Showing posts with label afghanistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label afghanistan. Show all posts

Friday, June 6, 2014

#Berghazi - Flip-Flopping Wingnuts Continue to Trash Bergdahl

photo Corbis-42-15472022.jpg

The Bowe Bergdahl story is fast become the new #Benghazi - call it #Berghazi if you will - another case of too much angry hooplah and not enough facts. As the wingnuts cry for firing squads and impeachments, they are also ironically scrubbing their social media to erase the fact that just a while back they were praying to Jesus and beseeching Obama for his release. This is another case in which Obama can't win - if he had left the guy to rot with the Taliban, the GOP would be screaming about "weak, do-nothing, anti-military, heartless Obama." Since he got Bergdahl released, he is "making deals with terrorists" and "saving a traitor."

But the bottom line is that our Armed Forces don't leave anyone behind. That is not going to change. President Obama said he isn't going to apologize to the critics, and he shouldn't. And why would the GOP or anyone else want a military that didn't rescue their own soldiers? Who would volunteer for such an army?

Previous Related Posts:
Bergdahl Swap Causes GOP Brain Meltdown

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Liberal radio host/producer Matt Binder of Majority Report went on a mission last week to dig up as much Right Wing hypocrisy and flip-flopping as he could find. And boy howdy, he hit the jackpot! He re-tweeted some of the schizo timelines, which read like verbal whiplash. I love the first example from Charlie Daniels!














Next: Let's take a short break from the crazy stuff and move to someone trying to be the voice of reason on Fox News. Thank you, Sheppard Smith! And why are you still wasting your life on Fox?

If you desert or commit treason, you have to be proved to have done so. We can't just decide because some people come on television and yakety yak, and we've got a report of this and a report of that and that's what happened. As the Army said, as the Pentagon said, you bring them home. You bring them home first, and then you investigate.
~ Sheppard Smith, Fox News



Now, back to the crazy: Fox's Geraldo Rivera agrees with Shep Smith, but their colleague Kimberly Guilfoyle had a better idea - Bergdahl should have been shot by the men who were looking for him. No muss, no fuss. I thought she was a lawyer? What about Due Process?

Geraldo: . . . One of the things (the soldiers) take great security in is a absolute maxim that if anything happens to them, they’re going to be brought home, that we will not leave them behind. I don’t care who Bergdahl is, we don’t leave him behind. If you violate or waver from that hard principal, then the military forces will be stripped of what is absolutely the thing that makes them most secure. They know their colleagues won't leve them behind.

Kimberly Guilfoyle: Yeah, but it seems to me he’s pretty lucky that he was brought home the way he was. Because if those special forces had found him and encountered him — and they were looking for him — he would have come home either in a body bag or come home and gone straight to jail. But now what we see is his family at the White House, he's being celebrated as a hero, we have Susan Rice saying he served with honor and distinction. They have to walk that back because obviously, Geraldo, the evidence is quite alarming and striking to the contrary.

Geraldo: I don't care! I don't care! Makes no difference to me.



~~~~~~~

Morning Joe Scarborough went on a tirade against Bowe Bergdahl's father that even shocked the right-leaning Chuck Todd. And crazy Joe is in epic form, touting himself as the perfect father. Wanna bet?

Scarborough: I keep holding up this image where Barack Obama has his arm around a man who is reaching out to pro-Taliban forces, talking about killing Americans.

Todd: Joe, Joe, don’t criticize the parents. Don’t criticize the parents in here, that are missing a child? Their son is missing for five years. You know what? It is not logical. You cannot handle it. You put yourself in his shoes –”

Scarborough: I have a 26-year-old son, and if my son is out on the wire and he is out there with fellow troops and he is writes me up and says he hates America and he’s thinking about deserting and he’s thinking about leaving his post, I can tell you as a father of that 26-year-old or 23-year-old son, I’d say, ‘Joey, you stay the hell right there,’ I would call his commander, I would say ‘Get my son. He is not well. Get him to a military base in Germany.’ I would not say ‘Follow your conscience, son.’ I would not reach out to the voice of jihad.

Todd: I’m not backseat driving how someone parents.

Scarborough: That is not backseat driving. I am a father. Any good father would not tell their son to follow their conscience and leave men and women on the line.

Todd: So he’s a bad father?

Scarborough: Yes!Yes, he is! Oh my god, Chuck.

















~~~~~~~

Lindsey Graham wants to IMPEACH!!!! Because Obama is Black, or Something.

