OPINION:
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Just when you thought President Obama could not possibly be more of an emasculated, impotent cuckold, he releases five top-level al Qaeda terrorists from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for a sketchy U.S. soldier who once said he was “ashamed to be American.”
The milquetoast president cut a deal with terrorists early Saturday — just before heading to the links for a five-hour round of golf. When he returned to the White House, he made a bombastic statement from the Rose Garden but never mentioned he’d set free a handful of hard-core killers.
His stated message: “The United States of America does not ever leave our men and women in uniform behind.”
His received message: “If you want to get your terrorists out of Gitmo, kidnap an American.”
Two of the released terrorists killed thousands of Shiites; another was an opium drug lord. Mohammad Fazl was “directly associated” with both Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammed Omar, supreme commander of the Taliban. All five are considered high-risk to the United States, and all will no doubt return to their war against America.
SEE ALSO: Bergdahl release raises questions over security, congressional authority
How craven and callow is the calculating Obama? He released the terrorists for political reasons — domestic, not international — daring Republicans to object. Already the administration and top Democrats are taking the line that the GOP will “say no” to anything — even getting an American “prisoner of war” out of Afghanistan.
Democrats were out in force Sunday plying their talking points from the White House. Adhering to the Obama playbook, Sen. Claire McCaskill blamed Republicans for playing politics:
“We saved an American life on foreign soil, the president and foreign policy gets criticized. Are you seeing a theme here? It’s politics. We saved this man’s life. The commander in chief acted within his constitutional authority,” the Missouri Democrat said on “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.”
“I guarantee you, Chris, that if in fact this man’s life was lost and it came out that we had this opportunity and our commander in chief passed on it, the Republicans would be going crazy right now.”
Mr. Obama also dispatched National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice, the official who repeatedly lied about the terrorist attacks in Benghazi that left four Americans dead, to a pair of talk shows to push the administration’s talking points.
“This is a joyous day,” she said to former Clinton press secretary George Stephanopoulos on ABC. She too said Sgt. Berdahl was a “prisoner of war,” not a “hostage” — parroting Ms. McCaskill and others. And she addressed charges from Republicans that the president had broken the law by not notifying lawmakers 30 days before transferring prisoners out of Guantanamo.
SEE ALSO: Hagel: U.S. didn’t negotiate with terrorists in securing Bergdahl’s release
“This was very closely held within the administration. We could not take any risk with losing the opportunity to bring him back safely. It is our view that it was appropriate and necessary to do this in order to bring Sgt. Bergdahl back safely,” she said.
That oughta’ shut the Republicans up. How dare they rain on this patriotic homecoming of a U.S. soldier — nay, an American hero — whose life was in jeopardy until Mr. Obama bravely negotiated a trade, even if it was illegal?
But already that narrative is suspect. Accounts of Sgt. Bergdahl’s capture vary. In a video he says he was captured when he fell behind on a patrol. Taliban leaders say he was snatched after getting drunk off base. Other sources say the young soldier was disgruntled with the war and, just a few months after arriving in Afghanistan, willingly walked away from his base.
What is known for sure is that Sgt. Bergdahl was no fan of his home country. “The horror that is America is disgusting,” he wrote to his parents, according to a 2012 Rolling Stone article. He had talked about walking to Pakistan if his deployment was “lame,” and said he was “ashamed to even be American.”
But for Ms. Rice and Democrats, that narrative doesn’t matter.
“That is really not the point,” Ms. Rice said. “The point is that he is back. He is going to be safely reunited with his family. He served the United States with honor and distinction. And we’ll have the opportunity eventually to learn what has transpired.”
Just like we did with Benghazi.
For Mr. Obama, it’s all about the politics. But perhaps he should heed Sgt. Bergdahl’s words to his parents in that now-infamous email:
“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.”
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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