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This was something very dear to our Clone (Eva)... I know she is smiling big and crying tears of joy!
Clone's thread: http://www.roguevalleyforum.com/forum/sh...t=Bergdahl
Quote:US soldier freed from captivity in Afghanistan
The only American soldier held prisoner in Afghanistan has been freed and is back in U.S. custody after nearly five years of captivity, U.S. officials said Saturday.
The officials said the Taliban agreed to turn over Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for the release of five Afghan detainees from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The transfers happened after a week of intense negotiations mediated by the government of Qatar, which will take custody of the Afghans.
In a statement, President Barack Obama said Bergdahl's recovery "is a reminder of America's unwavering commitment to leave no man or woman in uniform behind on the battlefield."
Officials said the Taliban turned the 28-year-old Bergdahl over Saturday evening, local time, in Afghanistan. Several dozen U.S. special forces were involved in the exchange, which took place in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border.
Officials described the transfer as a nonviolent handover between the American forces and about 18 Taliban.
Bergdahl was in good condition and able to walk, according to the officials, who insisted on anonymity in order to describe the details of his release.
Bergdahl is expected to be transferred to Bagram Air Field, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, then on to the United States.
Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, had been held by the Taliban since June 30, 2009. He is thought to have been captured by members of the Haqqani network, which operates in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region and has been one of the deadliest threats to U.S. troops in the war.
The Haqqani network, which the State Department designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 2012, claims allegiance to the Afghan Taliban, yet operates with some degree of autonomy.
The five Afghan detainees from Guantanamo were still at the base as of Saturday morning, but were being transferred into the custody of Qatari officials. Under the conditions of their release, the detainees will be banned from traveling outside of Qatar for at least one year.
Officials said Obama spoke with Bergdahl's parents Saturday, shortly after their son had been taken into U.S. custody. Bergdahl's family was in Washington on a previously scheduled visit when they received the news.
http://www.katu.com/news/national/US-sol...74971.html
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If any more solders are captured, I hope the exchange John McCain for him or her.
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(06-02-2014, 08:05 AM)cletus1 Wrote: If any more solders are captured, I hope the exchange John McCain for him or her.
Agreed
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(06-02-2014, 08:05 AM)cletus1 Wrote: If any more solders are captured, I hope the exchange John McCain for him or her.
Why? I don't agree with his politics but that's a fucked up think to say about any American POW and war hero.
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Yeah, we freed a deserter! For five terrorists! Great, great thing.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/bowe-be...ry-n120051
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Another day, another lie uncovered, but what difference at this point does it make? Right?
Quote:EXCLUSIVE - 'A cover up just like Benghazi': Outraged parents of officer who died hunting for 'deserter' POW Bergdahl lash out at Obama over 'LIES' they were told about how their hero son died
Lt Darryn Andrews, from Dallas, Texas, died at the age of 34 on Sept 4, 2009 during his second tour of Afghanistan
Top brass told his parents, Sondra and Andy, that he had been looking for a top Taliban commander
But former comrades have now claimed the truth is that he was looking for Bowe Bergdahl
Said to be one of six soldiers who died looking for the POW
Father said: 'For his family it’s good to get him back but we will never be able to get our son back because of the actions of this guy'
Lt Andrews' parents revealed their son thought Bergdahl was a 'deserter'
Lt Andrews was posthumously given a silver star for his bravery
At time of his death his wife Julie, 30, had already given birth to their son, six. Their daughter was born three-and-a-half months after he died
Father Andy against trade with terrorists
The Facebook group 'Bowe Bergdahl is NOT hero!' has 5,400 members
Bergdahl e-mailed his parents saying he 'was ashamed to be an American'
The furious parents of an officer who they claim was killed while searching for freed Taliban prisoner Bowe Bergdahl today said that they have been lied to as part of a ‘cover up just like Benghazi’.
The mother and father of Second Lieutenant Darryn Andrews are angry that they have been told different stories about how their son died.
First his commanders said that their son was blown up while hunting a Taliban commander - but only now that Bergdahl has been freed after five years in captivity are they learning the truth.
Lt Andrews’ parents told MailOnline that their own son branded Bergdahl a ‘deserter’ before he was killed.
In an exclusive interview his father Andy Andrews told MailOnline: ‘For his family it’s good to get him back but we will never be able to get our son back because of the actions of this guy (Bergdahl).
