those who try to erase it as much as they can by targetting the youth of AMERICA,
those who have no influence by their father mother, are hostage of the change which is eatablish while we are not looking, and suddenly, we see it, no GOD AROUND, CHRISTMAS IS BANNED TO THE VETERANS
this year the administration refuse a group to sing for the veteran in hospital,
the administration explain it would offend other, it had me so angry, i insulted them,
and all they ban is what is good for the people like banning a breath of fresh air, is in it,
I came to suspect the MUSLIMS employed in those hospitals throwing their weight on the veterans sick,
IT HAS OCCUR TO ME BECAUSE THE UNIONS EMPLOYED ANYONE AS LONG AS THEY GET THE MONEY,
AND MANY DON’T LIKE THE VETERANS BECAUSE THEY BELONG,
AND THEIR ALLEGIANCE IS STILL TO THEIR MIDDLE EAST COUNTRY, THAT IS A FEAR I HAVE SINCE THE PSYCHIATRIST HASSAN HAD POWER ON THE VETERANS AND
WAS TRYING TO TEACH THEM HIS BOOK, AND END UP KILLING 13 SOLDIERS, ON A SUDDEN RAGE,
WHO CAN TELL US HOW MANY WORK IN ALL THOSE VETS HOSPITALS AIMING AT DESTROYING
THE VETERANS IN A HIDDEN WAY THAT NO ONE WOULD SUSPECT, I FEAR FOR THE SICK WARRIORS, even more,
after what happened
this HASSAN THE LAST I HEARD, was still collecting his military check,
@retire05:
I’m afraid your memories are largely a product of your political views and your virulent hatred for anyone who doesn’t happen to share them. You couldn’t figure out what was going on in Vietnam at the time, and you sure as hell aren’t making any better a job of it over 40 years later.
You do grasp the fact that Swift Vets and POWS for Truth were a pack of politically motivated liars, don’t you? Some of their own former members publicly acknowledged signing sworn affidavits concerning events about which they actually had no first-hand knowledge. Why do you suppose swiftboating has become a term for any campaign to trash a person’s public reputation with little or no concern for the truth?
Not that you care any more about the truth than they do. This has, in fact, pretty much become the entire modus operandi of the political right and the republican party. Swiftboating has become institutionalized. Lies have become routine, propaganda has taken the place of information, and hypocrisy has become the norm. The right wing media swims in it. I don’t think they can even see it at this point, any more than fish can see the water. It doesn’t even register, for example, that you’ve passed judgement on Bergdahl—and on his family, for that matter—without really knowing the all the facts. It’s apparently enough that doing so is politically convenient. What the right is always most predisposed to believe is a politically useful narrative.
@john:
This is folk myth. Please let it die.
Taliban History Lesson: Not Our Boys From the 80-s, citing Pat Lang:
And no, we never trained nor funded bin Laden nor Arab foreign fighters (who were actually pretty pathetic and ineffectual in Afghanistan against the Soviets).
Were we wrong to support Ahmad Shah Massoud and the Northern Alliance? Methinks not.
@wordsmith:
Wasn’t Ahmad Shah Massoud the northern Afghani leader who was trying to warn the US about a possible 9-11-01 just before it happened?
I seem to recall he was murdered just before he was proven correct.
Yes, we were right to support him.
We probably could have done more if we’d understood the politics of the area better.
He would have made a great leader for all of Afghanistan had he lived.
@Greg:
You dishonor yourself with this orwellian rewriting of history. This post makes crystal clear that nothing you say can be considered as having a single grain of truth.
Show a single instance of the Swift Boat Vets lying, Greg. I can pull up the video of Kerry lying repeatedly during his Winter Soldier pretentious droning.
You are, with this post, at the same level of credibility and integrity as This One. Not the you care, I am sure, since leftists like you are never concerned with being honest about anything anyway.
