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Obama: “I make no apologies” for Bergdahl prisoner exchange

Jun 5, 2014 12:10 pm By Robert Spencer

ObamafingerIf Bergdahl is tried for desertion and treason (extremely unlikely, I know) and executed, will Obama then apologize to the families of the military men who were killed trying to find him? If the five Taliban commanders he released from Gitmo to get Bergdahl are involved in the deaths of more Americans in Afghanistan, will he apologize then? Will the mainstream media hold him to account, or continue to cover for him?

“Obama: No apology for Bergdahl prisoner exchange,” by Julie Pace, Associated Press, June 5, 2014:

BRUSSELS (AP) — President Barack Obama said Thursday he “absolutely makes no apologies” for seeking the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in a prisoner swap with the Taliban, vigorously defending an exchange that has caused a furor in the United States and has dogged the president on his European trip this week.

When it comes to getting soldiers back from war, Obama said, “We don’t condition whether or not we make the effort to try to get them back.”

He also said Bergdahl’s health had been deteriorating and “We were deeply concerned about it.

“We saw an opportunity and we seized it. And I make no apologies for that,” Obama said during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Bergdahl was released following a deal between the U.S. and the Taliban that was brokered by Qatar. Five Taliban detainees held in Guantanamo were released as part of the exchange. Republicans and Democrats have objected to the swap.

Obama said his administration had discussed the possibility of such an exchange with members of Congress in the past. But he did not notify lawmakers in advance that he planned to release Guantanamo detainees. He is required to provide such notice 30 days ahead of a release.

“Because of the nature of the folks that we were dealing with and the fragile nature of these negotiations, we felt it was important go ahead and do what we did,” he said.

He also defended his announcement of the release, which he did Saturday at the White House with Bergdahl’s parents at his side.

“It was important for people to understand that this is not some abstraction, this is not a political football,” he said. “You have a couple of parents whose kid volunteered to fight in a distant land, who they hadn’t seen in five years and weren’t sure whether they’d ever see again.”

He said that as commander in chief of U.S. military forces, he has a responsibility for those soldiers.

“I make absolutely no apologies for making sure that we get back a young man to his parents and that the American people understand that this is somebody’s child and that we don’t condition whether or not we make the effort to try to get them back,” he said.

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Useful idiots Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. RSAmerica says

    Jun 5, 2014 at 12:46 pm

    Nice to see ChimpBoy giving America the finger…again. What’s next? Throwing feces?

    • AnneM says

      Jun 5, 2014 at 5:24 pm

      Two seperate pictures on two seperate threads on this website showing the famous “Bronx Salute.”

      • baconlover says

        Jun 6, 2014 at 10:36 am

        I noticed that too, see a more recent thread and there it is again. What a contemptuous a$$.

  2. Angemon says

    Jun 5, 2014 at 12:48 pm

    “If Bergdahl is tried for desertion and treason (extremely unlikely, I know) and executed, will Obama then apologize to the families of the military men who were killed trying to find him?”

    I’m sure that we’d have the media bombarding us with pieces on how wonderful the commander-in-chief is, and how he did all he could to bring a deserter to face justice.

  3. Paleologos says

    Jun 5, 2014 at 12:52 pm

    Memo to barry hussein:

    That’s right, muslim boy, always ready to help out a fellow muslim and his Dad …

    http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/06/sgt_bowe_bergdahls_father_tweets_controversial_message_at_pro-taliban_group.html

    “I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners. God will repay for the death of every Afghan child, ameen.”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKqFBpk_1Eo

    But the Marine stuck in Mexico … who cares? ,,, right?

    BECAUSE HE ISN’T A FELLOW MUSLIM!

    R/

    Paleologos

  4. mark says

    Jun 5, 2014 at 1:22 pm

    If Obama does not believe in the jihad cause, no one should be blamed for thinking so. It is more likely that he believes that doing favors for terrorists will work to reform them. If someone had written a novel immediately after 9/11 about a man like Obama being elected to the White House, it would have had to be bought in the fantasy section of the book store. The present administration is a reality that should be, at most, just an evil fantasy that arose from the overactive imagination of a Mary Shelly or a R. l. Stevenson.

