You are sooo right! Every move by Obama is characterized by the media as a ‘misstep’ (even the WSJ said Obama timed his climate proposals all wrong–in an election year).
Obama is NOT incompetent, hesitant, struggling, etc. I can not count how many times the NYT characterizes him this way. So as not to recognize what real accomplishments he has managed.
Well, of course we both know that Obama’s aim was to simply return the last POW home to America. But it does look like the “whackadoodles” have gone way over the edge of sanity. Bush let over 500 GTMO guys leave GTMO, but Obama sending just five to a closely watched
Don’t budge an inch. Oh, and someone please tell fainting Lindsey to STFU.
The GOP will overplay their hand on this, just like they do with everything else.
It’s not just the NYT. I see a lot of that same shit on the left, particularly from the far left. My favorite is that Obama isn’t really liberal because their dumbasses didn’t vote in 2010 and Republicans took the House. They never tell you what he could differently to get liberal legislation passed. They just bitch and moan that they didn’t get their unicorns.
What I find is again the press has dropped the ball. Instead of trying to find out what the truth is here and there is plenty of public record about this, all they are doing is printing he said she said. There was an article written about this unit and innuendo criticizing this soldier. Either the press needs to do its job or this will be another embarrassment for the United States. By listening to our elected officials in congress and the nutcrackers on the right, they much would have preferred this young man to come home in a pine box. Now that is the America I see.
This is from Daily Kos
UPDATED: The GOP is Heading for a World of Hurt on Bergdahl, here’s why
byHesiodFollow
Yesterday, I posted a comment laying out several reasons why the GOP was basically walking into a trap on the Bowe Bergdahl story. It got such a positive response, that I decided to expand it into this diary. (You can follow me on twitter @hesiod2k11).
Since I posted the comment, there have been a few developments that even add MORE to my argument. So, without further ado…
As the actual FACTS start coming out about Bowe Bergdahl, here is what we know:
(a) Any member of the armed forces whoâ
(1) without authority goes or remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to remain away therefrom permanently;
(2) quits his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service; or
(3) without being regularly separated from one of the armed forces enlists or accepts an appointment in the same or another on of the armed forces without fully disclosing the fact that he has not been regularly separated, or enters any foreign armed service except when authorized by the United States; is guilty of desertion.
The only two provisions that remotely could be applicable to Bowe Bergdahl are subsections (1) and (2). The first one is eliminated by the fact that he had done this before. Given that he returned on the prior occasion, it would be extremely difficult to prove an intent to “remain away…permanently.” The second subsection is also difficult to prove if he left his base at night, when he was not otherwise on duty. So, as a consequence, you can pretty much rule out Bergdahl being charged with “desertion.” At worst, he can be charged under Article 86: Absence Without Leave. That is a far less serious charge, and “time served” as a POW of the Haqqani network would probably be deemed sufficient punishment. Which, incidentally, would also considered an extenuating circumstance under that article.
UPDATE: The 35 page classified Army report (as reported to the New York Times) that was compiled 2 months after Bergdahl disappeared, concluded that he had left his unit twice, not once. And the Army blamed lax security practices and a lack of discipline. Moreover, the supposed letter he left confessing to everything was not mentioned in the report at all.
According to the now famous article by Michael Hastings about Bergdahl, his unit was basically a bunch of undisciplined fuck ups who went out on patrol without helmets, lost weapons, totally lacked morale and respect for military authority, etc. At least two commanders were actually demoted! So, you have to take with a grain of salt the accusations being made against Bergdahl by these people. Especially now that we know they failed to report Bergdahl left the base without permission on a prior occasion, and are still telling the media that he is a “deserter” when they know damn well that’s not true.
The New York Times has also reported that it is almost impossible to attribute the losses the unit suffered to Bergdahl, or looking for Bergdahl. Given the lack of unit discipline, etc. One wonders whether Bergdahl is being scapegoated by these people, who were drummed up by GOP political operatives. You don’t want to minimize the pain of the families of the lost soldiers. But, frankly, there is a tremendous amount of misinformation being pushed. And, a lot of speculation. It’s just an unprovable allegation.
