The president distorts the meaning of duty, honor, country
WASHINGTON TIMES, December 16, 2015President Obama and his aides tried to cover Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in glory, even receiving his parents at the White House. But contradictions in his story of captivity in Afghanistan have overturned the narrative.
Sgt. Bergdahl now faces a general court martial and similarly, Mr. Obama’s exchange of terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for his return is weighed in the court of public opinion.
Attempting to trade America’s security for a public relations coup disgraces the nation, and most of all, the president himself.
The Army charged Sgt. Bergdahl with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, a serious indictment for which he could be sentenced to life in prison.
The 29-year-old soldier disappeared from his unit in Afghanistan in 2009.
He was captured by the Taliban and had been held in captivity for five years when the president traded him for five senior Taliban commanders imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. No date has been set for the court martial.
The Pentagon’s sober announcement is a jarring departure from Mr. Obama’s stagecraft in May 2014 when he appeared with the soldier’s parents in the White House Rose Garden to celebrate the news that Sgt. Bergdahl had been freed.
The president’s national security apologist, Susan Rice, said he had served “the United States with honor and distinction.”
Then his fellow soldiers came forward to tell another story, that his disappearance had all the signs of desertion, and that a half-dozen American soldiers were killed searching for him. Some honor. Some distinction.
The Bergdahl case has become a symbol of Mr. Obama’s determination to redeem his 2008 campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, national security be damned.
The five Taliban evildoers are only the most notorious of the hundreds of foreign fighters the president has released over the years.
Mr. Obama rationalizes that the prison is a recruiting tool for terrorists. More accurately, America’s very existence is a recruiting tool for terrorists, and the president’s job is to defend the nation.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/dec/16/editorial-obamas-bowe-bergdahl-blunder/
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