On this, the 70th anniversary of D-Day, I am perplexed by the right-wing outrage over the release of POW Bowe Bergdahl. Perhaps the best characterization about the faux Bowe scandal is Jim Wright's piece at "Stonekettle Station", the gist of which can be summed up with the following excerpt:
There is no crime so great that leaving him in the hands of our enemies is the indicated punishment.
He was, he is, one of ours. Period.
For better or for worse, he’s one of ours, and we don’t leave our people behind – not even the deserters.
We Americans sent him into the meat grinder and it is our sacred obligation to get him home, no matter what.
Even if he was dead.
To me, the most disgraceful conduct in this ugly incident is that of John McCain, a former POW- he has infamously flip-flopped on the Bergdahl release.
Besides the stated-principle of bringing our soldiers home, negotiating the release of Sgt Bergdahl is useful from an intelligence-gathering perspective. Having been in the "enemy's" custody for years must have given Bergdahl an insight into how they tick. The conduct of the "War on Terror" has been characterized by oversimplifications and a clumsy application of power. If we continue the fight, we have to fight smarter, we have to pursue worthwhile security goals rather than slavishly devote ourselves to an unrealistic, ill-defined goal of "victory".
The cable networks will probably be playing Saving Private Ryan on a continuous loop today... would today's conservatives consider FDR to be the villain of the movie? Uhhh... no need to answer that! The way they are talking about the Bergdahl release, it seems the right-wingers would change the motto on the POW/MIA flag from "You Are Not Forgotten" to "Let Them Rot, if That Serves our Political Purpose".
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