Why Team Obama Was Blindsided by the Bergdahl Backlash

[flowers]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/379481/why-team-obama-was-blindsided-bergdahl-backlash-ralph-peters

Congratulations, Mr. President! And identical congrats to your sorcerer’s apprentice, National Security Adviser Susan Rice. By trying to sell him as an American hero, you’ve turned a deserter already despised by soldiers in the know into quite possibly the most-hated individual soldier in the history of our military.

I have never witnessed such outrage from our troops.

Exhibit A: Ms. Rice. In one of the most tone-deaf statements in White House history (we’re making a lot of history here), the national-security advisor, on a Sunday talk show, described Bergdahl as having served “with honor and distinction.” Those serving in uniform and those of us who served previously were already stirred up, but that jaw-dropper drove us into jihad mode.

But pity Ms. Rice. Like the president she serves, she’s a victim of her class. Nobody in the inner circle of Team Obama has served in uniform. It shows. That bit about serving with “honor and distinction” is the sort of perfunctory catch-phrase politicians briefly don as electoral armor. (“At this point in your speech, ma’am, devote one sentence to how much you honor the troops.”)
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I actually believe that Ms. Rice was kind of sincere, in her spectacularly oblivious way. In the best Manchurian Candidate manner, she said what she had been programmed to say by her political culture, then she was blindsided by the firestorm she ignited by scratching two flinty words together. At least she didn’t blame Bergdahl’s desertion on a video.

The president, too, appears stunned. He has so little understanding of (or interest in) the values and traditions of our troops that he and his advisers really believed that those in uniform would erupt into public joy at the news of Bergdahl’s release — as D.C. frat kids did when Osama bin Laden’s death was trumpeted.

Both President Obama and Ms. Rice seem to think that the crime of desertion in wartime is kind of like skipping class. They have no idea of how great a sin desertion in the face of the enemy is to those in our military. The only worse sin is to side actively with the enemy and kill your brothers in arms. This is not sleeping in on Monday morning and ducking Gender Studies 101.

But compassion, please! The president and all the president’s men and women are not alone. Our media elite — where it’s a rare bird who bothered to serve in uniform — instantly became experts on military justice. Of earnest mien and blithe assumption, one talking head after another announced that “we always try to rescue our troops, even deserters.”

Uh, no. “Save the deserter” is a recent battle cry of the politically indoctrinated brass. For much of our history, we did make some efforts to track down deserters in wartime. Then we shot or hanged them. Or, if we were in good spirits, we merely used a branding iron to burn a large D into their cheeks or foreheads. Even as we grew more enlightened, desertion brought serious time in a military prison. At hard labor.

This is a fundamental culture clash. Team Obama and its base cannot comprehend the values still cherished by those young Americans “so dumb” they joined the Army instead of going to prep school and then to Harvard. Values such as duty, honor, country, physical courage, and loyalty to your brothers and sisters in arms have no place in Obama World. (Military people don’t necessarily all like each other, but they know they can depend on each other in battle — the sacred trust Bergdahl violated.)

President Obama did this to himself (and to Bergdahl). This beautifully educated man, who never tires of letting us know how much smarter he is than the rest of us, never stopped to consider that our troops and their families might have been offended by their commander-in-chief staging a love-fest at the White House to celebrate trading five top terrorists for one deserter and featuring not the families of those soldiers (at least six of them) who died in the efforts to find and free Bergdahl, but, instead, giving a starring role on the international stage to Pa Taliban, parent of a deserter and a creature of dubious sympathies (that beard on pops ain’t a tribute to ZZ Top). How do you say “outrageous insult to our vets” in Pashto?

Nor, during the recent VA scandal, had the president troubled himself to host the families of survivors of those vets who died awaiting care. No, the warmest attention our president has ever paid to a “military family” was to Mr. and Mrs. Bergdahl.

(I will refrain from criticism of the bumptious attempts to cool the flames of this political conflagration by Secretary Hagel: I never pick on the weak.)

[flowers]

This makes sense to me that they might really be blindsided by the backlash. They don't have a clue what it means to serve.

[SlapLeather]

They weren't blindsided.

They have met with much resistance along the way.  This is an exercise to identify the rest.

Grand Total: 197 Officers

Year: 2013 (9, so far).