From the Washington Examiner
I don't mind opening a new jail up – I just don't want to empty this one,” he told the Washington Examiner on his way to a closed-door administration briefing on the Bergdahl matter. “It seems to me that they don't have a desire to continue to hold these guys under the law of war. I'm all for moving the jail to another location as long as you don't let everybody go."
. . . "It's going to be impossible for them to flow prisoners out of Gitmo now without a huge backlash," he said. "There will be people on our side calling for his impeachment if he did that."
Graham didn't use the word impeachment during his brief interview with the Washington Examiner. Instead he seemed content to throw up road blocks to any new detainee transfers and wait out the Obama presidency.
“You can keep clamping down restrictions and wait until he leaves,” Graham said when asked what he could do to stop the president from releasing more prisoners.











~~~~~~~

Soldier Elliot Ackerman explains why there is so much anti-Bergdahl sentiment from other soldiers: He was a "Jonah" - a bad-luck charm, and a scapegoat for every death. In other words, the soldiers projected all their frustration about the war onto him. The "idol of discontent."

Elliot Ackerman via New Republic, writing about his own experience in Afghanistan
At night my colleagues and I would climb on our bunkered roof, a tumbler of scotch or a cigar in hand, and watch the drone strikes against al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership in South Waziristan. During those days, Bergdahl’s case loomed ever-present. The irony that an iconic figure in a war that had largely been deserted by the American people was probably a deserter himself was never lost on us. It seemed just our luck.

Among sailors, a crew member who brings bad luck is known as a Jonah. It’s a long-held superstition, deriving from the Book of Jonah. Then the sailors said to each other, ‘Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.’ They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. And like the hapless crew that sailed Jonah to Tarshish, we found ourselves in a storm fighting in Afghanistan. With Bergdahl’s disappearance always in the background, imaginations ran wild. Why did the Taliban in Paktika execute attacks with such unusual precision and lethality? Some hypothesized that Bergdahl had informed them of our tactics. Why did Afghan civilians refuse civil aid that they so obviously needed? Others believed rumors that Bergdahl had participated in a propaganda campaign against us. None of this could be substantiated, but over there Bergdahl became the idol of discontent for so many. He was the Jonah.

Other soldiers have not been as circumspect or self-aware:

Former Army Sgt. Josh Korder to CNN's Jake Tapper
He is at best a deserter, and at worst a traitor. Any of us would have died for him while he was with us, and then for him to just leave us like that, it was a very big betrayal.
. . . As soon as he is able and as soon as he is fit, I do believe that he needs to be questioned, and basically tried if necessary.
. . . I don't think that I could have continued to go on without being able to share with you and ... the people the true things that happened in this situation. Because if you guys aren't made aware of it, it will just go on, and he'll be a hero, and nobody will be able to know the truth.

The only problem is, there are questions about Korder's own service. Is he a reliable source, or just an attention-seeker with a chip on his shoulder?

Josh Korder, a former Army sergeant from Minnesota who served with Bowe Bergdahl, signed a non-disclosure agreement, and admits he may be in violation of that by speaking out. He also left the service with an “other than honorable” discharge.
~ Via Freakout Nation

What does "Less Than Honorable" mean?

From About.com
Examples of factors that may be considered include the use of force or violence to produce serious bodily injury or death, abuse of a special position of trust, disregard by a superior of customary superior-subordinate relationships, acts or omissions that endanger the security of the United States or the health and welfare of other members of the Military Services, and deliberate acts or omissions that seriously endanger the health and safety of other persons.
. . . (1) Desertion; (2) escape prior to trial by general court-martial; (3) conscientious objector who refuses to perform military duties, wear the uniform, or comply with lawful orders of competent military authorities; (4) willful or persistent misconduct; (5) offense(s) involving moral turpitude; (6) mutiny or spying; or (7) homosexual acts involving aggravating circumstances.

And it turns out, he is less than honorable in civilian life too, since he has started the "Josh Korder Fund" to raise money to pay his back child-support. Wow - Is anyone surprised?






Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Bergdahl Swap Causes GOP Brain Meltdown - Updated with More Hate

head explode photo: imagesqtbnANd9GcSvhCkal5JFEwmNQLTUW.jpg

Because the GOP hates the President so much, they will seize on anything to try and sully his actions, even if they once agreed with him. And right now their heads are exploding because soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who has been held by the Taliban for five years, was traded for some Gitmo prisoners. Even though the deal was in the works for years and many Senators, such as John McCain, knew about it, they are now expressing outrage that Obama dared to do something as Commander in Chief during time of war. How dare he? Uppity! No President has EVER done that before! Except George Washington. And Nixon. And Reagan. Oops . . .

And to make things worse, soldiers who served with Bergdahl have come out accusing him of cowardice and desertion, as if that changes the fact that he was held as a prisoner of war until his health began to fail. The soldiers in his unit, who obviously did not like him anyway, are saying they resent that lives were lost while searching for him in the desert, and accused him of doing horrible things such as sympathizing with the plight of the Afghanis. Not very patriotic since if they had been captured first Bergdahl would have had to risk his life searching for them, since that's what soldiers do. But all of that has fed into the GOP frenzy to slam the prisoner swap as "President Trades Terrorists for a Deserter."

The GOP have even attacked Bowe Bergdahl's father for having a beard and saying "Allah" in front of the President. And Obama smiled at him, therefore MUSLIN!!! Beards and the entire Muslim religion are somehow anti-American now, except for Duck Dynasty, of course, who are true Patriots for hating The Gay. How about some respect for the family of a young man who served his country but may have been conflicted by war, like thousands of other young soldiers throughout history?

