Culture Clash: Obama & Company Only Have Themselves To Blame For This Clusterfuck

Colonel Ralph Peters via National Review:

Congratulations, Mr. President! And identical congrats to your sorcerer’s apprentice, National Security Adviser Susan Rice. By trying to sell him as an American hero, you’ve turned a deserter already despised by soldiers in the know into quite possibly the most-hated individual soldier in the history of our military. 

I have never witnessed such outrage from our troops. 

Exhibit A: Ms. Rice. In one of the most tone-deaf statements in White House history (we’re making a lot of history here), the national-security advisor, on a Sunday talk show, described Bergdahl as having served “with honor and distinction.” Those serving in uniform and those of us who served previously were already stirred up, but that jaw-dropper drove us into jihad mode.

But pity Ms. Rice. Like the president she serves, she’s a victim of her class. Nobody in the inner circle of Team Obama has served in uniform. It shows. That bit about serving with “honor and distinction” is the sort of perfunctory catch-phrase politicians briefly don as electoral armor. (“At this point in your speech, ma’am, devote one sentence to how much you honor the troops.”) 

Both President Obama and Ms. Rice (and The Left, in general) seem to think that the crime of desertion in wartime is kind of like skipping class. They have no idea of how great a sin desertion in the face of the enemy is to those in our military. The only worse sin is to side actively with the enemy and kill your brothers in arms. This is not sleeping in on Monday morning and ducking Gender Studies 101. 

But compassion, please! The president and all the president’s men and women are not alone. Our media elite — where it’s a rare bird who bothered to serve in uniform — instantly became experts on military justice. Of earnest mien and blithe assumption, one talking head after another announced that “we always try to rescue our troops, even deserters.” 

Uh, no. “Save the deserter” is a recent battle cry of the politically indoctrinated brass. For much of our history, we did make some efforts to track down deserters in wartime. Then we shot or hanged them. Or, if we were in good spirits, we merely used a branding iron to burn a large D into their cheeks or foreheads. Even as we grew more enlightened, desertion brought serious time in a military prison. At hard labor.

This is a fundamental culture clash. Team Obama and its base cannot comprehend the values still cherished by those young Americans “so dumb” they joined the Army instead of going to prep school and then to Harvard. Values such as duty, honor, country, physical courage, and loyalty to your brothers and sisters in arms have no place in Obama World. (Military people don’t necessarily all like each other, but they know they can depend on each other in battle — the sacred trust Bergdahl violated.)

President Obama did this to himself (and to Bergdahl). This beautifully educated man, who never tires of letting us know how much smarter he is than the rest of us, never stopped to consider that our troops and their families might have been offended by their commander-in-chief staging a love-fest at the White House to celebrate trading five top terrorists for one deserter and featuring not the families of those soldiers (at least six of them) who died in the efforts to find and free Bergdahl, but, instead, giving a starring role on the international stage to Pa Taliban, parent of a deserter and a creature of dubious sympathies (that beard on pops ain’t a tribute to ZZ Top). How do you say “outrageous insult to our vets” in Pashto?

Nor, during the recent VA scandal, had the president troubled himself to host the families of survivors of those vets who died awaiting care. No, the warmest attention our president has ever paid to a “military family” was to Mr. and Mrs. Bergdahl.

'For arguments sake, let’s say there was a feeling that he wasn’t worth every effort. Would you argue he isn’t worth any effort?'

- verbaluce on June 3, 2014 at 3:33 PM

Maybe, after the war.  

Maybe, if we didn’t put true heroes’ lives on the line.

Maybe, if we didn’t release 5 top-level, hardened Jihadists, two of whom are wanted by The Hague to face war crimes.

Maybe, if we didn’t negotiate with terrorists.

Maybe, if Bergdahl didn’t voluntary and incontrovertibly abandon his post. 

Maybe, if he didn’t ship all of his personal belongings home before his ‘instability’ caught up with him. 

Maybe, if he didn’t leave a note indicating that he was deserting and wanted to renounce his citizenship and take up with the Taliban. 

Maybe, if he didn’t call his superiors at the base the next day and tell them that he was not returning. 

Maybe, if he had been proud to be an American. 

Maybe, efforts would have been worth it, but only then perhaps, possibly. 

He CHOSE to leave. He CHOSE to endanger himself. He CHOSE to put the lives of his brothers and sisters in arms at risk.

'I think we can – just not clear on the ‘top commanders’ bit.  Also, can we agree that these guys were not turned back over to the Taliban?'

- verbaluce on June 3, 2014 at 3:29 PM

They will remain in Qatar for one year. They have freedom of movement and can engage in any activities, including propagandising for the Taliban, while they are there. The ONLY thing that the Qataris have agreed to do, according to them, is to prevent the 5 from leaving the country for no more than a year. After that, again per the Qataris, they are free to leave and go wherever they so choose, including returning to Afghanistan and their former lives.

They are free to meet with whomever they choose.

They are free to raise money for the Taliban.

They are free to engage in propaganda.

They are free to seek new recruits.

They are free to train said recruits.

They are free to make bombs in Qatar, which can be delivered elsewhere.

They are free to act as virtual commanders.

They are free to teach radical, virulent Islam.

They are free for a year from any fear of being droned.

They are free, in reality, to pick up where they left off…except for the actual firing of weapons and commanding, in person, people on the battlefield.

They just can’t leave the country of Qatar...for a year (maybe)

It’s really a shame that they will not have access to telephones, sat phones, television, radio, and the internet. Imagine how  much damage they could do!?!?!

Oh wait…