‘I think people need to be aware that the guy was not a hero and American lives have been lost trying to save this deserter’.
Lt Andrews was one of six men who died while apparently searching for Bergdahl, who is said to have voluntarily left his post in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009.
Hero: Second Lieutenant Darryn Andrews died in a Taliban ambush on Sept 4, 2009, after he tried to save colleagues who had been injured in an IED explosion. Top brass had told his parents that he died searching a Taliban commander. Now former comrades have come forward to say they were really looking for Bergdahl
His release was brokered with the Taliban in exchange for five Guantanamo detainees and has ignited fury among many whose lives were changed forever as a result.
‘It’s a big cover-up like Benghazi, just like everything Obama has done. We want the truth to come out’
- Andrew Andrews
During the months-long hunt for him vital resources were re-deployed to help with the hunt and scarce surveillance drones and helicopters were assigned to the task instead of other duties.
Former colleagues of Bergdahl claim that this put them at risk - and led to lives being lost.
What is undisputed is that Lt Andrews, who was from Dallas, Texas, died at the age of 34 on September 4, 2009 while serving with the 25th Infantry Division on his second tour of Afghanistan.
At the time his family say they were told that his men were hunting a Taliban commander and that the truck at the front of their group ended in a hole after being hit by an Improvised Explosive Device.
As the men got out to try and move the truck, a Taliban fighter with a rocket propelled grenade emerged and fired at them.
Lt Andrews was the only one to see it and tackled three of his men to prevent them being hit. He took a direct hit and died.
Private First Class Matthew Michael Martinek, 20, also later died in hospital due to his injuries.
Lt Andrews was posthumously given a silver star for his bravery. At the time of his death his wife Julie, 30, had already given birth to their son, six. Their daughter was born three-and-a-half months later and is now four.
Speaking to MailOnline from his home in Cameron, Texas, Mr Andrews said: ‘When my son was killed there was no mention of searching for this guy (Bergdahl) but once all this has come out we got several emails and calls from soldiers who were with him in Afghanistan.
‘They say their mission was to search for Bergdahl. He (Lt Andrews) was killed in the search. We have no documentation of that.
'The soldiers said they had to sign a letter saying that they wouldn't discuss this... We cannot tell you how devastated we are that the government would do this. They lied to us'
‘The soldiers said they had to sign a letter saying that they would not discuss this. I have no way of proving that apart from what they said. We cannot tell you how devastated we are that the government would do this. They lied to us.
‘It’s a big cover-up like Benghazi, just like everything Obama has done. We want the truth to come out.’
Sondra Andrews, 66, said that her son’s unit should have had 30 men at the time they were ambushed but only had 20 because they were stretched too thin with the search.
She said: ‘We want the truth to come out for the sake of our family...He (Bergdahl) in effect kept the men from their primary duties’.
In the wake of their son’s death, a number of his colleagues spoke with Mr and Mrs Andrews - and allegedly lied to their faces with the official story.
Mrs Andrews said that she excused them, but not their superiors.
Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen, 29, (left) and Private First Class Morris Walker, 23, (right) were killed in an IED explosion on August 18, 2009. They were looking for Bergdahl when they died
Staff Sergeant Kurt Curtiss, (left) a 27-year-old father of two, who died in a firefighter on August 26, 2009. Staff Sergeant Michael Murphrey, 25, (right) was killed in an IED blast on September 5, 2009.
Tragic: Pfc. Matthew M. Martinek died in the same incident as Lt Andrews
She said: ‘When he was buried, soldiers from his outfit came down and that’s the story they told us. They are the same people now telling us something else.
‘I think it needs to be noted how duty driven they young men are. There’s an amount of respect they deserve for that. I resent the commanding officers and not the troops’.
Mr Andrews, 68, who served in the US Navy between 1968 and 1972, added: ‘I resent the men that gave the order (to search for Bergdahl) but not the men who got it’.
More...