The whole mess is about Obama Derangement Syndrome and Self-Righteous Vigilante Justice. For the past few days the GOP has been going around like General Patton when he slapped a man for having post-traumatic stress disorder, and for which he was demoted during WWII. What he did to that poor man wasn't right, and Americans instinctively know this, unless you have the instincts of the GOP, which aren't very sharp. Therefore, Twitter is awash with calls for firing squads and executions from the same people who were whining about cow-abuse at Bundy Ranch a few weeks ago. It's astonishing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BBC: Video of Bergdahl Release:



This is what happens at the end of wars. Regardless of the circumstances, whatever those circumstances may turn out to be, we still get an American soldier back if he’s held in captivity. We don’t condition that.
~ President Obama speaking in Warsaw on the prisoner trade and release of Bowe Bergdahl, via Time

Our first priority is assuring his well-being and his health and getting him reunited with his family. Other circumstances that may develop and questions, those will be dealt with later.
~ Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel





"We really don't know why he left the base and under what circumstances," Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said Monday. Details of that will come out, he said, adding that the Army has never classified Bergdahl as a deserter and has scheduled the soldier for a promotion next month. But the details around a soldier being taken captive "don't matter," he said, when it comes to the military's response.
~ CNN

He walked off. He left his guard post. Nobody knows if he defected or he's a traitor or he was kidnapped. What I do know is, he was there to protect us, and instead he decided to defer from America and go and do his own thing. I don't know why he decided to do that, but we spent so much of our resources, and some of those resources were soldiers' lives.
~ Former Pfc. Jose Baggett, 27, a member of Bergdahl's company

It’s true that Bergdahl was never officially categorized as a “prisoner of war,” since the Pentagon apparently stopped using that designation years ago. But he was defined as “missing/captured,” which is essentially the same thing. And while the Taliban fighters who were released were likewise not formally designated prisoners of war, either, because of the odd, formally undeclared status of the war with Afghanistan, that’s what they were.
. . . It’s shocking to see conservatives argue that the Taliban should have the final word on an American soldier’s fate, even if he’s accused of desertion.
~ Joan Walsh on Salon

We Lost Soldiers in the Hunt for Bergdahl, a Guy Who Walked Off in the Dead of Night
For the veterans of the units that lost these men, Bergdahl’s capture and the subsequent hunt for him will forever tie to their memories, and to a time in their lives that will define them as people. He has finally returned. Those men will never have the opportunity.
~ Soldier Nathan Bradley Bethea on Daily Beast

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bergdahl Responsible for How Many Deaths?
Is This Turning Into "Berghdazi"?













~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let's Attack Bergdahl's Family

















~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The GOP Deranged Clown Circus

How many soldiers lost their lives to capture those five Taliban terrorists that we just released? Ambassador [Susan] Rice basically said to you, yes, U.S. policy has changed. Now we make deals with terrorists. And the question going forward is, have we just put a price on other U.S. soldiers? What does this tell terrorists, that if you capture a U.S. soldier, you can trade that soldier for five terrorists we’ve gone after?
~ Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas

I don’t think he [Obama] should have made that deal. He may well pay a price.
. . . I know everyone’s happy to see him back and all that. The fact is, Susan Rice said on TV yesterday he was taken on the battlefield and that he served the United States with honor and distinction. There’s a lot of reporting that he wasn’t taken in battle, he seems to have deserted or at least gone AWOL, he may have cooperated with the enemy after they captured him, soldiers died trying to find him.
~ Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard on Morning Joe, via Politico














~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Grand Hypocrites of All Time

No, Mr. President, a soldier expressing horrid anti-American beliefs – even boldly putting them in writing and unabashedly firing off his messages while in uniform, just three days before he left his unit on foot – is not "honorable service." Unless that is your standard.
. . . You blew it again, Barack Obama, by negotiating away any leverage against the bad guys as these bad guys – Osama Bin Laden's partners in evil crime – joyfully celebrate their "win" in the deal you sealed.
~ Sarah Palin, ex-politician, on Facebook







I am eager to learn what precise steps are being taken to ensure that these vicious and violent Taliban extremists never return to the fight against the United States and our partners or engage in any activities that can threaten the prospects for peace and security in Afghanistan.
~ Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, who is also an Ex-Prisoner-of-War exchanged in a deal under President Nixon










I strongly believe that we should have been consulted, that the law should have been followed. And I very much regret that that was not the case.
~ Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-California


























Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Cheshire Cat Joe Biden Wins VP Debate

Photobucket

gif via BuzzFeed

ABC News: Vice Presidential Debate Transcript

BIDEN: But I always say what I mean. And so does Romney.

RYAN: We want everybody to succeed. We want to get people out of poverty, in the middle class, onto a life of self-sufficiently. We believe in opportunity and upward mobility. That's what we're going to push for in a Romney administration.

RADDATZ: Vice president? I have a feeling you have a few things to say here.

BIDEN: The idea -- if you heard that -- that little soliloquy on 47 percent and you think he just made a mistake, then I think you're -- I -- I think -- I got a bridge to sell you.

Photobucket