And, finally, Bergdahl’s apparent heroism while in captivity has been almost completely ignored and glossed over. The Daily Beast originally reported that Bergdahl lulled his captors into believing he was sympathetic to them, and when they let their guard down he escaped for 3 days. When they finally found him in a hand-dug trench he covered with leaves, he was nearly naked an exhausted. Yet, it took 5 Taliban to subdue him as he fought back trying to avoid being recaptured.
Just last night, we found out that he escaped not once, but twice! Because of this, his captors kept moving him around and kept him under tight wraps. This made it exceedingly difficult and risky to attempt a rescue mission.
And, finally, the infamous “ashamed to be an American” e-mails that numbnuts like Sarah Palin keep using to attacking Bergdahl, were actually quite patriotic in context. He was complaining about the low caliber of person he had to suffer through in his unit, and how crappily they treated the Afghans (In one case, he said they indifferently ran over a child with a truck!). He was ashamed of the way the military operated there.
He was not expressing a desire to join the Taliban. He felt sympathy for the Afghan civilians who were being mistreated and abused by both sides. (These e-mails were reported in Michael Hastings’ profile pieces).
When all is said and done, and Bergdahl is allowed to give his side of the story, the Republicans and Conservatives who were attacking him are going to regret it.
One other point on this that I didn’t address in my comment. All of the crazy rightwingers who are suggesting that Bergdahl be executed for desertion are even more batshit crazy than it might seem at first. Even if he WAS guilty of desertion (a proposition which is extremely doubtful at this point), only one U.S. service member has been executed for the offense since the Civil War! That man was Pvt. Eddie Slovik during World War II. In his case, he signed a confession – over the objections of his commanders! - and was defiant of military authority. Eventually, Dwight Eisenhower authorized his execution to set an example.
Moreover, in 1974 President Gerald Ford signed a conditional amnesty for Vietnam War deserters, if they agreed to two years of public service in some other capacity.
And, finally, the lone soldier convicted in connection with the My Lai massacre of Civillian Vietnamese villagers during Vietnam – Lt. William Calley – had his sentence reduced to House arrest and then finally commuted to time served by President Nixon after 3 years.
And, to make this even more pertinent, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who plead guilty to murdering 16 Afghan Civilians in their homes, was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
In other words, the batshit rightwingers want to impose a sentence on Bowe Bergdahl that is a) unsupported by any evidence; b) hasn’t been imposed on a US Soldier in 70 years, and only once in 140 years; and c) more harsh than what was imposed on convicted mass murderers of civilians.
The lemming like nature of these profoundly disturbed wackos can be summarized in the following tweet:
7:44 AM PT: Just a note: This diary was meant to go viral to get these facts spread as far as possible. So, if you can, please tweet it, or post it to Facebook, etc. It is designed to be a one-stop informational tool for people who want to fight back against the disinformation on social media.
12:16 PM PT: Thanks to one of the commenters for linking to this well-researched post on Fark, which goes a long way toward debunking the claims that Bergdahl’s capture led to all the deaths people are asserting.
Just another consequence of the “No Boundaries” culture that is Newt Gingrich’s toxic gift to American politics.
Before Gingrich, there was this widespread belief and expectation that extremism would be punished by the media and, ultimately, by the voters. Gingrich, however, seems to have realized that Reagan’s gutting of the FCC regulations that required the networks to “serve the public interest” by actually serving the public interest had changed everything. As the byzantine little guttersnipe schemed his way, House of Cards fashion, to the Speaker’s chair, he discovered through trial and error that as long as what you did fed the MSM’s inexhaustible appetite for conflict narrative, there were truly no penalties. And that being the case, the widespread cultural norm among politicians that there were, in fact, boundaries, lines that couldn’t be crossed, beliefs that had to be respected, unwritten rules that had to be followed, was actually an exploitable weakness.
Republicans have been probing for two decades now, trying to discover whether there is any outer limit to what they can do or say and wherever they’ve found resistance, they’ve found no punishment so severe that they can’t just kept battering away at it until it shattered. That’s what they’re doing right now with their open embrace of objectively pro-rape policies and rhetoric.
