The Briefing Room
General Category => National/Breaking News => Topic started by: mystery-ak on June 08, 2014, 01:45:41 pm
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http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2014/06/kerry-offensive-to-leave-american-behind-189957.html (http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2014/06/kerry-offensive-to-leave-american-behind-189957.html)
By JEREMY HERB |
6/8/14 9:13 AM EDT
Secretary of State John Kerry is defending President Barack Obama's prisoner swap, saying it would be “offensive and incomprehensible” to consciously leave behind an U.S. soldier.
In an interview aired Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union," Kerry said he backed the Obama administration’s decision to swap five Taliban commanders for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a deal that’s come under harsh criticism over accusations that Bergdahl had deserted his post.
“It would have been offensive and incomprehensible to consciously leave an American behind, no matter what,” Kerry said.
But Kerry declined to go into detail about the claims that Bergdahl went AWOL.
“There’s plenty of time or people to sort through what happened, what didn’t happen,” he said.
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Kerry: ‘Baloney’ U.S. troops now more at risk
By JEREMY HERB |
6/8/14 9:27 AM EDT
Secretary of State John Kerry says it's “baloney” to argue that U.S. troops will be more at risk in Afghanistan after the prisoner swap of five Taliban commanders for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
“Our combat role in Afghanistan is over,” Kerry said in an interview aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” when asked if U.S. troops were being put at increased risk.
"We’re going to have very few people in that kind of position,” he said. “On occasion, but I honestly, I just think that’s a lot of baloney because, to whatever degree it may be true, they will wind up putting themselves at the mercy of those people who are very effective who are there, who will deal with those guys.”
Republicans have accused the Obama administration of putting U.S. soldiers more at risk of getting killed or captured by swapping the five Taliban commanders, but Kerry said the new threats coming from the Taliban were little more than propaganda.
“I am not telling you that they don’t have some ability at some point to go back and get involved," he said, "but they also have an ability to get killed if they do that.”
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He didn't seem to care when he was tossing his medals over the White House gates after his service in Vietnam.
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What about the marine in Mexico?