~~~~~~

BIDEN: I love my friend here. I -- I'm not allowed to show letters but go on our website, he sent me two letters saying, "By the way, can you send me some stimulus money for companies here in the state of Wisconsin?" We sent millions of dollars. You know...

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: You did ask for stimulus money, correct?

BIDEN: Sure he did. By the way...

RYAN: On two occasions we -- we -- we advocated for constituents who were applying for grants. That's what we do. We do that for all constituents who are...

(CROSSTALK) BIDEN: I love that. I love that. This was such a bad program and he writes me a letter saying -- writes the Department of Energy a letter saying, "The reason we need this stimulus, it will create growth and jobs." His words. And now he's sitting here looking at me.

. . . I wish he would just tell -- be a little more candid.

. . . By the way, any letter you send me, I'll entertain.

RYAN: I appreciate that, Joe.

(LAUGHTER)

~~~~~~

BIDEN: Number two, "guaranteed benefit"? It's a voucher. When they first proposed -- when the congressman had his first voucher program, the CBO said it would cost $6,400 a year, Martha, more for every senior, 55 and below, when they got there. He knew that, yet he got all the guys in Congress and women in the Republican Party to vote for it. Governor Romney, knowing that, said, I would sign it, were I there.

Who you believe, the AMA, me, a guy who's fought his whole life for this, or somebody who would actually put in motion a plan that knowingly cut -- added $6,400 a year more to the cost of Medicare?

Now they got a new plan: "Trust me, it's not going to cost you any more." Folks, follow your instincts on this one.

And with regard to Social Security, we will not -- we will not privatize it. If we had listened to Romney, Governor Romney, and the congressman during the Bush years, imagine where all those seniors would be now if their money had been in the market.

Their ideas are old and their ideas are bad, and they eliminate the guarantee of Medicare.

RYAN: Here's the problem. They got caught with their hands in the cookie jar, turning Medicare into a piggybank for Obamacare. Their own actuary from the administration came to Congress and said one out of six hospitals and nursing homes are going to go out of business as a result of this.

BIDEN: That's not what they said.

RYAN: 7.4 million seniors are projected to lose their current Medicare Advantage coverage they have. That's a $3,200 benefit cut.

BIDEN: That didn't happen.

RYAN: What we're saying...

BIDEN: More people signed up.

RYAN: These are from your own actuaries.

BIDEN: More -- more -- more people signed up for Medicare Advantage after the change.

RYAN: What -- there's...

BIDEN: Nobody is...

(CROSSTALK)

RYAN: Mr. Vice President, I know...

BIDEN: No, this is...

(CROSSTALK)

RYAN: Mr. Vice President, I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think people would be better served if we don't keep interrupting each other.

BIDEN: Well, don't take all the four minutes then.

