The Briefing Room
General Category => National/Breaking News => Topic started by: mystery-ak on June 04, 2014, 04:10:48 pm
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http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/208213-reid-charges-gop-with-hypocrisy-on-bergdahl (http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/208213-reid-charges-gop-with-hypocrisy-on-bergdahl)
June 04, 2014, 10:32 am
Reid: GOP hypocrites on Bergdahl
By Alexander Bolton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj55-su2Lds (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj55-su2Lds)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) offered a full-throated defense Wednesday of the Obama administration and its release of senior Taliban commanders to secure the freedom of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
He accused Republicans of playing political games and questioned what he portrayed as their abrupt change of stance on the importance of bringing Bergdahl home after five years of captivity in Afghanistan.
Reid said that “just a couple of weeks ago,” Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) released a statement calling on the Department of Defense to “Do all it can to find Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and bring him home.”
He cited a resolution sponsored by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) expressing a sense of the Senate that “no member of the armed forces who was missing in action should be left behind.”
He also pointed to Sen. James Inhofe’s (Okla.) statement that the United States “must make every effort to bring this captured soldier home to his family.”
Inhofe is the senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee.
Days after Ayotte called on the Department of Defense in an op-ed to “redouble its efforts to find Sgt. Bergdahl,” she criticized the deal that secured his freedom.
"The administration’s decision to release these five terrorist detainees endangers U.S. national security interests,” she said.
Inhofe blasted the prisoner exchange that freed Bergdahl.
“You can't negotiate with a terrorists, and these five guys, just by their titles ... they are the five arguably the most dangerous of the 149 left in Gitmo,” Inhofe said during a Fox News interview of the five Taliban commanders released.
“It wouldn't make any difference who Bergdahl was. You don't swap out and turn back to the fight people who have killed Americans, people who are the brain power of Taliban,” he added.
Reid slammed his Republican colleagues and said Obama did the right thing.
“President Obama as commander in chief acted honorably in helping an American soldier return home,” Reid said.
“Unfortunately, though, Mr. President, opponents of President Obama have seized upon the release of an American prisoner of war — that’s what he was — using a moment of celebration for our nation as a chance to play political games,” he said, addressing his comment to the Senate’s presiding chairman.
“Some of these senators are now denouncing the very same efforts that secured Sgt. Bergdahl’s release. They’re worried his release could be seen as a victory for President Obama,” he added.
Republicans have blasted the prisoner exchange as setting a dangerous precedent of “negotiating with terrorists” and have raised questions about whether Bergdahl deserted his post before being captured by the Taliban.
Reid said members of Congress are in no position to judge Bergdahl’s actions from five years ago.
“There are questions regarding Sgt. Bergdahl’s disappearance and whether or not military code was violated. These are issues that will be resolved by the United States Army, not Monday-morning quarterbacks on Capitol Hill,” he said.
Reid argued that even if Bergdahl went absent without leave, it is far better that he be disciplined by U.S. military authorities than left to the whims of his Taliban captors.
“Would any American honestly prefer that a U.S. soldier remain in captivity until all the questions have been answered? Of course not,” he said.
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Just..... STFU!!
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Keep propping up this deserter, Dems.
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That's the problem with suppressing dissent.
You start believing that there is very little of it when in reality it is building to explosive levels...
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He accused Republicans of playing political games and questioned what he portrayed as their abrupt change of stance on the importance of bringing Bergdahl home after five years of captivity in Afghanistan.
They "changed their stance" when they learned Bergdahl was a traitor. Just like you, Harry, and your boy in the Oval Office.
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I'm part of a "mixed" forum, and here is the level of desperation and panic the far left kooks on that board are in right now. I had to share this, because it's just so ridiculous. This woman is mad that Bergdahl is being questioned, while in the same post trashing those soldiers speaking out against him as "Swiftboaters" who are being aided by John Bolton and "traitors" from Fox. :silly:
I edited the numerous swear words found in the original post.
Originally Posted by crandc View Post
This is one of the most f***ed up things I've ever seen. When the POWs were released from Vietnam, those of us who protested the war were glad the war was over & they were home, but did not like the flag-waving hoopla, believing, accurately, that it was designed to undercut antiwar sentiment. But NO ONE in the peace movement said leave them where they are. Now all these super duper booper war lovers (bomb Iran! Invade Syria! Invade Libya!) who never served are saying that Sgt. Bergdahl should have been left to rot. Four months ago Sen. McCain said on CNN he'd be willing to negotiate to trade Taliban for Bergdahl, how he says the opposite. Three weeks ago Pajamas Media, ultra conservative web site, was demanding readers contact Pres. Obama and tell him to do whatever it took to get Bergdahl back, now they have deleted that page. Two days ago Cong. Terry of Idaho called Bergdahl an American hero and another Republican candidate said thoughts and prayers with him & his family. Now the hero and the prayers are deleted. Because they must all march in lockstep.
The military has always had the policy of not leaving members behind.
So tell me, you Olympian moralists, who decides if an American POW is "worthy" of release? Obviously not the Commander in Chief, at least if he/she is not your party. Or the Pentagon, or the military leadership. Who? Sarah Palin? Donald Trump? Bill O'Reilly?
How far do you carry this? Should ER doctors evaluate if a bleeding patient is moral enough for treatment? Should emergency crews leave behind people in natural disasters who were not moral enough? Should rescue leave hikers and skiers who did not follow rules to die? Should highway patrol not respond to accidents if the driver was at fault?
Jesus f***ing Christ on a f***ing cross! Court martial the guy if after investigation he's found to have committed infractions. Send him to the bleep brig. How the bleep do you bleep uber Americans decide to leave an American solider to rot in a Taliban prison? Just who is spitting at returning soldiers?
This is a f***ing Swift Boat PR campaign organized by an aide to John Bolton, abetted by traitors on Fox "news".
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I'm part of a "mixed" forum, and here is the level of desperation and panic the far left kooks on that board are in right now.
Yeah, that's part of the WH's problem. They listen to people like crandc and expected to be heroes on this deal.
They have no idea that they are the ones who are really 'marching in lockstep'...
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Yeah, that's part of the WH's problem. They listen to people like crandc and expected to be heroes on this deal.
They have no idea that they are the ones who are really 'marching in lockstep'...
I especially like how she seems to think that a "court martial" is punishment if he is found to have "committed infractions," and not a military trial to determine if he committed infractions. It's comical.
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To Harry Reid, EVERYTHING is the GOP's fault.
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To Harry Reid, EVERYTHING is the GOP's fault.
...or the Koch brothers' fault...
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...or the Koch brothers' fault...
Yep and that is why the girl at he Grocery store the other week told me she was no longer drinking Coke. :thud: :thud:
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I especially like how she seems to think that a "court martial" is punishment if he is found to have "committed infractions," and not a military trial to determine if he committed infractions. It's comical.
Comical in an insane way.
That person hasn't got one functioning brain cell.
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Comical in an insane way.
That person hasn't got one functioning brain cell.
She's a hardcore lesbian who views everything through a victim's prism. I've been posting in the same community with her for 15 years, and don't think I've ever once agreed with her.
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Just..... STFU!!
:thumbsup: