Posted: 6/7/2014 Updated: 12/19/2015
Update Of 12/19/2015
Just became aware the the Armed Services Committee of the House of Representatives released a report on the Bergdahl swap on or about 12/10/2015.
Unfortunately, this report is very legalistic and not very convincing, although I did not make the effort nor had the time to read all 108 pages of this report. This report also contains the dissenting view of what I believe are members of the Democratic Party. These dissenters do not question the swap at all, but call it a political hit job.
Apparently, Hillary Clinton as secretary of state also supported this swap. Hope, this too will come back to haunt her before presidential election next year.
In my opinion, this report clearly misses to include following aspects:
- Historical background on these type of POW swaps. E.g. has it been common in the past to swap one army sergeant for five leading enemy criminals
- The political rationale for this swap appears little discussed
In my original post, I had forgotten to include a picture of President Obama with Bowe Bergdahl standing in front of the White House. As president, I would have never had a photo op with this presumed deserter. Any other high ranking Administration official would have sufficed.
Introduction
I do not claim to have read all the news or articles about this case of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Thus, I will present here only a few, concise thoughts.
An Election Year Stunt
The Administration of President Obama has obviously negotiated for years to have this prisoner of war released.
Thus, the Taliban and the U.S. President did not mind that these negotiations somehow succeeded in before the mid-term election of 2014.
Bad Deal
First of all, as a statesman you do not negotiate with brutal, fanatical murderers! Unconditional surrender or similar is the only conditio sine qua non for such negotiations. This was certainly not a negotiation between warring parties like in wars past e.g. on the European continent. This has probably totally escaped the U.S. President’s mind.
Second, to trade several leading Taliban commanders for one U.S. Sergeant is flabbergasting! If any of these Taliban leaders resumes his murderous business more than one U.S. soldier will die because of it. We know already that about 30% of Gitmo previously released prisoners did just that.
Third, more U.S. soldiers will be kidnapped by terrorists for exchanges!
Fourth, was the U.S. President justified to break the law to accomplish this prisoner swap. Was the health condition of the prisoner of war really so severe that it required immediate action?
Fifths, there has some spin reported that the U.S. President is using this case as a testing ground or so that this Administration is capable of negotiating with the Taliban about a political solution. Good luck with that! Please see my first point above!
In conclusion, the U.S. President is reckless and above the law!
Presumed Deserter
Hopefully, the U.S. military will quickly start court martial proceedings against Mr. Bergdahl so we will find out over time what actually happened.
Did he collaborate with his captors? Was there something going on like the Stockholm syndrome? Was he really a POW or did he have actually a very comfortable life with the Taliban? Did he ever attempt to flee?
Will Mr. Bergdahl, once he is courtmartialed, resort to some kind of mentally challenged defense as it has already been suggested in some news reports?
Impeachment Of The President
Even if the chances for success are low or the lessons from Clinton’s failed impeachment are still fresh how much longer are the members of the U.S. Congress waiting?
If the current U.S. President really wants to build a legacy for himself he would resign immediately as only the second one ever to do so.
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