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Was Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl – Taliban hostage deal worth it? (Reader Poll)

Was Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl – Taliban hostage deal worth it? (Reader Poll)

http://youtu.be/9wB9Nuaziag

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was released yesterday in exchange for 5 top Taliban terrorists held at Gitmo.

On the one hand, an American soldier was brought home. As with the Israelis, it sends a signal that we don’t leave anyone behind, even when the trade is lopsided and frees those who may kill again.

On the other hand, the details of Bergdahl’s capture are less than heroic. He apparently walked away from his base in Afghanistan, based on disillusionment and shame at being an American.

Was the deal worth it?

(Poll Open until midnight Pacific Time today)


(Featured image source: Fox News YouTube)

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Comments

What if he had been a woman? How would that have changed the entire process?

a deserter who wrote many sympathy letters with a pro islam father walks away and is “captured” by the very people he professes support for.
yeah.
when I was in it would have been my job to put him in prison for his actions or, very possibly, shoot him myself.
hes another bradley manning w/o the gay support staff.

    Conservative Beaner in reply to dmacleo. | June 1, 2014 at 9:52 am

    You can bet Obozo is happy to have a positive photo op with all the bad news he has been having lately. When I saw the father it told me everything I neeed to know why this happened.

    Estragon in reply to dmacleo. | June 1, 2014 at 2:13 pm

    As his fellow soldier who is questioning the whole escapade asked, “He was there for five years, who survives five years with these people? They’re brutal.”

    His father said he was having trouble understanding English, so he sent greetings to his son in Pashto.

    Stinks to high heaven.

    JackRussellTerrierist in reply to dmacleo. | June 2, 2014 at 3:09 am

    Hmmmm…….perhaps Bergdahl is a “Manchurian soldier”, so to speak. The end result is that five of obastard’s muzzie buddies lived in Gitmo in great muzzie style, then got sent back to islamoland – five very heavy-hitters (and happy-hitters) for the Taliban.

    One has to wonder WHEN it was decided and by WHOM that Bergdahl would take a hike and be “captured.”

    Did obastard make this deal without congressional approval because of the shady circumstances under which Bergdahl flew the coop, knowing questions would be asked about the circumstances of Bergdahl’s departure?

    I believe Bergdahl’s peer group of soldiers. The unanswered question is WHY were lies told about his disappearance, thus softening the blow of this particular “prisoner” trade? Obastard has never cared one bit for our soldiers, starting with his institution of “stand down” ROEs for the Middle east just after he took office.

If we had traded him for a MOAB, that would have been a good deal. I’m not seeing where we got much of anything out of this deal.

    pjm in reply to Pablo. | June 1, 2014 at 8:49 pm

    Let’s give him a MOAB, and let him take it back to his Taliban friends.

    Slim Pickens / Dr. Strangelove style.

Conservative Beaner | June 1, 2014 at 9:47 am

No. Dealing with terrorists is always a bad idea.

You can bet when the Qatari government cuts them loose after a year they will go back to their old habits. Meanwhile they will conspire with their comrades to plot and carry out terrorist activities against the west.

What will the president do when another American is kidnapped, will it be five or maybe more Gitmo detainees depending on the worth of the person taken hostage. This story is far from over.

    Juba Doobai! in reply to Conservative Beaner. | June 2, 2014 at 1:10 am

    If it is a Muslim/symp like Bergdahl, Obama will bring him home. If it’ say Jew or Christian or a regular guy like he one rotting in a Mexican prison, he will do NOTHING!

      JackRussellTerrierist in reply to Juba Doobai!. | June 2, 2014 at 3:30 am

      He may not care, as long as it gives him an excuse to release more of his top advisors.

      At least now we know why he wanted a Republican for defense sec at this time. That puke Hagel was the perfect chump for this caper.

      I think this was planned before Bergdahl deserted and I think it’s why he deserted. Bergdahl’s father, through channels, convinced and offered up his son (sort of like Muslim parents setting their kids up as suicide bombers) to become a prisoner so that, after an accumulation of Taliban heavyweights accrued in our custody (where they were treated very well), obastard finished the deal as a means of setting his Talibuddies free. Obastard just waited until there was a goodly amount of his friendlies in custody before doing the deed.

      That’s why he didn’t go to congress for approval.

He apparently walked away from his base in Afghanistan, based on disillusionment and shame at being an American.

Did he? Or did he go for a run outside the wire? The later would be stupid but very different from the former. I’d rather see what he says and does after he’s done with AARs and debriefings.

As far as the released pig turds are concerned, spool up the Predators and let’s go hunting.

    Observer in reply to Mannie. | June 1, 2014 at 4:23 pm

    According to the Rolling Stone article, he walked away quite deliberately. This ballerina/coffee barrista had become disillusioned with the Army, and wrote a lengthy e-mail to his parents, in which he complained bitterly about his unit, the U.S. in general (“horrible, disgusting”) and his shame at being an American. The article also reports that even before arriving at his Afghan posting, Bergdahl had told a friend that if things there didn’t turn out the way he wanted, he was going to simply walk off into the mountains of Pakistan. The night he disappeared, Bergdahl asked his commanding officer if it would be okay if he took his gun and night-vision goggles out of camp. His commander said no. Bergdahl then went to his tent, got his knife and camera, and left. He had already packed up and shipped most of his personal belongings, including his uniform, to his parents.