'Bowe Bergdahl deserted and Americans lost their lives searching for him': The bitter backlash from soldiers who served with Taliban POW as the SIX men who were killed looking for him are revealed
EXCLUSIVE - 'Bowe was made to dance': Taliban POW's ballet teacher reveals how Bergdahl was not a typical 'rough, tough' soldier and how the moves he learned could have helped him survive his ordeal
Taliban PoW was captive for so long he even forgot how to speak ENGLISH... as his parents reveal he has a long road to recovery
Taliban leaders given hero's welcome in footage claiming to show prisoners arriving in Qatar after Guantanamo release ... with no American presence in sight
'I am ashamed to be an American': Emails from freed PoW before he was captured and held by Taliban for five years show he had become disillusioned and planned to leave
Lt Andrews graduated from Cameron Yoe High School in Dallas where he was a offensive and defensive lineman on the football team.
His twin brother Jarrett was quarterback and his brother has set up a memorial page for Andrew.
Lt Andrews was inspired to join the military by his grandfather John E. Brown who was a prisoner of war in Germany during the Second World War.
Both Mr and Mrs Andrews told MailOnline that they condemned the decision to strike a deal with the Taliban to free Bergdahl.
Mrs Andrews said: ‘I have a long history with the military and it’s not done. You don’t negotiate with the enemy.
‘The Taliban prisoners are going to reintegrate and come back against the U.S. I feel like we have wasted too many lives.’
Mr Andrews added that he was stunned and that he could not ‘believe they have done this’.
He said: ‘There was a two to three month gap between Bergdahl disappearing and my son being killed and I spoke to him about it.
‘He said that he was a deserter. I resent him (being) pushed as a hero. For his family it’s good to have him back but we will never be able to get our son back because of the actions of this guy.’
Anger has been mounting against Bergdahl since his release and the Facebook page 'Bowe Bergdahl is NOT a hero!' has 5,400 members and bears pictures of all six paratroopers who lost their lives while looking for their captured comrade.
'I have a long history with the military and it’s not done. You don’t negotiate with the enemy. The Taliban prisoners are going to reintegrate and come back against the U.S. I feel like we have wasted too many lives'
A White House petition to punish Bergdahl for being absent without leave (AWOL) also has nearly 2,000 online signatures.
The other men who are said to have died looking for Bergdahl are: Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen, 29, and Private First Class Morris Walker, 23, who were killed in an IED explosion on August 18, 2009.
Staff Sergeant Kurt Curtiss, a 27-year-old father of two, who died in a firefighter on August 26, 2009.
Staff Sergeant Michael Murphrey, 25, was killed in an IED blast on September 5, 2009.
'Bowe Bergdahl deserted during a time of war and his fellow Americans lost their lives searching for him,' former Sergeant Matt Vierkant told CNN.
Good for them: Andy Andrews told MailOnline that he felt relief for Bob Jani Bergdahl. But he added: 'We will never be able to get our son back... I think people need to be aware that they guy was not a hero and American lives have been lost trying to save this deserter'
+17
Good for them: Andy Andrews told MailOnline that he felt relief for Bob Jani Bergdahl. But he added: 'We will never be able to get our son back... I think people need to be aware that they guy was not a hero and American lives have been lost trying to save this deserter'
Anger: Andy Andrews added that he was against the deal Obama (pictured with Bergdahl's parents at the White House this weekend) made to bring the prisoner home. He said: 'I have a long history with the military and it¿s not done. You don¿t negotiate with the enemy'
+17
Anger: Andy Andrews added that he was against the deal Obama (pictured with Bergdahl's parents at the White House this weekend) made to bring the prisoner home. He said: 'I have a long history with the military and it’s not done. You don’t negotiate with the enemy'
'I was pissed off then and I am even more so now with everything going on,' Mr Vierkant said.
A former superior of the 28-year-old soldier, Greg Leatherman, said he hopes the military investigates Bergdahl and questions whether he did, indeed, desert his post in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009.
Sgt. Evan Buetow, who fought in Bergdahl's platoon in Afghanistan, told radio hosts with NewsMax.tv on Monday that he's upset with the prisoner exchange Obama approved.
The released Taliban leaders, he said, can't be stopped from re-entering the battlefield and killing Americans.
'I don't want him treated as the example soldiers should look up to, because he's the exact opposite of that'
- Sgt Evan Buetow, who fought with Bergdahl
'There's no doubt in my mind that they'll go right back out and do what they were doing before,' Buetow said.
Bergdahl, he said, made a 'premeditated' decision to desert his post and meet with the enemy.