@Greg:
I know this: John Kerry gave his Winter Soldier testimony based NOT on what he saw, but what was concocted during his many VVATW meetings. I know that Kerry was involved in a VVATW meeting where the discussion was a planning session on how to assassinate a sitting Congressman. I know that Kerry lied during his testimony, and I know that he violated the UCMJ when he campaigned against the war while still in uniform (he had not mustered out yet). I know that Kerry should be making small rocks out of big ones at Leavenworth, not flying around on the taxpayer dime, sleeping through Obama speeches, as Secretary of State.
I also know that war was started by a Democrat, escalated by a Democrat, blamed on a Republican who ended it. I know that the war protests were full of vendors selling Mein Kampf, Mao’s writings and other Communist propaganda. I know that Russia was funding the anti-war protests, and that people like Tom Hayden (who Democrats later elected to high office) and Jane Fonda were traitors, along with John Kerry.
I know there was no will to win. We never lost a battle (not one) in Vietnam, and yet, we lost the war. Walter Cronkite said we lost Tet. We did not lost Tet. It was, in fact, an American victory. Cronkite later admitted he was solidly against the war. His reporting was tainted to present his opinion, not the fact. I know that General Giap was quite clear that the U.S. lost the war on the streets of America, not on the battle field in Southeast Asia.
I know we lost that war because the Communists recruited those like Tom Hayden, Jane Fonda and John Kerry to spout their propaganda, who were willing dupes of the Kremlin. 58,000 good men died so fools like you can come on this blog and spew your lies.
So don’t presume to tell me I don’t know anything about Southeast Asia. You can try to rewrite history, but you will never be able to scrape the taint of being a traitor off John Kerry, or any of the VVATW participants. And you should hold your head in shame that you would even try to defend him.
GREG
no you are wrong ,
retire05 always come with the hard cold truth< take it or not,
you can"t disgust it or take away any one letter from it,
as much as you and other now gone away tried so hard,
THANK GOD FOR retire05, he has the guts that you will never show here,
For leftist agitprop posters who insist on spreading their ignorant lies that this uproar over Obama freeing 5 taliban terrorists for a deserter being nothing more than a right wing political maneuver:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/06/bowe-bergdahl-prisoner-swap-totally-did-not-follow-the-law-senate-intel-chair-says/
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/bowe-bergdahl-released/top-lawmakers-say-white-house-broke-law-bergdahl-deal-n121721
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/feinstein-white-house-violated-law-bergdahl
So Greg and all the rest of you leftists defending this illegal act by Obama – tell us how Dem Senator Dianne Feinstein is somehow part of a bogus right wing political trick. Please….show us how wrong we are.
And please note the blatant schadenfreude that I have over the fact I provided links to ABC, NBC, and the insanely leftist Talking Points Memo website as sources for this post. Not a FoxNews post in there – so save your droll “biased rightwing source” crap.
Bergdahl is a deserter and a traitor. He must be court-martialled, and if found guilty, sentenced to death as is the proper punishment for desertion in time of war. In a just world Obama would be impeached for breaking yet another law, and put on trial for treason for freeing these terrorists in an illegal manner.
@Pete: It’s good you live in a neighborhood like that and instill a sense of respect for those in uniform in your kids. My town used to be pretty solid Red. It is now Blue. Everyone used to fly flags on the holidays. Not anymore. Everyone used to acknowledge you when you let them in traffic. Not anymore. We used to be gang free with no crack houses or meth labs. Not anymore. The joys of being “Blue”.
Nanny G
i remember reading about MASSOUD, HOW GOOD A LEADER HE WAS AND KNOWN FROM ALL,
HE WAS FRAMED BY A JOURNALIST getting an exchange with him,
and there he was killed,
reading of him made a reader admire him for being so brave,
bye
@wordsmith, #72:
I doubt if it’s pure folk myth. There seems to be general agreement that Ali Mohamed was providing training and assistance to Osama bin Laden’s operatives while he was an employee of the CIA. Note that the linked article dates from November, 1998.
