The real motivation behind the Bergdahl swap

We’ve had some time to reflect on the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner exchange, and I’m of the opinion that we’ve been focusing on the wrong thing. Since his release, the news media have delved into the circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture. There’s little doubt now that he sneaked off the army post and into enemy hands. The big question remaining is was it intentional? We may never know.

What’s puzzling about the Bergdahl affair is he was held captive, supposedly, for five years yet very few Americans had ever heard of him. This leads me to believe that the army knew all along he was a deserter. That’s why there was no national movement to bring him home.

I remember the POW bracelets of the post-Vietnam war era. The names of POWs left behind were engraved on nickel-plated bracelets with the soldier’s name, rank, and date of capture. We knew the names of these men. There were many of them.

Bowe Bergdahl was the only so-called POW left from the war in Afghanistan yet precious few of us knew of him. I believe that was on purpose. My theory is the army didn’t want to make him a hero, because he wasn’t one. In fact, sources say that Hillary Clinton, when she was secretary of state, had no intention of working on behalf of his freedom.

Why, then, all of sudden, was he exchanged for five high-value Taliban terrorists? That’s what I mean by our being focused on the wrong thing. It was never about Bowe Bergdahl coming home. It was about the Taliban prisoners getting out.

That may come as a shock, but remember President Obama’s campaign pledge when he was a candidate in 2008. He vowed to close Gitmo. Once he assumed the presidency, he found it was much more difficult than he had imagined. Congress wasn’t going along with it. Neither were many in his own party.

What does Barack Obama do when he hits a roadblock? He finds a way to go around it, even if it means trampling the Constitution and breaking the law to do it. He hit a wall on amnesty. Now we have thousands of illegals streaming across our border and nothing is being done about it. His cap-and-trade scheme for carbon dioxide emissions was stopped in the senate. Now his EPA is doing essentially the same thing without approval from congress. He’s wanted to ban guns but found little support in congress. Now he’s using the FDIC to label gun shops as “high risk” and banks are severing their relationship with them. If you can’t ban guns by law, the next best thing is to make it impossible for anyone to buy them.

The New York Post recently reported that Gitmo terrorists were being released for all sorts of crazy reasons. One because he had taken up yoga. Another because he wanted to start a milk and honey farm. Yet another because he had a positive attitude. The exact number of prisoners that have been held at Gitmo is a mystery. Best guesses by the news media put the number at around 775. Many of those have been released. Counting the release of the five Taliban terrorists, there are about 145 prisoners left. Some 70 are scheduled for release soon. About 30 percent have rejoined the jihad against America.

Very soon there will only be 80 prisoners left, and Obama is determined to release the rest before his term expires. He may not close Gitmo, but once he’s done there will be no one left to guard.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.

Bergdahl: Hero or Traitor?

It is impossible for me, as a father, to watch the news coverage of the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and not be elated for his family. It is impossible for me, as an American, to watch Bergdahl’s release and not be thrilled for America. However, I join many other Americans in my concern over the precedent this has set, and how it may affect many more American soldiers down the road.

There are two legitimate ways to look at this release. One is the way the Obama administration sees it. This was a prisoner of war exchange, plain and simple. Prisoner of

war exchanges are as old as war itself. Their goal was to gain the release of the last prisoner of war from Afghanistan.

The detractors argue that we just released five of the most dangerous Taliban in the world and are relying on Qatar, a country with a history of harboring terrorists, to make sure these five don’t re-enter the war against us. Quite frankly, it’s not at all likely that Qatar will honor its end of the bargain.

Remember, Qatar is the country that hid Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind 9/11, from American authorities when they had demanded his arrest prior to the September 11 attacks. It can be argued that had Qatar cooperated with us and arrested KSM, the 9/11 attacks would never have happened.

Now, we’re going to trust them to make sure five Taliban terrorists don’t return to action?

At a time when America is already perceived to be weak around the world, it now appears that we do, in fact, negotiate with terrorists, counter to our adamant claims to the contrary. A conventional POW exchange can only be claimed if one can argue that the war in Afghanistan has been a conventional war. That’s a tough case to make.

But even if this can be argued as a legitimate prisoner exchange, it seems the question of value has to come into play. Again, as a father, there’s nothing more valuable than your own child. When it comes to war, however, such emotions have to be set aside. What did we get and what did they get?