'I don't want him treated as the example soldiers should look up to, because he's the exact opposite of that,' Buetow insisted.
He said 'I'm glad he's home,' but only because there will finally be an opportunity to investigate the disappearance that cost six other soldiers their lives as they searched for Bergdahl.
'I want closure,' Buetow said. 'I want the truth.'
Buetow rotated out of active duty and left the armed forces in 2012.
Many members of the military community voice support for Bergdahl, however.
When a discussion on the Facebook page of his battalion filled up with negative comments, a moderator chimed in: 'I challenge any one of you who label him a traitor to spend 5 years in captivity with the Taliban or Haqqani, then come back and accuse him again. Whatever his intent when he walked away or was captured, he has more than paid for it.'
'Wasted lives': Lt Andrews' father hit out at the lives that have been sacrificed in Afghanistan and added that he was angry the deal has been done with terrorists who will just start attacking the US again. Pictured are Lt Andrews' wife and two children who he will never see grow up
+17
'Wasted lives': Lt Andrews' father hit out at the lives that have been sacrificed in Afghanistan and added that he was angry the deal has been done with terrorists who will just start attacking the US again. Pictured are Lt Andrews' wife and two children who he will never see grow up
Valor: Lt Andrews was posthumously awarded a silver star for his actions. He served two tours in Afghanistan
+17
Valor: Lt Andrews was posthumously awarded a silver star for his actions. He served two tours in Afghanistan
Stories from the soldiers in Bergdahl's unit have begun to emerge of a young man whose mind had begun to wander.
Mr Leatherman said Bergdahl 'always looked at the mountains in the distance and talked of "seeing what's on the other side."'
Rolling Stone magazine also quoted emails Bergdahl is said to have sent to his parents that suggest he was disillusioned with America's mission in Afghanistan, had lost faith in the U.S. Army's mission there and was considering desertion.
Bergdahl told his parents he was 'ashamed to even be American'.
Bergdahl, who mailed home boxes containing his uniform and books, also wrote: 'The future is too good to waste on lies. And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong.'
The military seems to tacitly acknowledge that Bergdahl violated military regulations of some kind. However, officials also say he's unlikely to be disciplined for it.
One source told CNN: 'Five years is enough.'
Soldiers described a massive effort by the U.S. Army to recover Bergdahl after he was taken captive - one in which soldiers were ordered to go on patrols and take risks in ways they never would otherwise.
Twitter user Cody, who claims he served with Bergdahl, said the search left Bergdahl's comrades vulnerable.
'While searching for him, ambushes and IEDs picked up tremendously. Enemy knew we would be coming,' he wrote.
Five Taliban Guantanamo prisoners arrive in Qatar
US hopes prisoner swap might bring Taliban breakthroughs
'So without (Bergdahl) going missing we wouldn't have been in certain places.'
Furthermore, drones, planes, helicopters, soldiers and even food were diverted to the mission. CNN reports that the lack of resources led to a delay in the military closing Combat Outpost Keating. On October 3, Taliban insurgents overran the base and killed eight American soldiers.
Former Private First Class Jose Baggett, 27, who served in Bergdahl's company, told CNN that he lost two friends in the search for the captured soldier. And he blames Bergdahl for the deaths.
He said: 'He walked off. He left his guard post. Nobody knows if he defected or he's a traitor or he was kidnapped.
'What I do know is he was there to protect us and instead he decided to defer from America and go and do his own thing.
'I don't know why he decided to do that, but we spend so much of our resources and some of those resources were soldiers' lives.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...z33VoZLvTQ
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I can't believe that we NOW negotiate with terrorists.
Obama just set a precedent that will endanger Americans. Not only that he got ripped off with this moronic deal.
We freed 5 terrorists to get back a piece of shit traitor?
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(06-02-2014, 12:59 PM)tvguy Wrote: I can't believe that we NOW negotiate with terrorists.
Obama just set a precedent that will endanger Americans. Not only that he got ripped off with this moronic deal.
We freed 5 terrorists to get back a piece of shit traitor?
What he said ?
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06-02-2014, 05:28 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-02-2014, 05:29 PM by csrowan. Edited 2 times in total.)
Never mind that the military code of conduct says that the US government has an obligation to rescue all prisoners of war...
