President Obama explained that he traded the Taliban 5 for Bowe Bergdahl because it’s what great men do.
“This is what happens at the end of wars,” Obama said, speaking in Poland. That was true for George Washington, that was true for Abraham Lincoln, that was true for FDR.”
He forgot to add “then it is true for me.” Much is plain to those who walk in the footsteps of giants. Except it’s little hard to remember when exactly Washington, Lincoln or FDR sent conquering heroes straight into a mental asylum to shut them up for years. Time magazine explains that “Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is just days into what could be months or years of recovery.” Bergdahl could see the outside of a fence around the time President Obama ends his second term.
You’d think Obama was hiding something. Even MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski notices that nothing about Bergdahl adds up.
The question about his health, it’s a controversy. Why, then, also given his background and everything that we are finding from people who served with him and people who have covered this story and letters that he’s written home — why would Susan Rice be sent out, Susan Rice, be sent out repeatedly to say he served honorably and really push that as one the fundamental reasons behind this swap? And thirdly, with the White House contending they consulted Congress — am I correct, that happened, right? Yes? Yes? They said they consulted Congress. And members of Congress saying they weren’t consulted. What’s going on here? What is going on here? Seriously, I don’t understand it.
“I don’t understand it.” Here, Mika, let me explain.
It’s all about Gitmo, all about sending goodwill gifts to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. In fact, Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann of NBC headline their story precisely that way: “What the Bergdahl Story is Really About: Gitmo.”
The real causality runs thus: Obama didn’t use the Taliban 5 to release Bergdahl. Obama used Bergdahl to release the Taliban 5. The false narratives about his poor health, his heroic record and the supposed consultation were all manufactured to fit this requirement. Obama really didn’t give a rat’s a** about Bergdahl. What he really wanted was to find some way to spring those five Taliban gentlemen.
Obama’s strategy to “bring a fitting end” — in the words of Todd, Murray and Dunn — to the War on Terror has been to pay them off. He never intended to beat the enemy. He never even tried. All the stuff in Afghanistan, well that was just for show, for optics, to look tough.
“Congressman Steve Stockman (R-TX 36) transmitted a letter to President Barack Obama Thursday asking if the Obama administration authorized any payment to the Haqqani Network terrorist group in exchange for U.S. Army Spc. Bowe Bergdahl.”
“The Haqqani Network generally does not release Westerners unless they receive a large payment. It would be hard to believe they would release Bergdahl in an exchange that does not directly benefit them,” said Stockman.
The Taliban don’t do something for nothing. Neither do Boko Haram, the Shababs, Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran, North Korea and, for that matter, Putin. It’s cash on the nail. The Taliban are certainly acting like they are eager for more. Time magazine’s Aryn Baker reports, “asked whether the Taliban would be inspired by the exchange to kidnap others, a commander laughed. ‘Definitely.'” The terms of art for paying off terrorists are “engagement” and “flexibility” or “negotiations.”
You need a derived dictionary to understand the Lightworker. Just put words and actions into one-to-one correspondence. Whenever you hear “engagement,” “investment,” “reconciliation” and “confidence-building” from Obama, remember it means “bribes.” Essentially Obama regarded all the assets acquired in the Bush years — Iraq, Afghanistan, Gitmo — as liabilities to be liquidated or traded off to pay for his new strategy of “engagement.”
Right now what Obama wants is a “responsible” end to the war, which means he has to offer al-Qaeda a bribe so they won’t give the impression that he’s surrendered to them. He wants a “decent interval.” Clearly Bergdahl is not enough. For the president to achieve his goal, more bribes are necessary.
Washington (AFP) – Moves to free detainees from the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay are gathering pace as the administration works to close the notorious jail, a top US official said Thursday.
“There are a significant number of transfers in the pipeline at various stages and I think you’re going to be seeing substantial progress this year,” the senior administration official said, amid a furor over the release of five Taliban prisoners for a captured US soldier in Afghanistan.
Congress knows this, and so they want to be in on the consultation, for whatever reason.
Now there’s nothing invalid about surrendering or paying terrorists to leave you alone, just so long as you know that’s exactly what you’re doing. The United States did exactly that to the Barbary pirates in the early history of the nation. But in those days it was unnecessary to “look tough.” They just paid and hoped for the best.
Obama probably learned this model of doing business from Chicago, where the dictum is treat the “players” with respect (and gifts) and tell the civilians to “suck it up and salute.” How voters thought a Messiah pure as driven snow would arise in the City of the Big Shoulders will always puzzle the thoughtful person. That’s the next conundrum Mika can tackle. If you grow up in a cathouse, it’s unlikely that you’ll learn Gregorian chants. If you grow up in Chicago Democratic politics, you ain’t going to be no Messiah.
This is the Chicago way taken to an international scale. Obama arguably has a mandate from the left wing of the US voters to do exactly that: bribe terrorists from The Man’s stash. Unfortunately the other voters, who were taken in by his high-flown promises to “reach out” to or “reconcile” with the Muslim world — all that “I’ll buy the world a Coke stuff” — didn’t quite get the drift. Eventually they’ll catch on.
I hope it’s clear now.
If this is what the left wants, they are welcome to it. And one hopes they reap the rich harvest they have sown, to the full extent of the whirlwind, though unfortunately everyone else is likely to be blown around.
One only wishes they’d be honest about it, as with the other high-flown terms they like to use: “a world without nuclear weapons,” “nuclear zero” and “no future combat systems.” Really, those restrictions apply to the US only, don’t they? Just so long as we keep things clear. Just so we know what we’re talking about. Hope you have the answers to those three questions now, Mika.
Have a nice day.
Recent items of interest by Belmont readers based on Amazon click-throughs.
Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
Queen Victoria and Her Prime Ministers
Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama’s Impeachment
The Lion and the Unicorn: Gladstone vs. Disraeli
Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality
Storm Over The South China Sea
Street Without Joy: The French Debacle In Indochina(Stackpole Military History Series)
Lone Survivor (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD with UltraViolet)
Puregear Lightning Car Charger for iPhone 5
How to Debate Leftists and Destroy Them: 11 Rules for Winning the Argument
Did you know that you can purchase some of these books and pamphlets by Richard Fernandez and share them with you friends? They will receive a link in their email and it will automatically give them access to a Kindle reader on their smartphone, computer or even as a web-readable document.
The War of the Words for $3.99, Understanding the crisis of the early 21st century in terms of information corruption in the financial, security and political spheres
Rebranding Christianity for $3.99, or why the truth shall make you free
The Three Conjectures at Amazon Kindle for $1.99, reflections on terrorism and the nuclear age
Storming the Castle at Amazon Kindle for $3.99, why government should get small
No Way In at Amazon Kindle $8.95, print $9.99. Fiction. A flight into peril, flashbacks to underground action.
Storm Over the South China Sea $0.99, how China is restarting history in the Pacific
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