We got an American soldier who some claimed actually deserted. The circumstances surrounding Sgt. Bergdahl’s capture still remain murky. There’s no doubt he simply walked away from an American base in Afghanistan after asking a superior if he should take his weapon with him if he left. He was told he should not. He wrote an e-mail to his parents three days before his disappearance telling them he was “ashamed to be an American.”

He also told fellow soldiers of his plan to just walk away into the mountains of Afghanistan. A senior U.S. official at the time Leon Panetta was defense secretary and Hillary Clinton was secretary of state said neither cared anything about getting Bergdahl back.

Will anyone be bold enough to pierce the veneer of a returning POW to a hero’s welcome to get to the real story? Unless Bergdahl himself is forthcoming, we may never know the full story. If he was captured by the Taliban then, at best, we’ve traded a low-level soldier for five high-priority terrorists. Worse, if he deserted, then we’ve exchanged five valuable terrorists for a traitor. Neither scenario seems worth it in the long run.

Whatever the case, the deal has already been done, and also then, perhaps, the damage. We may have secured the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, but at what cost to future soldiers and our credibility?

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.

Kenyan terrorists look a lot like Syrian rebels

By now you’ve heard about the Kenyan mall massacre where innocent people were asked by the terrorists to tell them the name of Muhammad’s mother.  Those who could not were executed on the spot, including children as young as five years old.  These are the types of animals we’re at war with.  This is the unspeakable horror of daring not to conform to their radical vision of Islam.  The story, of course, gained international attention.

But what about the terrorists in Syria who were going house-to-house in Christian villages and slaughtering anyone who did not profess a belief in Islam?  Where was the outrage from the United States?  Where was the condemnation from our president?  There was none.  Why?  Because this president, through the CIA, is sending guns to these animals.  You see, these terrorists who have been indiscriminately killing innocent people all across Syria are the Syrian rebels.  These are the same Syrian rebels Obama wants to help and is helping.  These are the same barbaric bastards who Sen. John McCain sees as moderates.

I fear for our country.  I fear for our future.  We have so lost our way that we can no longer tell good from evil.  People like McCain and Lindsay Graham and Obama want so much to depose the Assad regime that they’re willing to literally make a pact with the devil.

Did you catch this headline?  “Syrian Rebels Attack Christian Village, Behead Priests.”  Or, how about this one: “Syrian Rebels Slit Throat of Christian Man Who Refused to Convert to Islam.”   Probably not.  These headlines were found throughout the international media and on conservative sites like Breitbart.com and Townhall.com but got very little play in the mainstream media.

Here’s what’s frightening about all of this, aside from the fact that we’re aiding this human debris.  What’s frightening is that the American people are being spoon-fed what the administration wants them to know.  The news media are no longer the watchdogs of the government.  They’re the lapdog of the government.  I’ve often said that media bias isn’t so much in what they tell you, it’s in what they don’t tell you.  We’re not being told nearly enough about who the Syrian rebels really are because if the American people knew the truth they would be outraged.

People like Sen. Ted Cruz have tried to tell the people.  John McCain despises Cruz because he dared speak the truth on the proposed Syrian air strikes when he said America should not become “al Qaeda’s air force.”  McCain has actually been meeting with Syrian rebel generals and whined that the terrorist rebels feel abandoned by Obama.  Hard to understand how when Obama is sending them weapons.

McCain was called on the carpet by Fox & Friends when they aired a video of Syrian rebel terrorists shooting at an airplane and yelling “allahu akbar,” the trademark scream of terrorist suicide bombers the world over.  McCain acted as though the host, Brian Kilmeade, was some kind of Islamophobe scolding him that yelling “allahu akbar” was no different than a Christian saying “thank God.”  The difference is Christians saying “thank God” don’t walk around sporting dynamite vests.  Of course, this is the same McCain who traveled all the way to Egypt to meet with the Muslim Brotherhood, another terrorist organization that has had meetings with Obama in the White House.  But understand this.  The Syrian rebels we are supporting right now are no different from the mall terrorists in Kenya who killed children with one exception.  McCain and Graham and Obama haven’t met with them yet.  But just give them time.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.