Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl Big controversy over the negotiated release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl whose freedom was won by trading five Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay. Let’s take it step by step.
1) The President says the U.S. doesn’t leave brothers or sisters behind. Correct, and he was right to go after Bergdahl.
2) The President didn’t notify Congress 30 days ahead of time, as required by law. True, but sometimes a President has to do what a President has to do as commander in chief.
3) Will Bergdahl be prosecuted for desertion? To be determined but he will be back home when he’s investigated. If guilty, then he likely needs to be punished especially since he is alleged to have left his post voluntarily and walked away. People will argue that five years as a POW is punishment enough, but not in this case. Still, we need to learn what really happened.
4) The U.S. doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. Correct and in this case technically we didn’t. But clearly we did, we just used Qatar as the middle man. A technicality but one that could cost us in the future.
5) The toughest one, for me, is we gave up five terrorists for one soldier. Of course, in a normal situation, five terrorists for an American is a cheap price. In this case, a closer call. We don’t know what assurances we received from Qatar about how they promise to keep these guys from rejoining the fight and, of course, logic tells us that one or more will rejoin the fight. No conclusion here, just an observation. A price that we likely will pay in the future.
These are, as Hillary Clinton would call them, the “hard choices” presidents have to make. Many times these difficult choices are never known to the public. This President made another one when he okay-ed the mission to get Bin Laden. That one could have cost him his presidency. But he made the right choice, as it turned out.
This one may have been even harder in a way because if it is proven that Bergdahl did abandon his post, many who already are questioning this decision will question it even more.
Don’t know what I would have done had I had to make the decisions. Do you?
1) The President says the U.S. doesn’t leave brothers or sisters behind. Correct, and he was right to go after Bergdahl.
2) The President didn’t notify Congress 30 days ahead of time, as required by law. True, but sometimes a President has to do what a President has to do as commander in chief.
3) Will Bergdahl be prosecuted for desertion? To be determined but he will be back home when he’s investigated. If guilty, then he likely needs to be punished especially since he is alleged to have left his post voluntarily and walked away. People will argue that five years as a POW is punishment enough, but not in this case. Still, we need to learn what really happened.
4) The U.S. doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. Correct and in this case technically we didn’t. But clearly we did, we just used Qatar as the middle man. A technicality but one that could cost us in the future.
5) The toughest one, for me, is we gave up five terrorists for one soldier. Of course, in a normal situation, five terrorists for an American is a cheap price. In this case, a closer call. We don’t know what assurances we received from Qatar about how they promise to keep these guys from rejoining the fight and, of course, logic tells us that one or more will rejoin the fight. No conclusion here, just an observation. A price that we likely will pay in the future.
These are, as Hillary Clinton would call them, the “hard choices” presidents have to make. Many times these difficult choices are never known to the public. This President made another one when he okay-ed the mission to get Bin Laden. That one could have cost him his presidency. But he made the right choice, as it turned out.
This one may have been even harder in a way because if it is proven that Bergdahl did abandon his post, many who already are questioning this decision will question it even more.
Don’t know what I would have done had I had to make the decisions. Do you?
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