    If the facts in the Rolling Stone article are accurate, this was no kidnapping or capture; it was a planned defection. BTW, the article also reports that the Army made Bergdahl’s unit members sign non-disclosure agreements as a condition of leaving Afghanistan.

      VetHusbandFather in reply to Observer. | June 1, 2014 at 11:51 pm

      I was actually also living in a small outpost when this Soldier ‘went missing’, but I was in Iraq not Afghanistan. Back then I checked the intel reports each day before mission, and an MIA Soldier was a big surprise. I remember reading through the report wondering what could have posibly gone wrong for him to go missing. The report didn’t mention anything about possible desertion, but it did indicate that he had abandoned his post. At the time my guess was that he had snuck out to try to buy some drugs or get some tail from the local populace, and was caught. Even then, it would take a monumental idiot to try something like that. Oh and FYI, all Soldiers sign NDA’s when they leave theater. That’s not really anything unique to his unit.

It took me 4 years of to become an E-5.

How did a Bergdahl, who is potentially an AWOLee and a PFC at the time of his capture, become a E-5 in just TWO years while in captivity?

    Estragon in reply to Aucturian. | June 1, 2014 at 2:14 pm

    It’s five years, and POWs are presumed to qualify for grade in the minimum time – the presumption is all performance scores are met.

Well, this paints a nice, fat bulls-eye on the chest of everyone serving ANYWHERE in uniform.

5:1…especially when POTUS has his ass in a crack…pretty good dealing by our enemies.

This is pure outlaw behavior.

This ain’t no good deal! Don’t forget, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was NOT captured on the battlefield. He left the U.S. base camp in Afghanistan in 2009 of his own free will and turned up with the Taliban a short time later.

He converted to Islam. So we trade 5 hardened Muzzies who will immediately return to jihad for a Muzzie/deserter who will live in the USA and also do the Islamic duty of jihad.

Obama is not incompetent as many contend. He’s treasonous.

Henry Hawkins | June 1, 2014 at 11:01 am

Sooper Mexican has a series of tweets purportedly from a soldier in Bergdahl’s platoon at the time he took off, charging that two of ours were killed looking for him. Check it out:

http://soopermexican.com/2014/06/01/american-soldier-who-served-with-bowe-bergdahl-casts-doubt-on-official-story-fears-reprisal-from-obama-administration/

I still think Obama made this swap now to divert from the VA scandal. I now think his desperation has opened yet another can of worms. Incompetent, treasonous, whatever.. this clown is getting people killed.

    Soopermexican appears to be offline at 12:20.

      Estragon in reply to genes. | June 1, 2014 at 2:30 pm

      Still offline @ 2:26 p.m., but the soldier’s Twitter feed is still live. The tweeting began after 5 p.m. on the 31st, so scroll down to “F*** what you know – I was there” and work back up for the whole story, starting with the guy’s strange behavior leading up to the desertion.

      One key bit is that as soon as he found out the unit would be deployed to that remote outpost for the last time, he packed up his personal belongings, including computer, and sent them home – with six months to go on a 12-month deployment. The guy knew he could get to enemy lines there and didn’t plan on coming back.

    And the father was obviously expressing his ‘unity’ with the Gitmo prisoners, in effect the Taliban, etc. The father spoke spontaneous fluent Arabic, I read somewhere (no cite, sorry) that the father was in fact a convert to Islam.

    The father overall seemed apologetic in tone if not in words (that I know of) for America.

    And Emperor Obama has yet again demonstrated that he thinks he is in fact Emperor, not ‘just’ President’, and can ignore any law he doesn’t like.

    hey, Oby, I have an idea ! Let’s let Bradely aka Sheila Manning out, and promote her to freaking General of an all-gay battalion !

    In basic training, they can prance instead of march ! Yeh, that’s the ticket ! Close Order Prancing drills !

    Oh, shit – “not TOO close, please. No, wait ! I said not too close ! Get that thing out of there until later !”

“Bowe Bergdahl told his parents he was “ashamed to even be American”

“I am sorry for everything,” he wrote. “The horror that is America is disgusting.”

A f’ing traitor.

Within a year, we will be reading about at least some of those we released being involved in more deadly attacks against us.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/379265/obama-replenishes-taliban-or-how-wars-end-21st-century-andrew-c-mccarthy

Andy is no conspiracy theorist.

He knows his stuff, and what he says has a sound basis.

This was a gross capitulation, and no mistake.

As with the Israelis, it sends a signal that we don’t leave anyone behind, even when the trade is lopsided and frees those who may kill again.

And that is exactly the wrong signal to send. Just because the Israelis do it doesn’t make it right. Israeli governments who have sent it were criminally negligent and foolish. The blood of the thousands who have died because of the Jibril exchange is on the heads of everyone in the cabinet who voted for it. And Netanyahu and his cabinet bear the guilt for those who have died and will die as a result of the Shalit exchange, not to mention all the recent prisoner releases.