  5. Walter Sieruk says

    Jun 5, 2014 at 1:37 pm

    Obama is such an arrogant guy that he will not admit tha he was wrong in what he did. Not only was he wrong but,actually,he was very wrong. Only only did he release five deadly and dangerous Islamic terrorist chiefs to scheme more evils and commit more murders but Obama also encouraged jihadists to kidnap more US Soldier and even American non-military people. Obamo ,by this has exposed that he is incompetence as President. Inother words ,by this, he has proven that he is very unfit for the Office of President of the United States. Obama should be impeached

  6. 11B40 says

    Jun 5, 2014 at 1:58 pm

    Greetings:

    For a while now, the “Leave No Man Behind” (LNMB) concept has been a bit of a burr under my cerebral saddle. It seems to have a great deal of resonance, especially with military and former military webizens.

    Recently, I re-read Mark Bowden’s “Black Hawk Down” about the “Battle of the Black Sea” in Mogadishu, Somalia in the early part of President Clinton’s first term and that reading brought forward in what’s left of my mind a concern about what’s involved in that concept and its implications for today’s soldiers.

    Admittedly, it has been a long time since my military service. That was back when the draft didn’t have anything to do with ventilation. So, I have no direct experience of today’s volunteer military. But, be that as it may, I am concerned that LNMB seems to be progressing from a mantra to something approaching a fetish and I worry about its impact on our troops.

    When I went off to see what kind of an infantryman I could be, dying wasn’t my largest fear. My father had survived his infantry stint in WW II and I fancied myself as good a man as he. And, as a twenty year old, my sense of mortality was in its earliest stage of development. My greatest fear, by far, was being crippled. Secondarily, it was failing in my duties. Subsequently, when I became a squad leader, which was somewhat after I was made a squad leader, I bumped up against the LNMB concept big time. And it’s the resonance of that emotional experience that has me concerned.

    Even at the mantra end of the spectrum, LNMB seems so terse as to be almost mindless. I have to wonder if there is some super-secret calculus that I failed to apprehend. I mean, are our troops all committed to dying lest one get left behind? While “Black Hawk Down” may be the exception rather than the rule, my take on it is that its “Lost Convoy” is an adequate example as to how very wrong military thinking can go when it is overly influenced by such
    thinking.

    (For those unfamiliar with “Black Hawk Down”, the “Lost Convoy” was supposed to remove the American soldiers from Mogadishu after their raid. When the first Black Hawk was shot down, the convoy was diverted to the crash site and was exposed to heavy enemy fire while trying to follow radio directions. It ended up returning to base without ever reaching the crash site but with very heavy casualties.)

    At the other end of the spectrum and in spite of all the technology, efforts, and bravery, American soldiers were tragically left behind at the second helicopter crash site.

    Thus, the crux of my concern, has LNMB become some kind of unit fetish as opposed to say, and this will sound trite, an organizational goal? Has it become a too easy answer to too difficult problems? Are we setting our soldiers up for failure or worse by allowing LNMB too much of their and their superiors mindshare. Hopefully, nobody wants to leave anyone behind but isn’t more complex thinking better than relying on slogans?

    I think that I understand the usefulness of LNMB as a tool. But sometimes people take an idea way too far. Our military routinely classifies casualties as killed, wounded, or missing, the proverbial KIAs, WIAs, and MIAs. No one of any military intelligence or experience would stand up and pronounce “Let no man be killed.” or “Let no man be wounded.” because those events are not under anything approaching adequate control. And believe me, I know that fear of abandonment does not usually contribute to mission accomplishment. But soldiers do get lost, confused, or even vaporized and investing more military assets in their recovery is not a risk-free endeavor. Subscription to a terse mantra is not the best of reasons.

  7. Champ says

    Jun 5, 2014 at 3:05 pm

    I make no apologies for stating that you are the WORST president we have ever had …and I’m being kind.

  8. pdxnag says

    Jun 5, 2014 at 7:19 pm

    The potential of the death penalty for treason here is a corollary to the death penalty for apostasy from Islam, from exclusive loyalty of Muslims to the Islamic Ummah.

  9. Jim Braid says

    Jun 6, 2014 at 7:19 am

    As a Brit I was happy to see Obama win the US Presidency, he seemed like a genuine, sincere and capable guy. I have totally changed my mind about him, he has proved himself a weak leader and a Muslim sympathiser and for that I cant forgive him. America is the strongest nation on earth but despite that it is on a slippery downhill slope. I like Americans so I see that as a great pity.

  10. rabrooks says

    Jun 7, 2014 at 2:13 am

    He just too arrogant to admit that “he” is wrong, and too politically ignorant to understand why…

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