Was the Bergdahl Swap Really Worth It?

(AP photo)

Well:

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki defended the White House’s prisoner exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl on Wednesday, just hours after the Army announced that it would charge him with desertion.

“Was it worth it? Absolutely,” she said on Fox News’ “The Kelly File” in an interview that will air Wednesday night.

“We have a commitment to our men and women serving overseas, or in our military, defending our national security every day, that we will do everything we can to bring them home, and that’s what we did in this case.”

I’m sympathetic to President Obama’s insistence that we bring all our men and women home, even the shitheels like Bowe Bergdahl. But before action can be taken, the question must be asked and answered: Would it be worth it?

In the case of Bergdahl, we have a convert to Islam who abandoned his post, deserted his country and his comrades, and got six of his fellow soldiers killed in the attempt to find him. In exchange for the chance to put this deserter up on capital charges, Obama illegally let go five top-level al Qaeda killers — and it is certain that they will kill again.

Was that worth it? No, not even close. Worse yet was the propaganda victory needlessly given to the Islamists to whom Bergdahl deserted, when Obama posed smiling, arm-in-arm with Bergdahl’s parents, assuring them that her had “made an ironclad commitment to bring our prisoners of war home.”

Only Bergdahl wasn’t a POW. He was a deserter who wandered into an enemy camp after taking up their religion. Obama treated him like a victim in need of protection. We can only hope Bergdahl finds the Uniform Code of Military Justice to be less accommodating.