@Pete, #74:
Opinions differ concerning who is attempting to do a rewrite. Regarding the politically motivated attacks against Kerry launched by Swift Vets and POWS for Truth, any burden of proof is surely theirs. They’re suddenly publicly disputing events that occurred during a war 40 years earlier, which led to the award of a silver star, a bronze star, and multiple purple hearts. Basically they’re opening the door on questioning any veteran’s decorations, decades after the fact. The guy they’re trashing also just happens to be their primary political enemy at the moment and a person whose opinions they’ve detested for years. What a coincidence.
Where did they lie? The organization was lying out of the gate. They repeatedly claimed their reasons for coming forward with “the truth” were not political. Yet Swift Vets and POWS for Truth was a 527 tax exempt organization. By definition, 527s are “…solely for the purposes of influencing or attempting to influence the selection, nomination, election, or appointment of any individual to any State or local public office or office in a State or local political organization.” The assertion that they weren’t politically motivated was ridiculous.
Their “evidence” consisted of nothing more than signed affidavits. To what extent should an affidavit be trusted when the person who signs it has a strong motive to twist the truth, and when the likelihood of any negative consequence for doing so is virtually nil? One accuser, Alfred French, later admitted he actually had no first-hand knowledge of the tale he’d sworn to be true. Another, Steve Hayes, publicly stated he left the group when he realized they were deliberately distorting the truth. Then you’ve got the matter of where the money funding the group and it’s very expensive televised negative campaign ads was coming from. Nearly all of it was from wealthy republican Bush supporters.
Honor? These guys have none. Hypocrisy they do have.
Can Bowe Bergdahl Be Tied to 6 Lost Lives? Facts Are Murky. But we mustn’t let that keep us from hastily drawing politically useful conclusions.
Wonder why the admin is trying to pull the wool over our eyes?
Greg
what you are relating is still not matching the lies of now,
what you say is just supositions after all,
but this now is reality acid as it can be,
@Pete: This goes back to adhering to, “You may as well start with the truth because that is where you are going to end up.” Had the truth been told from the beginning, this would have been confined to the issues of breaking the law and the wisdom of releasing 5 high value prisoners. Someone, somewhere along the line chose to silence or alter the truth for whatever reason and now it has morphed out of control. The original 15-6 needs to be re-looked at.
As for the administration and their sheep bashing those who were there and who have contradicted the WH narrative about Bergdahl serving honorably and with distinction, this is nothing new. In 2012 when the group of SEALS came out and criticized Obama, they were bashed as well. The Obamamites here said they weren’t real SEALS something I would have loved to have seen them state to one of their faces and gotten a film of it not that they would have had the courage to do so. It would have been great to have seen one of them getting knocked on their ass! Make no mistake, the left doesn’t give a damn about Bergdahl anymore than they did the women and children in Syria that were used an excuse by them to help Obama save face with his red line in the sand comment. In their minds the only really Vets, or Americans for that matter, are the ones who blindly support Obama. This has nothing to do with Bergdahl but everything to do with Obama.
One of ”the Five” was Mohammed Fazl.
Mohammad Fazl is the Taliban’s former Deputy Defense Minister.
He is responsible for killing thousands of Shi’a Afghans between 1996 and late 2001.
In 1999 Mohammed Fazl perpetrated a “scorched earth offensive” to obtain control of his region of Afghanistan.
How many people did he ”scorch?”
300,000 people fled their homes.
When they tried to come back they found there was not a single undamaged house or garden left.
How does the Taliban feel now?
Mohammed Fazl’s release has been hailed by the Taliban as a major achievement, with its minister of foreign affairs, Mullah Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, saying: “In terms of military significance, Fazl was the most important.”
Negotiations in 2011 and 2012 hinged around sending the five men directly to Doha, Qatar, where they would be allowed to set up an official office for the Taliban.
They are back in the game of terror.
Back in the day. deserters were shot in the back in American armies( if caught fleeing during a fire fight). Trading 5 lives for a dead man walking was stupid