1. Marine Col. Daren Margolin – Quantico – Oct. 18, 2013. Was in charge of Quantico’s Security Battalion.
2. Marine Major General C.M.M. Gurganus – Oct. 12, 2013. Commander Regional Command Southwest and I Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) in Afghanistan.
3. AF Major Gen. Michael Carey – Oct. 8, 2013. 2-star commander of 20th Air Force. 3 wings of ICBMs. 450 nukes. Covered 3 AF bases across nation.
4. Navy Vice-Admiral Tim Guardina – Oct. 9, 2013. 3-star vice-commander all US nuclear forces (land/air/sea). Relieved of command. Demoted in rank to 2-stars.
5. Marine Major General Gregg A. Sturdevant – September 2013. Director of strategic planning and policy for U.S. Pacific Command and commander of the Aviation Wing At Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.
6. Marine Col. James Christmas – July 18, 2013. Commanded 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit. Also, commanded the new Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response Unit.
7. Army Brigadier General Bryan Roberts – May 2013. Commander, Ft. Jackson, SC.
8. Marine Gen. James Mattis – May 2013. Chief of CentCom.
9. Army Major General Ralph Baker – April 2013. Commander of Joint Task Force Horn of Africa at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, Africa

Year: 2012 (Overall total – 4 +24 = 28 Final total).

1. Marine General John R. Allen – Nov. 13, 2012. Commander, ISAF – International Security Assistance Force.
2. Army General David Petraeus – Nov. 9, 2012. Commander, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A). Director of CIA from September 2011 to November 2012.
3. Navy Rear Admiral Charles M. Gaouette – Oct. 27, 2102. Commander, USS John C. Stennis strike group. Relieved within a day or so of Benghazi.
4. Army General Carter F. Ham – Oct. 18, 2012. Commander, AFRICOM. Relieved during Benghazi from direct command of AFRICOM.

Naval Officers (all in 2012): Total – 24

1. Cmdr. Derick Armstrong, Commander, guided missile destroyer USS The Sullivans.
2. Cmdr. Martin Arriola, Commander, USS Porter.
3. Capt. Antonio Cardoso, Commander, of Training Support Center San Diego.
4. Capt. James CoBell, Commander, Oceana Naval Air Station’s Fleet Readiness Center Mid-Atlantic.
5. Cmdr. Joseph E. Darlak, Commander, USS Vandegrift.
6. Cmdr. Franklin Fernandez, Commander, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 24.
7. Cmdr. Ray Hartman, Commander, amphibious dock-landing ship Fort McHenry.
8. Cmdr. Jon Haydel, Commander, USS San Diego.
9. Cmdr. Diego Hernandez, Commander, ballistic-missile submarine USS Wyoming.
10. Cmdr. Lee Hoey, Commander, Navy Drug Screening Laboratory, San Diego.
11. Cmdr. Dennis Klein, Commander, submarine USS Columbia.
12. Capt. Marcia “Kim” Lyons, Commander, Naval Health Clinic New England.
13. Capt. Chuck Litchfield, Commander, USS Essex.
14. Capt. Robert Marin, Commander, USS Cowpens.
15. Capt. Sean McDonell, Commander, Seabee reserve unit Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 14.
16. Cmdr. Corrine Parker, Commander, Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 1.
17. Capt. Lisa Raimondo, Commander, Naval Health Clinic Patuxent River, Md.
18. Capt. Jeffrey Riedel, Program manager, Littoral Combat Ship program.
19. Cmdr. Sara Santoski, Commander, Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 15.
20. Cmdr. Sheryl Tannahill, Commander, Navy Operational Support Center Nashville.
21. Cmdr. Michael Ward, Commander, USS Pittsburgh.
22. Capt. Michael Wiegand, Commander, Southwest Regional Maintenance Center.
23. Capt. Ted Williams, Commander, Mount Whitney.
24. Cmdr. Jeffrey Wissel, Commander, of Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron 1.

Year: 2011 Total – 1 + 157 = 158 overall

Army Major Gen. Peter Fuller – May 2011. A top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

157 Air Force majors. Military advocates decry ‘illegal’ early terminations of 157 Air Force majors

Year: 2010 Total – 1 ( total)

1. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal – June 2010. Overall commander Afghanistan. Replaced by Gen. Petraeus.

1. Year: 2009 Total – 1 (total)
Army Gen. David D. McKiernan – 2009. First 4-star relieved since Truman relieved MacArthur. Commanded in Afghanistan.~