Quote:Just as you have a responsibility to your country under the Code of Conduct, the United States government has an equal responsibility -- to keep faith with you and stand by you as you fight for your country. If you are unfortunate enough to become a prisoner of war, you may rest assured that your government will care for your dependents and will never forget you. Furthermore, the government will use every practical means to contact, support and gain release for you and for all other prisoners of war.
http://mediamatters.org/mobile/research/...ign/199536
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06-02-2014, 07:11 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-02-2014, 07:16 PM by SFLiberal. Edited 2 times in total.)
(06-02-2014, 05:28 PM)csrowan Wrote: Never mind that the military code of conduct says that the US government has an obligation to rescue all prisoners of war...
Quote:Just as you have a responsibility to your country under the Code of Conduct, the United States government has an equal responsibility -- to keep faith with you and stand by you as you fight for your country. If you are unfortunate enough to become a prisoner of war, you may rest assured that your government will care for your dependents and will never forget you. Furthermore, the government will use every practical means to contact, support and gain release for you and for all other prisoners of war.
http://mediamatters.org/mobile/research/...ign/199536
Is he a POW when he deserts? I would call him a hostage. He lost right to be called a POW when he deserted.
It seems you ( and Media Matters, Obama's propaganda wing) condone releasing guys, Mullah Mohammad Fazl and Mullah Norullah Noori, who are wanted for war crimes by the UN in the slaughtering of thousands of Shiite Muslims. No surprise really...
Quote:"I was pissed off then, and I am even more so now with everything going on," said former Sgt. Matt Vierkant, a member of Bergdahl's platoon when he went missing on June 30, 2009. "Bowe Bergdahl deserted during a time of war, and his fellow Americans lost their lives searching for him."
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/01/us/bergdah...r-or-hero/
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(06-02-2014, 05:28 PM)csrowan Wrote: Never mind that the military code of conduct says that the US government has an obligation to rescue all prisoners of war...
Quote:Just as you have a responsibility to your country under the Code of Conduct, the United States government has an equal responsibility -- to keep faith with you and stand by you as you fight for your country. If you are unfortunate enough to become a prisoner of war, you may rest assured that your government will care for your dependents and will never forget you. Furthermore, the government will use every practical means to contact, support and gain release for you and for all other prisoners of war.
http://mediamatters.org/mobile/research/...ign/199536
Military Code Of Conduct: U.S. Govt. "Will Use Any Practical Means To Contact, Support And Gain
It's not "practical" to negotiate with terrorists. You act as if we are at war with some country with soldiers in uniform.
WE are at war with religious murderous zealots who care nothing about murdering innocent women or children.
Now these scum of the earth murderers know that they can kidnap Americans anywhere and trade with good old dumbfuck Obama.
Nice move Obama.
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06-02-2014, 07:27 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-02-2014, 07:28 PM by SFLiberal. Edited 1 time in total.)
Susan Rice went on the Sunday talk shows and she certainly had a strange take on a soldier that deserts in a war zone...
From ABC’s This Week:
Quote:He (Bergdahl) is going to be safely reunited with his family. He served the United States with honor and distinction. And we’ll have the opportunity eventually to learn what has transpired in the past years, but what’s most important now is his health and well being, that he have the opportunity to recover in peace and security and be reunited with his family. Which is why this is such a joyous day.
I wonder if he win get a medal for deserting?
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(06-02-2014, 07:27 PM)SFLiberal Wrote: Susan Rice went on the Sunday talk shows and she certainly had a strange take on a soldier that deserts in a war zone...
From ABC’s This Week:
Quote:He (Bergdahl) is going to be safely reunited with his family. He served the United States with honor and distinction. And we’ll have the opportunity eventually to learn what has transpired in the past years, but what’s most important now is his health and well being, that he have the opportunity to recover in peace and security and be reunited with his family. Which is why this is such a joyous day.
I wonder if he win get a medal for deserting?
As far as I know the jury is still out on whether he is a deserter or not.
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06-02-2014, 08:16 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-02-2014, 08:31 PM by SFLiberal. Edited 3 times in total.)
(06-02-2014, 07:28 PM)tvguy Wrote: (06-02-2014, 07:27 PM)SFLiberal Wrote: Susan Rice went on the Sunday talk shows and she certainly had a strange take on a soldier that deserts in a war zone...
