-
-
Black Girls Rock!
Flickr Photos
-
Potus Takes Oath of Office
Flotus & Daughters at Great Wall of China
My Brothers Keeper
-
-
-
-
-
AFRO PUFFS
Most Adorable Shoe Stealer
Six Little Babies
Fatherhood
-
-
Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
-
3Chics Action Alert
Lets Make It Happen
3 Chics Trio
-
REALITY Blog Award
Recent Comments
Top Posts
Guard The Change
Vote 4 Democrats
-
-
-
Go to the polls
President Barack Obama
First Lady Michelle Obama
Obama Love
Your Vote Matters
President Obama & Bo
The Obama Family
-
-
-
-
Presidential hug
-
Oh look! Ronald Reagan traded 15 missiles to Iran for hostages,
Arms for Hostages
Christopher Matthews, Aide to House Speaker O’Neill: The American middle had been confounded by this patriotic President who had won on standing tall, who was found to be paying tribute to the enemy in a kind of pusillanimous way.
Saturday, May 31, 2014
REPUBLICANS THREATENED TO RUN A WILLIE HORTON-STYLE CAMPAIGN IF OBAMA FREED BERGDAHL IN 2012
………………………………………………
But in all likelihood, if they’d gotten advance notice, the Republicans would have done everything in their power to block the release of Bergdahl — as, reportedly, they did in 2012:
Republican opposition to diplomatic compromise with the Taliban is blocking the release of a captured U.S soldier held since 2009 and broader negotiations aimed at a resolution of the decade-long war.
A recent German interview with a leading Afghan diplomatic mediator, Naquibullah Shorish, describes the stalled scenario for peace in some detail. The process, launched with Obama administration support in Qatar in 2010 under German mediation, was to begin with a prisoner exchange as a trial test for further talks. The American soldier, Sgt. Bowe Bigdahl, who was captured on June 30, 2009, was to be released in a swap for five Taliban detainees held in Guantanamo. The Taliban believed the exchange had US approval. But US Republican opposition made Congressional approval impossible, and the talks have floundered ever since….
The interview with Shorish, a mediator with links to all parties, appeared at aixpaix.de by the writer Otto Steinbicker on July 8 [2012]…
In July 2012, Rolling Stone published a story about Bergdahl by Michael Hastings. Hastings noted that negotiations for a prisoner exchange were taking place, but were meeting resistance, particularly from Republicans, who planned to demagogue the issue if the released happened before the November election:
According to White House sources, Marc Grossman, who replaced Richard Holbrooke as special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, was given a direct warning by the president’s opponents in Congress about trading Bowe for five Taliban prisoners during an election year. “They keep telling me it’s going to be Obama’s Willie Horton moment,” Grossman warned the White House. The threat was as ugly as it was clear: The president’s political enemies were prepared to use the release of violent prisoners to paint Obama as a Dukakis-like appeaser, just as Republicans did to the former Massachusetts governor during the 1988 campaign….
The tensions came to a boil in January, when administration officials went to Capitol Hill to brief a handful of senators on the possibility of a prisoner exchange….
[Senator John] McCain reluctantly came around on the prisoner exchange, according to those present at the meeting, but he has continued to speak out against negotiating with the Taliban. Opposition has also come from Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Republican from Georgia who won election with a vicious smear campaign against former Sen. Max Cleland, a decorated Vietnam veteran who lost three limbs in the war. Chambliss, according to Bowe’s father, has insisted that America shouldn’t make a prisoner trade for a “deserter.”
(The fact that some believe Bergdahl became a POW because he deserted is something to keep in mind as this story develops.)
It should be noted that objections to the Bergdahl negotiations didn’t just come from Republicans, according to Hastings:
Some top-level officials within the administration, including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are very wary about making a swap for Bowe. “Panetta and Hillary don’t give a shit about getting him home,” says one senior U.S. official involved in the negotiations. “They want to be able to say they COINed their way out of Afghanistan, or whatever, so it doesn’t look like they are cutting and running.” (Both Clinton and Panetta, by law, would have to sign off on any exchange.)
http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2014/05/republicans-planned-to-run-willie.html
OH ISH!
DAMN!!!! Republicans wanted to leave Bowe Bergdahl in captivity. OMG! No wonder they’re mad about his release.
An American POW is freed after five years in captivity and wing nut Ben Ferguson says it’s a Taliban victory. God help America!
this is wonderful news. His parents look overjoyed.
What gratefulness looks like…
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is said to be in good condition and able to walk after almost 5 years as a P.O.W. http://nyti.ms/T1EZFT
Bowe Bergdahl timeline in Afghanistan: From capture to release.
http://goo.gl/ZSZWvL
Yesssssss!
President Obama: Top priority is making sure Bergdahl gets the care he needs and is reunited with this family as soon as possible.
Here we go, President Obama is speaking.
Your Mission, Should You Accept It… Barack Obama—>Free American POW from Afghan War
US soldier freed from captivity in Afghanistan.
President Obama: The US does not ever leave our men & women in uniform behind.
Swag on 100. Who’s bad–>BarackObama
BWA HA HA HA PBO accepted the mission when he first ran for POTUS. And now he continues to carry out said misson.
*daps* Who’s bad?!