Bowe Bergdahl’s Collateral Casualties
It has been ten days since Bowe Bergdahl was released from
five years of captivity and flown to a hospital in Germany, and for ten days I
have wrestling with it, trying to marshal my thoughts and my emotions.
Contrary to my usual “junkie” approach, I have deliberately
been far more restrained in what I read and how I engage with others. That takes effort, because it’s a 24-hour a
day story, and the accusations and denunciations have reached such a screech
that it’s hard to separate fact from fiction.
Are we less safe? I
honestly don't know. The GOP and
affiliated media have conjured up armies of terrorists walking our streets preparing
to strike at freckle-faced children. Maybe we are less safe—these weren’t
choirboys we released, and whatever the terms that were worked out with the
Omani’s (who acted as go between) it’s at best hopeful thinking that these
chaps will abide by them. So, that means
we are less safe? It depends on whom you ask.
Retired General James Mattis (Marines) appeared on CNN to say that US
commanders in Afghanistan always lived with the fear that their attacks would
spur the Taliban to kill Bergdahl. With
Bergdahl returned, they no longer had this constraint. Who is Mattis, besides an obvious Obama-bot,
and what could he know that a talking head in the media or empty head in
Congress wouldn’t? He was the former
Chief of the US Central Command (which included Afghanistan) from 2010 to 2013.
Have we “negotiated with terrorists?” I will spare people the distant past (during
the Reagan years) when the Taliban were seen as freedom fighters as they
squared off against the Russians. Let’s
go with a yes. We have negotiated with
terrorists, and just to be clear, we are continuing to negotiate with those
same terrorists over a wide range of issues as we wind down our involvement
there, something the American people very much want. And, not to make an obvious point, but you
are never negotiating with friends when you are talking about getting back a
hostage. We do not have to invite them
over for tea and finger sandwiches. If
you want the job done, you put on your waders and rubber gloves. That’s reality.
OK, so what about this 5/1 swap? Outrageous, and demonstrates the usual Obama
weakness? I find this one bizarre. The Israelis, perhaps the most tough-minded
people among the democracies of the world, routinely swap dozens, hundreds, and
sometimes into the thousands in return for one of theirs—including the dead. One thousand for one dead body? They do this
for two reasons—because they are hardheaded realists, and that’s what it takes, and because, in a tiny little country like theirs, they
need to let every citizen know that they belong something bigger. It's called looking after your own.
Was Bergdahl worth it?
Was he worth anything? That’s a hard question. Clearly he was no hero. Bergdahl is by all accounts a deeply troubled
man, apparently refusing even to phone his parents, who haven’t spoke to him in
five long years. He’s not a hero, he’s
not a saint, and he’s not even a villain.
Just as sad kid who got involved in things that were bigger than his
emotional resilience could manage. We
can judge him all we want—he’s made himself the target of our opinions, and
even our disdain, by his actions.
So, he wasn’t worth it?
You don’t negotiate with terrorists, make us weaker, and give the
opportunity for columns of Taliban to search for nearest Senior’s community to
savage for a mental case and a “traitor?”
That’s a very complicated question. Consider the following. In WWII, one in four casualties were for
“battle fatigue.” And that’s the
Greatest Generation—men who grew up in the Depression, who perhaps had a far
better understanding of what a little want and discomfort could mean. The ratio of “mentals” to total casualties
for those in lengthy and extended combat was one in two. The Pacific theatre was particularly bad,
with tropical weather, the creepiness of the jungle, and the threat of kamikaze
attacks making fear an enveloping companion.
26,000 men were deemed psychiatric cases and had to be evacuated just in
the brutal effort to take Okinawa.
Would you really have left 26,000 men in Okinawa because
they went a little nuts? Are you really
so sure of yourself that, if you were put in harm’s way, you would never
succumb to fear? Imagine a society that
would simply walk away from people of whom it had asked the highest sacrifice?
The fact is you don’t have to admire Bergdahl, or hold a
parade for him, or shower him with medals.
The real tragedy of the Bergdahl affair isn’t that he’s back, or how he
got back. It’s whom he came back
to. We have acted in a way unworthy of
our better instincts. Or, to put it more
directly, most of us ought to be a little ashamed of the last couple of
weeks.
So, and I would include myself in some of these, let me
test-drive the condemnatory phrase “appalling.”
Appalling is the fact that Mr. Obama fail to comply with the
thirty day notification requirement.
Constitutional or not (it probably isn’t) and like it or not, it’s still
the law. He didn’t comply and he should have. Of course, we know why he didn’t. He had a window of opportunity to make the deal, some
emergent need, and he knew Republicans would never support it and run
immediately to Fox to kill it. But to notify was his obligation, and he didn’t.
Appalling is the Congressional Republicans who claimed they
knew nothing. They were in fact briefed
in detail both in 2011 and 2012, and they did express concerns then on prisoner
swaps. What they also did was continue
to insist that Obama do everything possible to bring Bergdahl home, and made a
point of complaining when it didn’t occur.
Appalling is the Rose Garden announcement by Mr. Obama. Whatever else you might think of Bergdahl,
he’s not a figure that inspires admiration.
Tasteless and bleh and tone deaf.
Appalling are the efforts by both parties to quickly defend
what they would have condemned if a fellow named Bush was still in office, or
condemn what they would have defended.
Appalling is the concerted effort by Republicans to erase
their past demands on Mr. Obama to get Bergdahl released and highlight their
own efforts on his behalf. So many of them are doing their very best to emulate
the old Capo Frank Pentaglia in “The Godfather II” who claimed no knowledge of
the Corleone Family. Yes, in the old
days, he was in the olive oil business with Vito Corleone, but “Corleone
Family?” Never heard of it. Rather than
review the last five years and list every bit of Republican hypocrisy on this (we have a word count at
Syncopated Politics) I would just like to refer you to the timeline published
in the Washington Post by Jamie Fuller, and her excellent follow-up
pieces. Be forewarned. We aren’t taking about general statements
made years ago. Several prominent
Republicans are even going so far to have recent tweets scrubbed.
I'm afraid that's the best I can do. Just appalling. All
of us. The shell of what is Bowe
Bergdahl is going to return at some point. Maybe we should be asking, are we
even worthy of him?
June 9, 2014
Michael Liss (Moderate Moderator)
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