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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

I’m About to Lose My Sh*t




photo Bergdahl_zpsbf75ac38.jpg

Between yardwork, housework, two jobs, and a couple of health issues (I am officially old … have arthritis) about all I’ve been able to do is check up on world events via Twitter.  That’s enough to piss me off.  It has been building and building but today might have sent me over the edge…

WE DO  NOT LEAVE AMERICAN SOLDIERS BEHIND.  PERIOD.

Time magazine’s cover asks regarding Bowe Bergdahl, “Was he worth it?”  Seriously?!  What the fuck!  Yes!  He is an American soldier held by those we are fighting.  The only thing that could have made the cover more offensive would have been had they dug up some unflattering picture.  If there are any questions, and there look to be some legitimate concerns about the nature of his capture, then bring him home and ask him.  But we do not leave him behind.  We do not base decisions on whether the POW was a good guy or not or whether he was well-liked by his unit or not.

According to Wikileaks documents Bergdahl may have been captured while in the latrine.  Embarrassing?  Yes.  Traitor/deserter?  No.

There is so much conjecture, opinion, speculation being reported as fact and he has been condemned before he is even home.  The Hailey, ID Chamber of Commerces ladies are getting hate calls.  Fox News and others are attacking the family.

I just can’t even comprehend how people who do this stuff think.

Does anyone mention that the five guys we traded needed to be released at the end of the year anyway so at least we got something for them.  And about 1/3 (that’s right only 1/3) of those released are even suspected of returning to participate in the “war.”  I’ve seen these five described as the “worst of the worst” but if that is the case why haven’t they been tried?  Oh right, there wasn’t enough evidence.  But let’s not let facts get in the way.

Then as Jan mentioned Congress has been busily scrubbing any support for Bergdahl because they want to have it both ways.  Bring him home because then they could slam the President when he didn’t but now that he has they are trying to claim it was a horrible deal.

And then they claim they were not consulted but there is ample evidence to the contrary.  Mark Kirk says that based on the proof-of-life video they saw in December he might have made the same decision (someone else said the same thing but that name escapes me). So clearly, one, members of Congress were briefed and two, Bergdahl was not living it up at a swanky hotel with his new best friends.

Bizarrely, McCain and others have claimed that this deal will encourage more kidnappings.  Putting aside the idea that the Taliban needed any encouragement, “more kidnappings” would indicate that Bergdahl was, in fact, kidnapped which would seem to put lie to the notion he is a deserter or traitor.  Members of his unit were concerned that he leaked information about their location/movements to his captors.  Well, I was only in the Navy and for a short period of time, but I would think the Taliban would be smart enough to figure if there was one US soldier in the area there would likely be more.  Not rocket science (no weak pun intended).  Bergdahl has also been blamed for the deaths of several soldiers who were trying to locate him but various reports seem to suggest they were actually killed during combat fighting.  In fact, Balloon Juice has a link to an article that indicates they specifically didn’t try to get Bergdahl early on even though they had a good idea where he was being held. So not only are folks abandoning him now they abandoned him a long time ago.  It’s enough to make you proud to be an American.  Or not. But the same folks crapping on Bergdahl shit on John Kerry, Max Cleland and Tammy Duckworth, too, so I’m not sure why I’m surprised.


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 57 Comments

57 comments

  2. bfitzinAR

    family, I’ve worked for military.  Leave no one behind has been American tradition for over 200 years.  So now the patriotic, flag-waving, don’t tread on me rattlesnakes want to change that?  Makes me wish I was as crazy as those open-carry-stand-my-ground killers out there.  (OK, no it doesn’t, but I really wish there was some way we could transport the whole lot of them to some place like Somalia so they could see what living out their fantasies is really like.)

  3. JanF

    The pundestroyers simply want to discredit President Obama.

    This will make you lose more of your sh*t: Fox News Has Proof That Obama ‘Wants Out Of America’

    Fox News regular Keith Ablow speculated on Wednesday morning that President Obama orchestrated the release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay because the commander-in-chief “doesn’t affiliate with patriotism” and “wants out of America.”

    “Barack Obama does not have the will of the American people, Americanism in his soul,” Ablow, a forensic psychiatrist who is part of the Fox News Medical A-Team, explained. “And this swap, somebody who may not feel very American for five people who definitely don’t, is symptomatic of that.”

  4. DeniseVelez

    Negotiating With Terrorists

    http://www.stonekettle.com/201…

    written by a retired US Navy Chief Warrant Officer:

    Nevertheless, Bergdahl has been condemned by the popular media, by social networks, by pundits and politicians, not because they know more about the situation than you or I do, but solely because they hate the president. If Obama was behind Bergdahl’s release, then Bergdahl is a traitor, Q.E.D. because the president must never, ever, be allowed even the slightest acknowledgement of patriotism.

    This condemnation isn’t about Bergdahl, it’s about Obama.

    Read the whole thing – it’s a scorcher.

    Thanks Happy.

  5. JanF


    “We have a basic principle. We do not leave anybody wearing the American uniform behind. We had a prisoner of war whose health had deteriorated and we were deeply concerned about, and we saw an opportunity and we seized it, and I make no apologies for that,” Obama said when asked about the controversy surrounding the prisoner swap at a press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron in Brussels.

    “We had discussed with Congress the possibility that something like this might occur, but because of the nature of the folks that we were dealing with and the fragile nature of these negotiations,” he continued. “We felt it was important to go ahead and do what we did, and we’re now explaining to Congress the details of how we move forward. But this basic principle that we don’t leave anybody behind and this basic recognition that often means prisoner exchanges with enemies is not unique to my administration.”[…]

    Obama explained that the release of Bergdahl should not be a “political football,” but said he wasn’t surprised that it became a controversy in Washington.