Oh well, at least 5:1 is a better ratio than the Israelis are used to. But make no mistake: these five vicious killers will kill again.

While American women abort/murder over 1 million Americans annually, we cannot afford to lose one man, woman, or child. Even if it means engagement in a perpetual war, where the executive negotiates under the table deals with the enemy.

That said, human life has a negotiable value. The standard has been set, upheld by The Supreme Court, confirmed by Obama, and defended by a slight majority of Americans. This was a political stunt. Nothing more.

    Spiny Norman in reply to huskers-for-palin. | June 1, 2014 at 1:35 pm

    Bergdahl’s debriefing should be “interesting”, but even if he is the deserter he appears to be, this administration will not allow any punishment of any kind.

    RWGinger in reply to huskers-for-palin. | June 1, 2014 at 1:43 pm

    That CBS link from 2012 is stunning for showing we knew then he was a deserter
    but most of all that even back in 2012 BO was willing to exchange the 5 Taliban for the deserter.

So we traded 5 murderous scum for a deserter and traitor?

    Juba Doobai! in reply to genes. | June 2, 2014 at 1:18 am

    For a jihadist deserter and traitor. He despises America, is ashamed of us? Look for him to be the first person to be the first homicide bomber on American soil, in either a shopping mall or a cinema.

I fully expect “Preezy of the United Steezy” Barack Hussein Obama to hold a White House ceremony where he gives the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the Muslim convert deserter, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, with the head-traitor himself, John Kerry, giving a follow-up speech about Bravery, Honor, Patriotism and Love of Country. Bank on it.

The beard suggests that he is a convert to Islam.

    genes in reply to Valerie. | June 1, 2014 at 2:09 pm

    So the Amish are really muslims?
    My Dad wore a beard in the 50’s, he shaved it off because it made him look like Fidel.

    genes in reply to Valerie. | June 1, 2014 at 2:10 pm

    The members of ZZ Top are muslim?

    pjm in reply to Valerie. | June 1, 2014 at 6:57 pm

    The Duck Dynasty guys are muslim ?

    Henry Hawkins in reply to Valerie. | June 1, 2014 at 7:39 pm

    The father says he began the beard when his son went, ahem, missing in 2009.

    aerily in reply to Valerie. | June 2, 2014 at 9:19 am

    regardless of the guy’s motivations at the time of his capture, if ‘converting’ was the difference between coming home alive or winding up in a shallow grave in Afghanistan… I don’t see that as being that much of a choice. We were going to have to give these prisoners up in a year or two anyway as OEF is winding down. Just because the Sergeant was a chucklehead, it doesn’t mean we turn our back on him. That may be what he deserves, but we as a nation are better than that.

    JackRussellTerrierist in reply to Valerie. | June 2, 2014 at 11:59 pm

    Praising and thanking Allah was the big clue for me.

Our president and commander-in-chief: a shrewd negotiator.

    Observer in reply to McAllister. | June 1, 2014 at 8:52 pm

    Sure . . . if your definition of “negotiator” is someone who caves and capitulates to the other side.

    Rice was on the t.v. talk shows today insisting that the U.S. does not negotiate with terrorists. She was right; we don’t negotiate, we just give in to their demands.

Bergdahl willingly walked away. Anything that happened from that point are the consequences of his own actions and his return isn’t worth the life of a single soldier. His life wasn’t worth trading for 5 high level Taliban members.

    JackRussellTerrierist in reply to Sanddog. | June 3, 2014 at 12:01 am

    The real tragedy was the loss of six of America’s finest young men in the search for this POS traitor.

Henry Hawkins | June 1, 2014 at 2:08 pm

Let’s not make the mistake of looking for reasons this swap made sense for the US. It doesn’t. It makes bad sense for the US. But it gives Obama a diversion from the VA scandal, and it gave Obama a video-op with Bergdahl’s parents walking arm in arm off the stage – desperately needed to offest the CNN segment where the parents of a veteran read his suicide note on-air, reducing even the CNN anchor to tears.

Sooper Mexican is still down, but here is his article at Independent Journal Review: http://bit.ly/RUc0mc

Bergdahl’s dad tweeted he want to free all at Gitmo. Claims he cares about slain Afghan children. Of course the five released killed thousands of Afghani civilians, many who were children.

Henry Hawkins | June 1, 2014 at 7:42 pm

Let’s give him a MOAB, and let him take it back to his Taliban friends.

Slim Pickens / Dr. Strangelove style.

Henry Hawkins | June 1, 2014 at 10:31 pm

Here’s the deal I’d negotiate: We give back ALL the Gitmo detainees under one condition – they take Obama along with them.

No! No! No!

Five high value Taliban operatives four one deserter is never a good deal.

This whole thing was a distraction created to blunt the effect of the multiple “phony” scandals knocking at the door of this administration PERIOD!

He was promoted in absentia to sergeant on June 17, 2011.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowe_Bergdahl

Hey why is “Teen Wolf” in the photo op w/Obama?