From ABC’s This Week:
Quote:He (Bergdahl) is going to be safely reunited with his family. He served the United States with honor and distinction. And we’ll have the opportunity eventually to learn what has transpired in the past years, but what’s most important now is his health and well being, that he have the opportunity to recover in peace and security and be reunited with his family. Which is why this is such a joyous day.
I wonder if he win get a medal for deserting?
As far as I know the jury is still out on whether he is a deserter or not.
I could supply you with many links to the contrary including emails between he and his dad and statements of his ex-platoon mates. You can get the answer pretty easy if you wish.
Here's a few to get you going:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/we-s...94093.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/controvers...d=23961090
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/bowe-bergdahl...er-or-hero
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/bowe-be...ap-n120596
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...f-war.html
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/...a-traitor/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/...s-conduct/
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/01/us/bergdah...r-or-hero/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/nati...story.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bowe-bergdah...-deserter/
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/new-detail...-transfer/
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/207867...not-a-hero
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(06-02-2014, 10:26 AM)tvguy Wrote: (06-02-2014, 08:05 AM)cletus1 Wrote: If any more solders are captured, I hope the exchange John McCain for him or her.
Why? I don't agree with his politics but that's a fucked up think to say about any American POW and war hero.
You took your stupid pills today, huh?
John McCain is talking out his ass on this issue. He knows nothing about the negotiations. And the US has been dealing with terrorists for a long time. The we don't deal with terrorists is utter bullshit. Besides, my post was so obviously satirical, but whatever.
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(06-02-2014, 08:43 PM)cletus1 Wrote: (06-02-2014, 10:26 AM)tvguy Wrote: (06-02-2014, 08:05 AM)cletus1 Wrote: If any more solders are captured, I hope the exchange John McCain for him or her.
Why? I don't agree with his politics but that's a fucked up think to say about any American POW and war hero.
You took your stupid pills today, huh?
John McCain is talking out his ass on this issue. He knows nothing about the negotiations. And the US has been dealing with terrorists for a long time. The we don't deal with terrorists is utter bullshit. Besides, my post was so obviously satirical, but whatever.
Care to cite an example where we negoticiated with terrorists in a prisoner exchange. That's what we are talking about. Waiting.....
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(06-02-2014, 10:52 PM)SFLiberal Wrote: (06-02-2014, 08:43 PM)cletus1 Wrote: (06-02-2014, 10:26 AM)tvguy Wrote: (06-02-2014, 08:05 AM)cletus1 Wrote: If any more soldiers are captured, I hope the exchange John McCain for him or her.
Why? I don't agree with his politics but that's a fucked up think to say about any American POW and war hero.
You took your stupid pills today, huh?
John McCain is talking out his ass on this issue. He knows nothing about the negotiations. And the US has been dealing with terrorists for a long time. The we don't deal with terrorists is utter bullshit. Besides, my post was so obviously satirical, but whatever.
Care to cite an example where we negoticiated with terrorists in a prisoner exchange. That's what we are talking about. Waiting.....
How long have you been waiting? Perhaps I should set my alarm clock for 11:30 pm every evening in case you have questions.
All I said was that the US does negotiate with terrorists; you added the "in a prisoner exchange." I'll play anyway. The US does negotiate with terrorists. Peace talks that involve any group the US has deemed to be a terrorist organization is a negotiation. right? Here is an part of an article from USA Today about the Bergdahl prisoner exchange.
Is it ever right to negotiate with terrorists?
...Republican leaders in the House and Senate took turns hammering President Obama on Sunday for violating the law by not informing Congress of the deal beforehand. They claimed the move weakened America's stance in the world and put U.S. troops at risk by showing terrorist organizations they can win concessions by kidnapping Americans.
"I fear that the administration's decision to negotiate with the Taliban for Sgt. Bergdahl's release could encourage future terrorist kidnappings of Americans," Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Sunday in a statement.
But security experts like Bruce Hoffman, director of Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies, said that however common the refrain "we do not negotiate with terrorists" has become, it is "repeated as mantra more than fact."
"We have long negotiated with terrorists. Virtually every other country in the world has negotiated with terrorists despite pledges never to," Hoffman said. "We should be tough on terrorists, but not on our fellow countrymen who are their captives, which means having to make a deal with the devil when there is no alternative."
