The Bergdahl Exchange, a Dangerously Wrong Obama Decision

Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl will receive a warm homecoming after five years in Taliban hands, but those in the government who worked for his release face a barrage of questions about the prisoner swap that won his freedom. Immediately after Bergdahl's release to US special forces in eastern Afghanistan, it became clear this would not be an ordinary yellow-ribbon celebration. Five terrorist suspects, Guantanamo detainees, were freed in exchange for Bergdahl, creating a Washington debate over whether the exchange will heighten the risk of other Americans being kidnapped as bargaining chips and whether the released detainees - senior Taliban figures among them - would find their way back to the fight. US officials said Bergdahl's health and safety appeared in jeopardy, requiring rapid action to secure his release. "Had we waited and lost him," said national security adviser Susan Rice, "I don't think anybody would have forgiven the United States government." Rice said the White House believed that the uncertainty of not knowing exactly what condition he was in produced a greater sense of urgency. Sources said there also were concerns about Bergdahl's mental and emotional health. But, on TV Sunday, Rice said he "appeared to be in good physical condition" and "was said to be walking." Republicans fear the deal could set a troubling precedent. Senator John McCain said the five Guantanamo detainees "are the hardest of the hard core." The Afghan Foreign Ministry called the swap "against the norms of international law" if it came against the will of the five imprisoned Taliban detainees. The ministry said : "No state can transfer another country's citizen to a third country and put restriction on their freedom." Bergdahl's father, wearing a long bushy beard, told reporters, "You were not left behind," seeming to be speaking to his son. "We are so proud of the way this was carried out." The five Taliban detainees left Guantanamo on US military aircraft enroute to Qatar, which brokered the negotiations. They are to be banned from leaving Qatar for at least a year. Among the five: a Taliban deputy intelligence minister, a former Talban interior minister with ties to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and a figure linked by Human Rights Watch to mass killings of Afghan Shiite Moslems in 2000 and 2001. Bergdahl is being treated at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Officials have not given details about Bergdahl's health to support their contention that he had lost considerable weight and faced an "acute" situation, so that his release was an urgent matter. ~~~~~ There are many somber questions surrrounding the capture of Bergdahl in 2009. There have been persistent accusations that Bergdahl voluntarily left his unit, disillusioned with the war. Such matters "will be dealt with later," Defense Secretary Hagel said. But Hagel, visiting troops in Afghanistan, was met with silence when he told a group of them in a Bagram Air Field hangar : "This is a happy day. We got one of our own back." Obama adiminstration sources have also said that the prisoner exchange could help the US and Afghanistan reach reconciliation with the Taliban, which the US sees as key to more security in the country. But they acknowledged the risk that the deal would embolden insurgents. Republicans are asking : "Have we just put a price on other US soldiers?" Senator Ted Cruz of Texas demanded : "What does this tell terrorists, that if you capture a US soldier, you can trade that soldier for five terrorists?" ~~~~~ What is also clear is that the initial debate about negotiating with terrorists has rapidly shifted into anger among armed services members at the attention being given to Bergdahl, a man who they think fled his post. Soldiers who served with Bergdahl said they were outraged at the possibility he would be accorded a hero's welcome. He is anything but, they said. CNN, Rolling Stone, and other media reported that at least six soldiers were killed in subsequent searches for Bergdahl in rugged Paktika Province following his desertion : Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen and Pfc. Morris Walker on August 18, 2009; Staff Sergeant Kurt Curtiss on August 26; 2nd Lieutenant Darryn Andrews and Pfc. Matthew Michael Martinek on September 4; and Staff Sergeant Michael Murphrey on September 5. "He walked off," said former Pfc. Jose Baggett, a comrade. "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 spent so much of our resources, and some of those resources were soldiers’ lives." In addition, CNN reported that soldiers in his platoon said attacks seemed to increase against the US in Paktika Province in the days and weeks following his disappearance. The outrage has quickly made its way into Facebook, with a page, "Bowe Bergdahl is NOT a hero," that went up on Monday, the New York Post reported. It linked to an online petition demanding Bergdahl’s prosecution. "Punish Bowe Bergdahl for walking off base with intent to not support the war on terror. Bowe Bergdahl broke several Articles under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and needs to be punished not rewarded. Bowe Bergdahl directly disobeyed the following articles : Article 86 AWOL and Article 85 Desertion. Both articles call for trial by court martial. He is not a hero and is directly responsible for several military members' death. Bring punishment to Bowe Bergdahl and let the public know that the military holds all members to the same standard," the petition states. Bergdahl's former squad leader, Greg Leatherman, told CNN: "I'm pleased to see him returned safely. From experience, I hope that he receives adequate reintegration counseling. I believe that an investigation should take place as soon as healthcare professionals deem him fit to endure one." According to a 2012 Rolling Stone report, Bergdahl had become disillusioned, sending emails to his parents prior to his disappearance, including the following : "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,...It is all revolting." Rolling Stone says his father told Bergdahl in an email : "In matters of life and death, and especially at war, it is never safe to ignore ones' conscience. Ethics demands obedience to our conscience." ~~~~~ Alhough the Obama administration has publicly embraced Bergdahl, one former comrade called on Facebook for him to be executed as a deserter, according to the New York Post. Senator McCain said : "It is disturbing that these individuals would have the ability to re-enter the fight and they are big, high-level people, possibly responsible for the deaths of thousands." House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers called it "very troublesome" that the United States broke its longstanding policy against negotiating with terrorists to free Bergdahl. Appearing Sunday on CNN, Rogers disagreed with the assessment made earlier in the same show by Susan Rice that the exchange of Bergdahl for five Guantanamo Bay detainees was not the result of negotiating with terrorists. Rice maintained that the United States was simply following the policy of leaving no man behind on the field of battle. Rice also characterized the action as a prisoner of war exchange. But Rogers dismissed that, saying the various groups of Moslem extremists fighting America are not a traditional nation-state with control of a particular country's assets. Rogers said the exchange will only embolden other terrorists who currently are holding Americans hostage to believe they now have a valuable asset. Nicholas Burns, an Undersecretary of State for President G.W. Bush, told CNN he isn't sure the small government of Qatar has the apparatus to maintain the detainees. Former UN Ambassador John Bolton says swapping Bergdahl for five terrorists is a signal to the Taliban and al-Qaida that President Obama is determined to pull out of Afghanistan, no matter what the cost, and should be a "fire bell in the night" for Americans. Bolton wrote in a column for the New York Post : "We, as citizens, must...ask whether...the exchange...was, in fact, in the US national interest....Clear-eyed presidents must put America first in national security matters....All of us as individuals are safer when our country and leaders are strong, and all of us as individuals are more at risk when they are weak. And today we are in ever-increasing danger because of weakness in the White House." ~~~~~ Dear readers, this is a troubling affair that once again displays Barack Obama's weakness. He either felt compelled to bow to the Taliban's forceful demands or he made the decision that his dealing with them has no consequences. In either case, he is wrong. Deadly wrong.