And, what’s so truly ironic is that Newt Gingrich, who imagines himself a Genius, a Man of Sweeping Historical Vision and a World Historical Figure (I suspect the capitals are audible when he thinks these words) is the guy who did more to destroy the continued viability of the American separation of powers system of democracy than any other single person.
What difference will it make? Harry Reid has said it. Many other people have said it too. It’s obvious. If the Admin starts saying it, it will cause another shit storm and the right will take advantage of it as they always do because they have the louder voices.
Every day, and in every way, the right looks and acts more and more like a mob. All of them.
It’s one helluva way to energize minority voters. As a PoC, it sometimes enrages me how the MSM and even many Democrats act as though the opposition to Obama is completely ideologically based. Plus, like so many things, if it’s said often enough people eventually start to believe it’s true. When more white folks start to actually believe it’s true maybe they’ll stop blaming “both sides” for the inability to get anything done.
Hi Chammy! I posted this in the Hive regarding this article so I guess it fits here too.
Very nice piece but you and I both know that when all of this comes out it won’t make a bit of difference to the right wing nut jobs, nothing could change their minds. And calling it the “Tin Foil Hat” syndrome barely scrapes the surface.
I have an uncle who is somewhat to the right of today’s Tea party and he has maintained that Obama is a mooooslim from the first time he heard the name.
Just you wait and see!
has been his slogan since he declared that John F Kennedy would send American troops to fight the Protestants in Northern Ireland back in 1961. He’s cloaked in conspiracy theories, always wrong, never admits it and incapable or unwilling to learn from his own errors. He’s the poster child for today’s far right wing nut jobs.
Sadly the media seeks Palin and her gang of moaning zombots out because articles about sane, rational people don’t raise the rates they can charge their advertisers.
Hopefully this will hurt the GOTP at the polls but that will happen only if Progressives are mad as hell and turn out in record numbers. Other wise the GOTP will not feel the lash of the whip that they so richly deserve on so many levels.
GET THE F#%K OUT AND VOTE THIS NOVEMBER! TAKE YOUR NEIGHBORS AND EVERYONE ELSE THAT YOU KNOW.
Lot’s of us, even us old cusses, already know this to be true Plucky. But then, I live on the West Coast. A recent visit back home to Pokiehoma served to remind me that the middle part of America is content to believe whatever they’ve been told, they have no life experience to the contrary. I think it has become worse since I left the place forty years ago.
But then, those on the right have been and always will be the most vocal. It’s difficult to keep all that rage and hate bottled up inside a person.
Us “dumbasses didn’t vote in 2010” because the “liberal” Obama caved in his first major decision as president, “looking forward, not back” bowing to money and Corporate America, showing his true colors. It has nothing to do with unicorns. It has to do with prosecuting those that wrecked the American Dream for millions of Americans as they gambled with the world’s economy. It’s on Obama, not on us “dumbasses”.
I agree. Just because the RWNJ media starts screeching doesn’t mean his actions are “missteps.” They will screech at anything and everything. That’s the actual strategy.
In using Obama’s opponents’ words to characterize his actions, the mainstream media do us all a disservice. That’s not reporting or analysis, it’s gossip.
Never apologize…and you better start throwing the media some red meat to balance things. Talk about Oliver North and Reagan. Talk about the GOP’s refusal to increase embassy security and the subsequent death of Ambassador Stevens. Want to win the cycle? Say Steven’s blood is on the GOP’s hands. Watch conservative heads explode. Watch the media meme change when you scratch their backs by giving them something to fill the 24 hour cycle…‘there are those who say the GOP is responsible for the tragedy at Benghazi’.
The GOP thinks it’s dishonorable to have a differing point of view. In other words you aren’t a “real” American if you are anything but a Fox watcher and a Tea bagger, esp. if you are in the military.
We’re certainly not talking about cutting 30 percent of emissions anymore…
If it walks like a duck…
Certainly wouldn’t be the first time they’ve done it, nor do I even think to suppose the last.
Ari Fleischer is a complete hypocrite when he calls the kettle black in any discussion about presenting facts factually. He is an errand boy for grocery clerks, collecting a bill.