"We've been looking for you for a long time."

A U.S. soldier is freed after five years of captivity in Afghanistan.

16 comments:

raven said...

This is the best news I have heard in a while.

Grim said...

We're all glad to see him come home.

DL Sly said...

This a$$hole is negotiating with terrorists. Releasing captives from Gitmo without notifying Congress. I'm glad the young man is home, but I wonder how he feels, as an American soldier, to know that he was the breach in our centuries old adherence to never negotiate with terrorists.
The five released weren't just Joe-Blow-me-up jihadists. They were five of the most dangerous detainees we had. "High risk" would be a downgrade for them.
Un-freakin'-believable.

E Hines said...

Another aspect of this, regarding Hagel's "justification" for acting in such haste:

Hagel justified the lack of notice by claiming there wasn't time. He deliberately omitted to give that required notification because

We believed that the information we had, the intelligence we had, was such that Sgt Bergdahl's safety and health were in jeopardy. In particular his health was deteriorating. It was our judgment that if we could find an opening and move very quickly, we needed to get him out of there, essentially to save his life.

He also said, though, in that same discussion with a distracted press,

This didn't just start; this has been an ongoing effort. The timing was right, the pieces came together. Our consistent efforts that we have been making over the years paid off.

By his own words, this administration had the time to obey the law. The law, though, was inconvenient.

Regarding Sly's remark: Terrorists already are kidnapping "young school girls, business people and other innocent people." Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said as much in defending this ransom payment. Unfortunately, he carefully elided the fact that, with empirical evidence that the thing works with our government, that risk has gone up sharply. The United States does not negotiate with terrorists? This administration just did.

Eric Hines

Grim said...

To my certain knowledge, approximately two years. They could have read Congress in at any time, and didn't because they don't trust them.

Which is reasonable -- how much does Congress deserve to be trusted?

Still, it's another signing-statements issue. Apparently the WH signed the law requiring notification, with a statement to the effect that they weren't going to be bound by it. Can anyone make them be bound by the laws they signed? No.

E Hines said...

Can anyone make them be bound by the laws they signed? No.

Yes. We the People through elections. And Congress through impeachment and conviction. Which requires elections.

Each case, though, requires a split (not yet divided, say I) People to figure out what we want with sufficient consensus.

Eric Hines

Texan99 said...

It's sad to learn about this aspect of what seemed like good news all around. I'd like to think of this guy as the Prodigal Son, maybe even aware of the high price that was paid to bring him home, and of how much he owes his country for it. If instead he drifts back into his old garbage . . . .

http://moonbattery.com/?p=46512

E Hines said...

Bergdahl was not a legitimate prisoner of war. He is a deserter who went AWOL and turned up among a band of terrorists.

The problem, though, is that this badly overstates the case. There are questions about his departure, but those questions are unanswered. As Moonbattery knows full well.

And even were Bergdahl a deserter, he's still our deserter, and we should have gotten him back. Just not by paying ransom.

Eric Hines

Ymar Sakar said...

Wow, Sly, that's pretty harsh language. I wouldn't want to be down range of you when you are doing the marksmanship test.

It's not like Hussein's selectively choosing to rescue anti Americans... I mean look at those he saved in Mexico from Fast and Furious, look at the SEAL teams saved in Afghanistan and after the Osama hit. Look at the Benghazi incident in Libya. A lot of pro patriotic Americans were saved.

Even in Sudan... hold on, let me re adjust my quantum tunneling device, there seems to be a mistake in the parallel world synchronization.

There we go, now I'm on the right world line.

Well, the old warrior creed of take no prisoners and saving the last bullet for yourself and your buddy (hard choice that), still applies. If that messes up counter insurgency's need to get counter intel by prisoners... well.



Grim said...

Yes. We the People through elections. And Congress through impeachment and conviction. Which requires elections.

You only get to vote for whom you're allowed to vote for. In Georgia this election, it was family legacies v. current-service Congress.

Elections are a waste of time. The parties control the content.

DL Sly said...

"Elections are a waste of time. The parties control the content."

You forgot the physical voting machinery. That one alone was enough in this last election to question the outcome long before it was *accidentally* reported that people had voted six times; or had voted in more than one district, county, state; pets and the perennially dead had voted; ad infinitum. And now some states are testing internet voting...because *that's* so secure.
In the language of today:
srsly
wtf

DL Sly said...

"Wow, Sly, that's pretty harsh language. I wouldn't want to be down range of you when you are doing the marksmanship test."

I would advise against it, personally. The reason why my Pop gifted me his Browning 7mm instead of my brother is because I was the only one in the family - including him - who could handle the kick and still shoot it accurately as it was out of the box. Then he mounted a very nice scope on it for me.
Yeah, I'm Daddy's Girl.
0>;~]

DL Sly said...

This *person* - I will no longer call him a soldier - is why we broke centuries of tradition and traded certified maniacs to get back?
Via Powerline:
"I am sorry for everything here. These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid.

I am ashamed to be an American. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools. I am sorry for everything. The horror that is America is disgusting."

Really?!?

Texan99 said...

I won't feel entitled to judge elections as a waste of time until I'm dissatisfied enough to run for office myself, at least locally, working up to higher offices.

And I hope I never get as far in the pit as Powerline has! Even though our treatment of U.S. soldiers at times is shameful.

And I won't disagree with any of you that we have constantly to be on guard against the social forces that would tend to rig elections. But giving up on elections entirely is to join forces, in a way, with the people who would contaminate them. I don't want to be on that team.

raven said...

After reading about the prisoner swap, who they swapped for , and reading the statements of Bergdhal and his father, and looking at the photo of his father, I will completely rescind my first comment on this thread.


Grim said...

I remain glad to see him come home. Whatever happens now, no one gets left behind. That's a principle of high honor. It's one of the best things about the American military.