Discussion: Jay Carney On US-Taliban Deal: Bowe Bergdahl 'Was Not A Hostage'

No one called him a hero—that’s MiddleMan’s and conservative’s speak—until a democrat is somehow
involved.

I’d say he was a victim of a stupid war started by a stupid administration who had no end game in a country that bankrupted the Soviet Union and pushed them toward capitalism and their current oligarchy.

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As soon as the Obama administration does something that appears positive, the first thing the GOP does is to look for ways to undermine it, even if it means questioning the conduct of the people who put their lives on the line for us. I hope there is a special place in hell (or its equivalent) for them.

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I read the New York Times article on Bowe Bergdahl the other day. It seems he went to Afghanistan as a very naive young man who loved the outdoors and thought that the war would be an adventure. He became disillusioned and depressed, according to his parents. He was particularly horrified at witnessing the running over of an Afghan child by a U.S. Army heavy truck and other acts of violence over there.

To those calling for this guy’s head on a platter because he just might be a DESERTER [“and we all heard that somebody heard and that’s incontestable proof” - T.S. Elliot]: I don’t give a flying fuck is he is or isn’t. I’m just glad he’s home and hope that he can recover and salvage what’s left of his life.

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The guys he served with realized that he was missing, but the Taliban captors made sure they weren’t seen while they were snatching him or all hell would have broken loose STAT. I have no seen no reporting in which Hagel calls him a deserter. The man is home and needs the comfort of his family with whom he can barely speak English any longer.

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I read the NYT reporting on his family’s off the grid life and witnessing the truck running over the child, and what a rude awakening it must have been to see what he did on the ground. He didn’t desert, he’s lost the ability to speak English at least for the short term, and why are people piling on. He volunteered to serve his country which is more than Two Who Shall Not Be Named did.

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The GOP and Fox “News” can turn a rainbow into a turd in a micro-second. They’re a ridiculous JOKE.

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I think the GOP would rather Berghdal would have died as a hostage/prisoner of the Taliban, for that would have made him a better anti-Obama prop with which to make outrage and indignation.

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They scuttled a deal to bring him home in 2012.

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Thanks for that link. Two crazy House Rs, Inhofe and McKeon immediately spewed that Obama had broken the law because he didn’t give 30 days notice (like he was vacating an apartment). So yeah, had they been informed ahead of time they would scuttled this deal and then spewed about the president’s ineffectiveness.

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Yes, I read about his diminished ability to speak in English. It makes sense, he was their only prisoner, so there were presumably no other English speakers to converse with. I’m expecting more fauxtrage from the right, if he speaks to a member of the press in Pashtun, or, merciful heavens, Arabic!

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More weasel-word-walkback.

Face it: you don’t know shit about what actually happened - none of us does - but you’re ready to declare him a deserter, facts-unseen. Thank FSM you have Faux News and Faux Lite (a/k/a CNN) to help you confirm what you want to believe.

I heard that Barack and Michelle speak only Arabic in front of their kids. Must be true! (And must credit Drudge!)

Clown.

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Republican’s care about military personel until Obama…wait I was forgetting, they only care about them when they think they’ll vote republican, other than that they don’t give a shit about them.

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But what has this got to do with Benghazi?

BENGHAZI!

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Wait - didn’t I hear about another guy who was a prisoner of war for five years in one of our previous wars? Didn’t he record some anti-American drivel for the enemy while a prisoner? Didn’t he come home a hero and now occupies a prominent public position? I also hear he was rather careless with his planes BTW.

So, that guy’s a hero and Bergdahl comes home under a heavy cloud of suspicion. Somehow the rules have changed and Bergdahl must prove his innocence of participating in his capture. Guilty until proven innocent, just like it says in the Republican Constitution. Disgusting.

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And you know this how?

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Something fishy went on is not the same as desertion.

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I’m not questioning the judgment of the Admin to take the step they did under extenuating circumstances. And it unquestionably is a good thing that we can bring this soldier home. But we shouldn’t sugarcoat that the Admin, at a minimum, openly skirted the law to do so. The 30-day notification period may very well be subject to abuse in certain circumstances, but it is the law. We can’t just ignore the fact that the Admin broke the law merely because we agree with the substance of the decision to do so, or because we support the Admin that made the decision.

It is my growing distrust of R House committee members that led me say what I did. I believe in their quest to discredit this administration they will do anything including leaking sensitive information (see Issa, Darrell), or in any way possible doing something to derail the rescue operation. Inhofe’s one of the committee members calling foul, that’s all you need to know.

I don’t think “that’s all you need to know.” I expect a President I have strongly supported for nearly a decade to have more defensible a legal justification for his Admin’s decision than 'the Republicans in Congress don’t like me." There may very well be one here, but we haven’t heard it. I listened to several of the interviews since Saturday (Hagel, Rice, Carney) and I thought each person was being incredibly evasive and dissembling. Notwithstanding their usual superficiality, the media/punditocracy (and perhaps even the GOP, even though they’re pretty clearly just trying to make political hay instead of substantive arguments) 're right in this instance to push the Admin for more. You don’t get to be insulated from the tough questions merely because the bottom line result (captured soldier returned home) is a good one. There are legitimate questions here about why they skirted the law, whether it was appropriate to do so, and what the policy consequences may be from this decision.

Delicious irony, and such a sad comment on what the GOP has devolved into.