~~~~~~

















Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Friday, September 7, 2012

DNC Night Three: Barack in Charge

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Previous Posts
Bill Clinton for the Epic Win
DNC Night Two: Bill Clinton in the House
DNC Night One: Diversity Rocks





Gabby Giffords Leads the Pledge of Allegiance

Photobucket
via atlanticwire liveblog


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Foo Fighters


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

James Taylor


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mary J. Blige



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rep. John Lewis, Georgia



Brothers and sisters, do you want to go back? Or do you want to keep America moving forward? My dear friends, your vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful, nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union. Not too long ago, people stood in unmovable lines. They had to pass a so-called literacy test, pay a poll tax. On one occasion, a man was asked to count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap. On another occasion, one was asked to count the jelly beans in a jar—all to keep them from casting their ballots.

Today it is unbelievable that there are Republican officials still trying to stop some people from voting. They are changing the rules, cutting polling hours and imposing requirements intended to suppress the vote. The Republican leader in the Pennsylvania House even bragged that his state's new voter ID law is "gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state." That's not right. That's not fair. That's not just.

Full Transcript of John Lewis's Speech Here










~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Actress Scarlett Johansson and Kerry Washington














~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Caroline Kennedy










~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm (Michigan)


Epic Rant

Photobucket
gif via gifsfln.tumblr.com















~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Former Gov. Charlie Crist, Jr. (Florida)








~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sen. John Kerry (Massachusetts)





It isn't fair to say Mitt Romney doesn't have a position on Afghanistan. He has every position.

He was against setting a date for withdrawal—then he said it was right—and then he left the impression that maybe it was wrong to leave this soon. He said it was "tragic" to leave Iraq, and then he said it was fine. He said we should've intervened in Libya sooner. Then he ran down a hallway to duck reporters' questions. Then he said the intervention was too aggressive. Then he said the world was a "better place" because the intervention succeeded.

Talk about being for it before you were against it!

"Mr. Romney—here's a little advice: Before you debate Barack Obama on foreign policy, you better finish the debate with yourself!"

"Ask Osama bin Laden if he's better off now than he was four years ago."













~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GOP Obstruction



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vice President Joe Biden

Photobucket
via atlanticwire liveblog




"When Barack and I were growing up, there was an implicit understanding. If you took responsibility, you’d get a fair shot at a better deal. The values behind that deal--were the values that shaped us both. And today, they are Barack’s guiding star."

~~~

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m here to tell you, bravery resides in the heart of Barack Obama. And time and time again, I witnessed him summon it. This man has courage in his soul, compassion in his heart, and steel in his spine. And because of all the actions he took, because of the calls he made--and because of the grit and determination of American workers--and the unparalled bravery of our special forces--we can now proudly say—
Osama Bin Laden is dead, and General Motors is alive."

~~~

"You never quit on America. And you deserve a President who will never quit on you. And one more thing that our opponents are dead wrong about: America is NOT in decline.
I’ve got news for Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan, it has never, never, ever, been a good bet to bet against the American people."

"My fellow Americans, America is coming back and we’re not going back! And we have no intention of downsizing the American Dream."


Complete Transcript of Joe Biden's Speech Here


















~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

President Barack Obama


Photobucket

Photobucket
gifs via atlanticwire liveblog






"Now, our friends down in Tampa at the Republican convention were more than happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with America, but they didn't have much to say about how they'd make it right. They want your vote, but they don't want you to know their plan. And that's because all they have to offer is the same prescriptions they've had for the last 30 years."

"Have a surplus? Try a tax cut. Deficit too high? Try another. Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations, and call us in the morning!"

~~~

"We've opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration in the last three years, and we'll open more. But unlike my opponent, I will not let oil companies write this country's energy plan, or endanger our coastlines, or collect another $4 billion in corporate welfare from our taxpayers."

~~~

"We don't want handouts for people who refuse to help themselves, and we certainly don't want bailouts for banks that break the rules. We don't think the government can solve all our problems. But we don't think that government is the source of all our problems, any more than are welfare recipients, or corporations, or unions, or immigrants, or gays, or any other group we're told to blame for our troubles."

~~~

"While I'm proud of what we've achieved together, I'm far more mindful of my own failings, knowing exactly what Lincoln meant when he said, 'I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go.'"

~~~

"You might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if you can't visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally,"

~~~
































Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)