Hoffman lists a series of high-profile instances when U.S. presidents have negotiated with terrorists. There was the Iran hostage crisis that started in ?the 1970s and eventually led to the release of 52 Americans. Or the Iran-Contra affair of the mid-1980s when the U.S. government sold arms to Iran partly to win the release of U.S. hostages in Lebanon.
Charles "Cully" Stimson, a security expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, said there are even more examples of small-scale negotiations with terrorist groups that the public, and many members of Congress, just don't know about.
Under President George W. Bush, Stimson helped coordinate the Pentagon's detainee operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other places around the world. He said presidential administrations of both political parties routinely have been forced to deal with terrorist groups for "information, supplies, personnel — a lot of different topics."
"We have had very quiet negotiations, or discussions at least, with terrorist groups over the years on a whole host of things," Stimson said. "They just haven't usually come to light."
"This is a legitimate prisoner swap," said Peter Mansoor, a retired Army colonel and professor of military history at Ohio State University.
He pointed out that the Taliban was ruling Afghanistan when U.S. forces went in to topple the government after Sept. 11, 2001. "I would have much more heartburn if these were al-Qaeda leaders" that were released, Mansoor said.
Michael O'Hanlon, an analyst at the Brookings Institution, said it has been U.S. policy to seek this type of deal for a couple years.
"I always saw the downside but don't recall the pitched debate about is until now," he said in an e-mail. "In a broader sense, even though the war is undeclared, this is a prisoner swap among belligerents more than a release of a hostage held by terrorists."...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world...e/9835759/
Saint Ronald Reagan negotiated with terrorists didn't he? Remember this:
In the 1980s radical Shiites in Lebanon took American hostages. In order to free them, the Reagan administration not only negotiated with Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini but actually stole T.O.W. anti-aircraft munitions from Pentagon warehouses and shipped them to Tehran, receiving the money for them in black bank accounts and sending it to right wing death squads in Nicaragua. Khomeini and his government were listed as terrorists by the State Department at the time, and selling weapons to Iran was highly illegal. Not only that, but the US was allied with Iraq at the time, so Reagan screwed over Baghdad this way. Reagan did it, in part to free US hostages in Lebanon (Iran put pressure on its clients for their release).
Also this:
The US negotiated with the Viet Cong in South Vietnam, who were very much analogous to the Taliban and whom the US would now certainly term “terrorists.” In 1973, the US used intermediaries to negotiate with the Viet Cong for release of captured US soldiers at Loc Ninh. Americans on the political right made a huge issue about 1300 US soldiers never having been released by the Viet Cong (only about 400 were), and the shame that these men were left on the battlefield by the Nixon and Ford administrations. Conservatives seem to want to have it both ways. If you negotiate the release of US captives with the enemy you are “negotiating with terrorists.” If you don’t, then you have left soldiers behind on the battlefield. The fact is that the only way to have freed them was to have offered something for them in detailed negotiations. As for the Viet Cong “terrorists,” many of them are in government now and the US has cordial relations with them.
In conclusion: I think your hate for Obama has warped your memory and tainted your perspective.
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Leave no man or woman behind.
Also... none of us (no one!) knows what was going on in Bowe's mind to make him walk away, unarmed... he had to have known he would end up captured. He wasn't going to just walk home! I saw, on TV this morning, another soldier state that "after certain things happened" he had changed and become disillusioned. What "certain things happened"?!?! Could he have been suffering PTSD? Could he have been suffering some sort of mental issues? A soldier in his right mind doesn't just walk away, unarmed in a place like Afghanistan.
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06-03-2014, 08:28 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-03-2014, 08:33 AM by SFLiberal. Edited 1 time in total.)
(06-03-2014, 07:37 AM)Scrapper Wrote: Leave no man or woman behind.
Also... none of us (no one!) knows what was going on in Bowe's mind to make him walk away, unarmed... he had to have known he would end up captured. He wasn't going to just walk home! I saw, on TV this morning, another soldier state that "after certain things happened" he had changed and become disillusioned. What "certain things happened"?!?! Could he have been suffering PTSD? Could he have been suffering some sort of mental issues? A soldier in his right mind doesn't just walk away, unarmed in a place like Afghanistan.
Read his emails to his Taliban loving daddy.
Quote:“I am ashamed to be an American. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools,” he (Bergdahl) concluded. “I am sorry for everything. The horror that is America is disgusting.”
