Posted on 06/10/2014 10:06:35 AM PDT by Kaslin
Defenders of President Obama's release of five Taliban terrorists from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl cite as justification Israel's history of swapping hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for one or two Israel soldiers.
As strong an ally and example of democracy as Israel is, especially in a region sorely lacking in either, Israel is not the United States. Israel has its own interests and purpose for its actions. The world looks to the United States for leadership and in this president and his administration it has found little.
There are important distinctions between Israeli prisoner exchanges and the Bergdahl deal. First, according to many who served with him, Sgt. Bergdahl deliberately walked away from his post. The Israeli soldiers were captured while doing their jobs.
Second, because of the proximity to Gaza and the West Bank, Israel presumably is better able to monitor terrorist movements while we have sent the Gitmo five to Qatar, a nation that reportedly funds Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaida affiliates. Next year the released prisoners are likely to return to Afghanistan.
As former Israeli diplomat Yoram Ettinger has written in the publication Israel Hayom: "The Head of Israel's Security Services, Yoram Cohen, stated that 60 percent of released Palestinian terrorists revert to operational terrorism. Most of the 1,150 terrorists, released via the May 21, 1985 'Jibril Exchange’ played a key role during the First Intifada (wave of terrorism). Over 50 percent of the Palestinian terrorists, who were released between the 1993 Oslo Accord and the eruption of the Second Intifada, participated in that wave of Palestinian terrorism."
Ettinger also notes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was against prisoner exchanges before he was for them: "In his 1995 Hebrew edition, 'A Place Under the Sun,' Netanyahu wrote, 'the release of terrorists is a mistake the Israeli government repeats time and time again. ... How can Israel preach to the U.S. and the West ... when Israel surrendered herself so shamefully? I was convinced that the release of a thousand terrorists would necessarily lead to a terrible escalation of violence, because these terrorists will be accepted as heroes, as an example to be imitated by young Palestinians. ... It is clear now that the release of a thousand terrorists was one of the factors that provided a pool of fermenting violence and its leaders ignited the fire of the Intifada.'"
This is the thinking President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu should be exhibiting now. We should not have rescued Bowe Bergdahl. His freedom came at too high a price. War is hard and difficult choices must be made. The exchange has now given the Taliban a victory that the U.S. can ill afford to relinquish. One man's freedom, quite frankly, has resulted in America's continued bondage to Taliban extremism.
Clearly the president used Bergdahl as a convenience. He has long wanted to close Gitmo. It is one of his unfulfilled 2008 campaign promises. The president has declared the Afghanistan war will be over when American forces leave in 2016. But it isn't over for the Taliban, who will likely return to their oppressive ways when we are gone, diminishing the sacrifices made by the American military and squandering the investment of American taxpayers. Who doubts al-Qaida will also return to perhaps plot another 9-11 from the same territory? We won't be there to stop them.
Whose hands will have blood on them if these five released Taliban members kill more Americans? Even the president has said it is "likely" they will rejoin their war. The only thing these people understand is power and resolve, but this administration has displayed weakness and vacillation.
During the just concluded observance of the 70th anniversary of D-Day, a number of commentators noted how different Europe would be had America and its allies not destroyed Nazi Germany and then stood against Soviet communism.
How different will America be if we allow Islamic jihadists to have their way? While we practice tolerance, pluralism, diversity and freedom of religion, they practice the opposite. For them the war will not be over until they win it. For America, packing up and going home isn't victory, it's just quitting.
I’m guessing mandatory military service engenders a very different attitude toward the treatment of the troops.
I wept most of the day on Memorial Day and again on 6 June. These coreless bastards have only demonstrated yet again that post-WWII America shopuld never again:
1. Fail to guarantee that the sacrifice of its finest and most courageous will not be in vain, that those who have given all they have or ever be will not be buried just to settle for less than total victory on the battlefield—not a “truce” or a negotiated “withdrawal”, but unconditional surrender and we alone write the terms or we start slaughtering them on an industrial scale until they agree.
2. Make the cost prohibitively high for any enemy to attack the US
I have earned the GD right to criticize these bastards and to state that I hate them all for squandering these precious warriors. From Korea on we have fed our people into meat grinders, while our so-called “leaders” dither over how to “disengage”.
I hate them all, rats and rinos alike. Where were they when the coffins and body bags came home, when people returned maimed, blighted and crippled for life mentally and physically?
I challenge anyone to come up with one thing accomplished by this “limited objective” sacrifice of our finest young men and women in the last 70 years of US non-leadership.
How has that been demonstrated in America?
Who says Israel was smart in making that exchange?
Precisely.
Israel has a history of making foolish prisoner exchanges (often at the behest of the US).
They swapped 1000 terrorists for 1 soldier held by Hamas, hundreds of terrorists for the dead remains of 2 soldiers held by Hezbollah, and just recently released 78 murderers for nothing except to placate Obama and his delusional peace process.
Now Obama is following that example with the Taliban.
I agree with you 100% and I feel your rage right through to my screen - I would take it even further back, now that we have the benefit of knowing more about the circumstances surrounding the slaughter of all those young men in WW1 and for WHAT? We should not be encouraging our sons or daughters to join any of the branches of service — the mission is no longer about defending America’s interests (hasn’t been for a long time). Just let them try to reinstate the Draft. WW2 was the last declared war and the only one we actually made the effort to win. That cannot be said from Korea forward to this day. That has been intentional - Why?
You just asked the trillion dollar question! Under Wilson—a true progressive, we allowed an armistice called the Versaille Treaty. WWI and WWII were really just a single war with a 20 year truce for the opposing factions to bring along a new generation of arms and men to bear them.
I may go a little long here, please be patient.
After WWII we gestated the boomer generation. I am one (1954).
Israel was approved by a vote at the newly instituted UN in November of 1947. In May I believe of 1948, all hell break out as the surrounding nations sought to destroy the fledgling state.
Well the muslims lost.
Now, if you are interested, look at the birthdates for the rock and roll potentates of the sixties and seventies.
Many, most, but not all, are 1947, 1948.
Does it mean anything? Does it signify anything?
I do not know.
But post WWII the US never won a war again. And a generation that would forever debase the values of pre-WWII America was spawned.
I know. I was one of them. A long-haired (albeit still conservative strangely enough) acid dropping, pot smoking, electric guitar playing hippy.
The West in general and America in particular went all the way around the bend and dropped most of its values as if they were a bad habit.
Why don’t we win wars? We have lost the moral compass to exert the will to win wars. We want to contain, to affect, to “make sure” of some bullshit international sentiment that really does not affect us.
We don’t win wars because our “leaders” do not believe we have the “right” to win a war and dictate the total surrender of the enemy and impose our will. We don’t believe in America, our traditions, our culture and most importantly, we don’t believe in our constitution.
That is my theory.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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A significant number of Israelis don't like the exchanges. Especially the recent American sponsored exchange which exchanged prisoner for zero. Or Zero.
there is a lot there, but all good stuff, anti-Mahdi - let me think on it for awhile because there is more I want to add to your analysis to see what you think.
Please do Sioux-san. I enjoy the conversations. I think there are a lot of people here who have unique insights and very interesting notions about very many things.
I would like to hear yours very much.
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