    “I’m never surprised by controversies that are whipped up in Washington, right? That’s par for the course,” he said.

    TPM Newswire

  6. Portlaw

    judgment might consider this. As for me, am glad Obama brought our soldier safely home.

    The Obama administration had reason to believe that U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s life would have been in serious danger had negotiations for his release become public before the exchange on Saturday, according to Sen. Angus King (I-Maine).

    “They had intelligence that, had even the fact of these discussions leaked out, there was a reasonable chance Bowe Bergdahl would have been killed,” King told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on Thursday. “And that was one of the pieces of information that we learned yesterday that gave it some credence in terms of why it had to be kept quiet so long.

    ”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

  10. Portlaw

    up by the NYTimes

    This hypocrisy now pervades the Republican Party and the conservative movement, and has even infected several fearful Democrats. When they could use Sergeant Bergdahl’s captivity as a cudgel against the administration, they eagerly did so, loudly and in great numbers. And the moment they could use his release to make President Obama look weak on terrorism or simply incompetent, they reversed direction without a moment’s hesitation to jump aboard the new bandwagon.

    The last few days have made clearer than ever that there is no action the Obama administration can take – not even the release of a possibly troubled American soldier from captivity – that cannot be used for political purposes by his opponents.

    and more


    This duck-and-cover response is the result of the outrageous demonization of Sergeant Bergdahl in the absence of actual facts. Republican operatives have arranged for soldiers in his unit to tell reporters that he was a deserter who cost the lives of several soldiers searching for him. In fact, a review of casualty reports by Charlie Savage and Andrew Lehren of The Times showed there is no clear link between any military deaths and the search.

    and this

    But the critics seeking political advantage don’t care about the life or mental state of a particular soldier, or of a principle of loyalty that should provide comfort to any soldier in danger of capture. They live only for the attack.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06…

  11. Portlaw

    “So many of my NBC colleagues are tracking down senators who were at classified briefing last night and many are admitting they left early,” he said. “Amazing that so many senators from both parties didn’t stay for the briefing until the end.”

    Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who criticized President Obama for breaking the law, skipped the briefing entirely.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

  12. DTOzone

    said Obama “betrayed” his oath.

    There is no justice in the court of public opinion and Republicans, perhaps thank to their cynicism, are much better at predicting the media narrative and the public’s response to it than Democrats and liberals, whose idealism causes them tok misjudge it time and time again.  

  13. JanF

    @LOLGOP: I just deleted my tweet saying I support the troops after learning that Obama supports the troops.  #tcot #p2

  15. JanF

    William Saletan at Slate: Don’t Desert Bergdahl

    The weekend deal that released Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from five years of captivity, in exchange for five Taliban prisoners, was a relief to his family. But for President Obama, it’s an escalating headache. Critics accuse Obama of setting a precedent that the United States will negotiate with terrorists. They’re wrong, because terrorism is about the exploitation of civilians, not soldiers. But they’re also ignoring the precedent that’s really at stake: keeping our promise to bring home our troops. […]

    The Code of Conduct for members of the armed forces, published more than half a century ago, details every service member’s obligations to the military and the nation, even in captivity. In exchange, the code promises:

       Just as you have a responsibility to your country under the Code of Conduct, the United States government has an equal responsibility-always to keep faith with you and stand by you as you fight for your country. If you are unfortunate enough to become a prisoner of war, you may rest assured that your government will care for your dependents and will never forget you. Furthermore, the government will use every practical means to contact, support and gain release for you and for all other prisoners of war.

    The army’s training pamphlet on being a POW repeats this commitment: “Every captured US individual continues to be of special concern to the US. The US government expresses this concern by … employing every available means to establish contact with you and gain your release.”

  16. HappyinVT

    A Minnesota man is questioning what he sees as a hero’s homecoming for a former prisoner of war.

    Bowe Bergdahl was released from Afghan captivity on Saturday in exchange for five terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

    Former Army Sergeant Josh Korder served with Bergdahl in Afghanistan.

    He came forward Monday claiming Bergdahl deserted his post and shouldn’t be celebrated.

    snip

    Korder was recently discharged, which was listed as “other than honorable.” http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/…  

    Maybe we should smear Korder with inuenndo and conjecture about his “less than honorable” and see how that sits?  

  17. Adept2u

    I knew from the second I saw twitter flash with Bergdahls release this was going to be an exercise in hypocrisy. Now I understand Rand Paul wants to trade Democrats for Taliban or something and I just want to scream.

    I’ll say it if it hasn’t been said.

    The hate of Barack Obama is a national security issue, there is no way that the United States could tilt with Putin when one major party would be inclined to help him if it meant Obama going away.

  19. JanF

    Fox Host: Bergdahl Is Lucky U.S. Forces Didn’t Bring Him Home ‘In A Body Bag’ (VIDEO)

    Echoing her fellow conservatives who oppose the prisoner swap that secured Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s release, Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle said Friday that the POW was lucky he wasn’t found by his fellow soldiers before the exchange. Otherwise, Guilfoyle said, Bergdahl may have been brought home “in a body bag.”

    Guilfoyle’s fellow Fox colleague Geraldo Rivera tried his best to defend Bergdahl’s release during a discussion on “Outnumbered,” arguing that the soldier’s alleged desertion doesn’t change the equation.

    “I don’t care who Bergdahl is. We don’t leave him behind,” Rivera said.

    I am glad that they called her “Fox News personality”. She is certainly not a reporter.

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