Discussion for article #223441
This should throw a new wrinkle in the debate I would think.
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Cue Grampy Insane yelling, “Nobody talked to ME…” in 3… 2…
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Doesn’t matter what he did the republicans will bitch and moan about …next crisis please.
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The real problem is that Obama didn’t get down on one knee and beg Congress (“Please, sirs…”) to give him permission to do this.
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“…we seized that opportunity…”
A concept completely beyond the understanding of a do-nothing Republican Congress.
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Have conservatives started connecting this Benghazi yet? Bengdahlzigate!
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It’s right, of course, to strike back. But the statement is pure Obama — filled with defensive negatives. He just doesn’t have the feel for assertion.
This morning’s artful misdirection, dependent on the former POW’s unavailable medical status and the conflation of hometown bunting and parental love into national hero status, has, again, snagged the more ratings deprived among the old media into the latest pearlclutchpalooza to consume DC idlers.
A more calm CBS reported Gen. Dempsey as saying Bergdahl, once returned, still faces the possibility of a deserter’s fate as anyone with any military knowledge would have always assumed.
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I read the original Rollings Stone article from June 2012 by Mark Hastings. off Daily Beast link. Obama is correct. In fact McCain in a secret meeting between high level Senators went ballistic about the prisoner exchange with him and Kerry going at it. Obama was threatened by politico enemies in congress if he made that deal for the soldier. The GOP would turn it into Willie Horton. So yes congress has known about this deal for a couple of years. That article gives alot of context about that soldier and why he left his post. His unit was considered a bunch of foulups before they even got into Afghanistan. As usual alot more complicated then how the right wants to portray this soldier as a deserter. Not saying what he did was smart. Just saying it’s complicated.
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Look, the GOP is only going to be happy when the President crawls to them and says, “Massuh, mebbe I gwine release dis here prisoner, if’n you sez OK”.
Assholes.
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In fact that soldier told a LT who was a friend that if things were f’d up in Afghanistan. He would just get up and walk out of the country and leave. LOL that’s what he tried to stupidly do. What set him off was they were with a $1.5 mil MRA anti-IED vehicle. It was damaged and the command could not decide if i wanted to fly in parts to fix it or leave it. So they left the unit out in the open getting shot at by taliban for 5 days. Just because command could not make a decision.
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Bobblehead Brzezinski on today’s Morning Joke offered that
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perhaps Obama should haven’t have made the swap because right wingers have already tried, convicted, and sentenced this individual to death for deserting without a trial, or, even worse,
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the White House failed to consider the “optics” of it, implying the decision should have been made on that basis, not on the basis of winding down the war and bringing home someone who shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
So, instead of giving the WH credit for doing the right thing in the face of this bullshit tsunami, the Bobblehead predictably echoes the blathering of those afflicted with Obama Derangement Syndrome. Because, frankly, that’s her job.
MSNBC = Misanthropic Soundbyte Nonsense By Corporatists
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In the US, supposedly we don’t convict and sentence a citizen to death in absentia without a trial.
That is, unless it’s by drone strike.
I guess if that’s OK, I can see why some would be so quick to abandon this guy without a trial we once thought he deserved in this country.
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The President ran this circus out of town quickly.
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Well, he simply couldn’t have consulted Congress. And you know why I know? Because if he did, then why are the teahad/KKK and Fox and the Republican base calling him a traitor and a criminal?
See??!
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If I have one criticism (I have more than one) of the POTUS, it is that he is too reactive and allows stories to get legs before he debunks them. All it would have taken was a subordinate clause (“After consulting with members of Congress for several months”) at the beginning of his announcement. I suppose he wants to see them look like the nozzles that they are, but he seems to make a lot of trouble for himself in the process.
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Had Obama asked, he would have been rebuffed. Then, when Bergahl died in captivity, Issa and Gowdy would have been outraged and demanded special investigations. How much longer do we have to suffer these idiots?
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The root problem is the endless limbo in which the Guantanamo detainees are held, a limbo created by the Bush administration, maintained by Congress and more or less ignored by the Obama administration. If they are enemy POWs, then a prisoner exchange is quite normal throughout history. If they are criminals, they should be tried in court. For Pete’s sake, the Nazi war criminals were tried within a year or so or their apprehension. Here we are a dozen years and counting. It’s absurd.
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Not to mention that Bergdahl was promoted while being held prisoner.
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