The Veritas factor – we decide

On his show Monday night, Bill O’Reilly and Charles Krauthammer discussed the Bowe Bergdahl matter.

In neither gentleman’s position could we fully agree.

Krauthammer has acknowledged all along that he would have made the same deal Obama did. That is, trading 5 high level terrorist operatives held at Gitmo for Pvt/Sgt Bergdahl. Charles bases his position on the US military’s “commitment” to leave no soldier behind.

O’Reilly takes an opposite position that the price to return Bergdahl, widely known to have voluntarily deserted his post, was too high.

The two are at odds on another aspect of this case.

O’Reilly takes the position, in essence, that Bergdahl, if found guilty of the charges against him, should not be sentenced to serve time in prison. Basically, “he’s suffered enough”, having been held in brutal captivity for five years by the Taliban.

Krauthammer believes it is a matter of justice being served. If Bergdahl is, indeed, convicted of desertion and other charges, he should be held accountable for the full legal consequences of his actions. Because of him, military resources were diverted from their primary mission to hunt for him and some American military personnel lost their lives in doing so.

We find these two gentlemen’s positions on this matter interesting and respect the sentiments behind them.

However, our position is somewhat different and we believe there is an even larger issue involved, in addition to Mr. Bergdahl’s actions and fate.

And that is, President Obama’s actions in this matter and the grave consequences the nation and the world is already starting to experience and which will likely have devastating effect in the not-too-distant future.

First, we respectfully disagree with Mr. Krauthammer’s position that, even at the cost of returning 5 top terrorists, in all likelihood, to the battlefield, it was “the right thing to do”.

We think there’s a lot wrong with this deal. Taking Charles’ position, what if the Taliban had demanded Bergdahl’s release in exchange for TEN Taliban “detainees”? I think if they had realized what an unbelievably inept negotiator our president seems to be, they would have. Possibly, knowing Mr. Obama as some of us see him, the Taliban might have demanded that ALL Gitmo detainees be released, rather than leave one American behind! Obama has given us no reason to think he would not have acceded to such a demand.

In other words, if one accepts Mr. Krauthammer’s position, is there any price too great to pay to get the hapless Pvt/Sgt Bergdahl back?

We believe that, indeed, Iran and the world watched this and came to the same conclusion as we. Barack Obama is not a “negotiator”. He is an accomplished “capitulator” when it is “only” America’s honor and security, standing in the world, and obstacle to the ambitions of our enemies!

As to Mr. O’Reilly’s position that Bergdahl has suffered enough, we agree with Krauthammer that justice needs to be served.

But a final note on that. While “optics ” were important to Obama at the time of the trade, wanting to clear out Gitmo of even the worst of the worst, optics mean nothing anymore.  Nor does the best interests of America.

We expect that, before he completes his second term, Obama will deliver one more of many, “pokes” in the eye of the American people. Regardless of the outcome of Bergdahl’s court martial, this Commander-in-Chief will grant him a full pardon or commute all or part of any substantial sentence if there is one.

DLH

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