Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't

[moonbladem]

The Bowe Bergdahl Controversy Could Be Politics At Its Very Worst

Comments

[anguisel]

This is my take on it. How long were these 'top Taliban guys' detained? Because if it was a couple years, the info they have is dated/useless while Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will have newer up to date info on what is going on. Even if they didn't discuss plans around him, he probably picked something up that'd be useful. The Taliban will be side-eyeing the released guys like like they were giant spiders on the wall. They will probably never hold a high ranking position again because there will always be that lingering 'what did they tell the Americans' and no amount of them saying otherwise will shake that. I wouldn't be surprised if these top guys suddenly 'disappear' after awhile because of distrust.

[shipperx]

Ten-plus years.

[wrestlingdog]

A couple have apparently been in Guantanamo since the prison opened, and the others arrived a few months after. So yeah, more than a decade.

[anguisel]

I figured as much. Whatever positions they had probably got filled a long time ago and the people who replaced them would probably not look kindly at being told to step down to let these guys back in. More or less, they will use them in a propaganda video or two and then they will be seen less and less. They'd be nothing more than figureheads for the most part.

[kittymink]

At least this got them to shut up about Benghazi.

[namey]

...this week.

[moonshaz]

I was going to say "for about five minutes." But on second thought, "this week" sounds about right.

[ceruleanst]

"Bergdahl" and "Benghazi" look similar enough that I expect them to be conflated soon enough. They'll just be alternate spellings for this nebulous but unforgivable thing that Obama did.

[lonely_hour]

ugh so many contradictions everywhere this mess. the right (the *other* right) can't actually critique this without entwining their legs and falling on their faces

[shipperx]

http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/06/03/3444517/that-time-republicans-demanded-obama-admin-redouble-its-efforts-to-free-bergdahl/

"Lawmakers Change Their Minds After Demanding ‘Every Effort’ Be Made To Free Bergdahl"Republicans are almost uniformly criticizing President Obama’s decision to swap five Taliban fighters at Guantanamo Bay for the release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American held hostage in Afghanistan. But many of the administration’s loudest critics have previously demanded that it do more to bring Bergdahl to safety

[deadsong]

Comedy Central won't let me directly embed this here, so link instead:

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/tnawa2/key-and-peele-obama-s-meeting-with-republicans

Edited multiple times to try to finagle the HTML.

[armina_skitty]

That... was beautiful... Too bad it doesn't work so easily in the real world.

[ladycyndra]

I love that sketch.

[awfulbliss]

I think I'll wait a bit for the entire story (regarding who these guys we released actually are, did we lose soldiers for someone who deserted their post, etc.), but you're kind of a huge fraud if you thought George Bush was some kind of tyrant and spitting on the Constitution for his signing statements (remember when John Yoo was vilified for pushing the "unitary executive" theory?) and now have to jump through hoops to figure out how to rationalize indifference to Obama doing the exact same thing. Really disappointing stuff.