Bob Bergdahl responded in an email: “OBEY YOUR CONSCIENCE!”
One night, after finishing a guard-duty shift, Bowe Bergdahl asked his team leader whether there would be a problem if he left camp with his rifle and night-vision goggles — to which the team leader replied “yes.”
Bergdahl then returned to his bunker, picked up a knife, water, his diary and a camera, and left camp, according to Rolling Stone.
The next morning, he was reported missing, and later that day, a drone and four fighter jets began to search for him.
Quote:Bowe Bergdahl’s Vanishing Before Capture Angered His Unit
By ERIC SCHMITT, HELENE COOPER and CHARLIE SAVAGE
June 2, 2014
WASHINGTON — Sometime after midnight on June 30, 2009, Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl left behind a note in his tent saying he had become disillusioned with the Army, did not support the American mission in Afghanistan and was leaving to start a new life. He slipped off the remote military outpost in Paktika Province on the border with Pakistan and took with him a soft backpack, water, knives, a notebook and writing materials, but left behind his body armor and weapons — startling, given the hostile environment around his outpost.
That account, provided by a former senior military officer briefed on the investigation into the private’s disappearance, is part of a more complicated picture emerging of the capture of a soldier whose five years as a Taliban prisoner influenced high-level diplomatic negotiations, brought in foreign governments, and ended with him whisked away on a helicopter by American commandos.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/us/...&referrer=
There is a reason he was never classified as a POW. The DOD knew he walked away and abandoned his post in a war zone and classified him as missing/captured not a POW because he left his post. He has only been called a POW in the last few days by the Obama administration in an attempt to justify the prisoner swap.
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06-03-2014, 08:34 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-03-2014, 08:34 AM by Scrapper. Edited 1 time in total.)
(06-03-2014, 08:28 AM)SFLiberal Wrote: (06-03-2014, 07:37 AM)Scrapper Wrote: Leave no man or woman behind.
Also... none of us (no one!) knows what was going on in Bowe's mind to make him walk away, unarmed... he had to have known he would end up captured. He wasn't going to just walk home! I saw, on TV this morning, another soldier state that "after certain things happened" he had changed and become disillusioned. What "certain things happened"?!?! Could he have been suffering PTSD? Could he have been suffering some sort of mental issues? A soldier in his right mind doesn't just walk away, unarmed in a place like Afghanistan.
Read his emails to his Taliban loving daddy.
Quote:“I am ashamed to be an American. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools,” he (Bergdahl) concluded. “I am sorry for everything. The horror that is America is disgusting.”
Bob Bergdahl responded in an email: “OBEY YOUR CONSCIENCE!”
One night, after finishing a guard-duty shift, Bowe Bergdahl asked his team leader whether there would be a problem if he left camp with his rifle and night-vision goggles — to which the team leader replied “yes.”
Bergdahl then returned to his bunker, picked up a knife, water, his diary and a camera, and left camp, according to Rolling Stone.
The next morning, he was reported missing, and later that day, a drone and four fighter jets began to search for him.
Quote:Bowe Bergdahl’s Vanishing Before Capture Angered His Unit
By ERIC SCHMITT, HELENE COOPER and CHARLIE SAVAGE
June 2, 2014
WASHINGTON — Sometime after midnight on June 30, 2009, Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl left behind a note in his tent saying he had become disillusioned with the Army, did not support the American mission in Afghanistan and was leaving to start a new life. He slipped off the remote military outpost in Paktika Province on the border with Pakistan and took with him a soft backpack, water, knives, a notebook and writing materials, but left behind his body armor and weapons — startling, given the hostile environment around his outpost.
That account, provided by a former senior military officer briefed on the investigation into the private’s disappearance, is part of a more complicated picture emerging of the capture of a soldier whose five years as a Taliban prisoner influenced high-level diplomatic negotiations, brought in foreign governments, and ended with him whisked away on a helicopter by American commandos.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/us/...&referrer=
Does that sound like a soldier with a sound mind?
"He slipped off the remote military outpost in Paktika Province on the border with Pakistan and took with him a soft backpack, water, knives, a notebook and writing materials, but left behind his body armor and weapons — startling, given the hostile environment around his outpost."
Yep... sounds like a sane soldier to me... NOT!
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