Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   6/10/2014

Bergdahl-for-Taliban swap and illegal, hidden agendas

The Tea Party Patriots will have newly-reelected District Attorney Greg Cohen at tonight’s meeting, 6 PM at the Westside Grange on Walnut, west of Baker. Greg’s appearances are refreshing because he tells it like it is, without the reticence and guarded language so common from bureaucrats and politicians. He will take questions; he is honest, frank and realistic.

Controversy over Bowe Bergdahl’s release swirled over President Obama’s rejection of responsible advice against the swap—from those in the executive, congressional and military branches—in pursuit of a stubborn, headlong agenda to release prisoners from Guantanamo (Gitmo) detention. That agenda was confirmed by no less than mainstream liberal reporter Chuck Todd, who said, “This has all been about emptying Gitmo.”

He quoted a State Dept. official, Marie Harf saying “We had to get something for these guys because we were eventually going to have to release them anyway.” Really? That is, of course, due solely to Obama’s executive order, arbitrarily issued for crass ideological reasons with zero respect for the danger to American citizens and our military posed by these hard-core terrorists. To be sure, detainees deemed far less of a threat were sent to their countries under President Bush, but over a third of those returned to take up arms or bombs against America and west-leaning governments. The 5 Taliban leaders Obama released can be counted on to engage in violent jihadist activities leaving American blood on Obama’s hands.

That Obama illegally ignored the 2013 law he signed is indisputable; his signing statement never refuted or negated the central requirement that Congress be given 30 days notice before releasing detainees. He never claimed such notification “would violate constitutional separation of powers principles.” The reason is that that law replaced a prior law that did, in fact, mandate Congress’s approval for such releases. (For more detail of Obama’s illegality, read “The Bergdahl Deal—As Unlawful As It Was Misguided” by Paul Mirengoff, Powerlineblog.com, June 4)

Obama didn’t want to tip his plans until he had his shameless “rally ‘round the flag” narrative (Todd’s words) complete with Bergdahl’s parents in the Rose Garden (bet he didn’t see the “Pashtun” language, pro-Muslim sentiments and call for releasing Gitmo prisoners coming—unless Obama shared the sentiments). Todd: “[T]he shiny metal object here has been Bergdahl when the entire motivation is … emptying Gitmo.”

Understand that I don’t judge Bergdahl’s actions—that falls to his military superiors. I don’t second-guess sending troops to search for him in that, regardless of circumstances surrounding his “desertion” (per fellow soldiers), they had no choice but to mount a rescue/recovery effort. However, given Obama’s ludicrous timetable for American military departure from Afghanistan, prisoners would typically be exchanged after hostilities cease. Imagine if Roosevelt or Truman sent top Nazis back to lead German troops during WWII, with a fig-leaf stay in the Netherlands. Simply unbelievable!

Is anyone surprised that “The media is turning on President Obama” (Michael Goodwin, New York Daily News)? “With multiple crises spiraling out of control … stories about the Obama presidency are taking on the air of postmortems. What went wrong, who’s to blame, what next? … The Times, other liberal news organizations and leading Democrats, in and out of office, must come to grips with their own failures, as well.

“Obama had a free hand to make a mess because they gave it to him. They cheered him on, supporting him with unprecedented gobs of money and near-unanimous votes. They said ‘aye’ to any cockamamie concept he came up with, echoed his demonization of critics and helped steamroll unpopular and unworkable ideas into reality.”

Kings have their courts; Obama has had his lackeys. Unfortunately, constitutional “checks and balances” require “the everyday behavior of Americans to make the system work. That system broke down under Obama, and the blame starts with the media. By giving the president the benefit of the doubt at every turn, by making excuses to explain away fiascos, by ignoring corruption, by buying the White House line that his critics were motivated by pure politics or racism, (the media) played the role of bartender to a man on a bender … The evidence is everywhere that his ideas are flawed, that his view of economics, diplomacy, the military, history, science and religion are warped by his own narcissism. He doesn’t even talk a good game anymore.”

A Democrat/Republican poll by Fox News, reported in the Washington Post shows that “Americans Agree: Obama is An Incompetent Who Has Made America Weaker.” He’s viewed as less competent, according to the results, than either the Clinton or the Bush administrations.

 Finally, another bipartisan poll, by Anderson Robbins (D) and Shaw & Company (R) found that 1) Republicans are viewed more favorably than Democrats, 2) If the truth about Obamacare had been known in 2009, the law never would have passed, and 3) 61 percent, including many Democrats, say President Obama lies either “most of the time” or “some of the time.” The Powerline title says it all: “It’s Official: Obama is a Liar” (4/18).