{"id":7523,"date":"2014-06-03T09:40:06","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T16:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=7523"},"modified":"2014-06-03T09:40:06","modified_gmt":"2014-06-03T16:40:06","slug":"the-bergdahl-release-is-just-the-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-bergdahl-release-is-just-the-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bergdahl Release Is Just the Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ The Corner (National Review Online)<\/a><\/p>\n

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Photo of Bergdahl via Wikicommons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There has been a lot to think about during these years of Obama\u2019s foreign policy. But the problem is not just the existential issues, from reset to Benghazi, but also the less heralded developments, such as young non-high-school graduate Edward Snowden\u2019s trotting off with the most sensitive secrets of the NSA, the \u201cstuff happens\u201d outing of a CIA station chief in Afghanistan, and the failure to destroy the downed drone that ended up in Iran.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In the latter category falls the mysterious prisoner swap of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five top Taliban inmates, given that even at this early juncture there are lots of disturbing questions: Why not as the law demanded consult Congress on the releases from Guantanamo, or at least the congressional leadership? Why swap some of the most dangerous and important members of the Taliban hierarchy? What exactly were the circumstances of the original departure of Bergdahl (in 2009 two military officials told the AP that Bergdahl \u201chad just walked off\u201d with three other Afghans), and why were other soldiers requested not to disclose what they knew about the nature of his departure or the costly efforts to find Bergdahl? What exactly is the present U.S. position on trading captives for prisoners\/hostages? Do we really believe that the released terrorists will be kept another year in the Middle East?<\/p>\n

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All of the above may prove to be irrelevant concerns, and it is certainly good to have a U.S. soldier out of the hands of the Taliban or its allies. But right now the problem is that Susan Rice, given her past proclamations about Benghazi, is not a credible official to assure the public about the past and present status of Bergdahl or the nature of the swap. And given the president\u2019s past neglect of enforcing settled laws and his most recent efforts to circumvent the Congress on energy matters, the present end around on Guantanamo likewise stains the entire episode.<\/p>\n

The picture may change as more information is collated, but the Bergdahl incident seems to fit the iconoclastic pattern of a Bradley Manning or Edward Snowden, unlikely loners who voiced anger at the U.S., and likewise whose actions ended up changing the most sensitive areas of American security. Otherwise it is the same old, same old: Susan Rice goes on TV to assert the \u201ctruth,\u201d Barack Obama circumvents the law and ignores the Congress, and, as in the Pat Tillman case, the military initially does not wish to disclose the full details surrounding a disturbing episode. Meanwhile, we are back to the VA . . .<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ The Corner (National Review Online) There has been a lot to think about during these years of Obama\u2019s foreign policy. But the problem is not just the existential issues, from reset to Benghazi, but also the less heralded developments, such as young non-high-school graduate Edward Snowden\u2019s trotting off with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[511,844,92,330,120,145,11,86,23,46,536,196],"tags":[965,1055,88],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1Xl","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7530,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/partisan-politics-bad-ideas-the-bergdahl-swap\/","url_meta":{"origin":7523,"position":0},"title":"Partisan Politics, Bad Ideas & the Bergdahl Swap","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine President Obama\u2019s exchange of 5 high-ranking Taliban murderers for a soldier who possibly was a deserter and collaborator encapsulates everything that is wrong with this administration\u2019s foreign policy. The serial failures of the past 5 years reflect a toxic brew of partisan politics\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9706,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-legacy-of-deceit\/","url_meta":{"origin":7523,"position":1},"title":"Obama\u2019s Legacy of Deceit","author":"Megan Ring","date":"January 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ Defining Ideas In its remaining days in power, the Obama administration suddenly punished Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia for allegedly interfering in the U.S. presidential election. It claimed that Russian or Russian-hired hackers tapped into the records of the Democratic National Committee as well as the correspondence of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Defining Ideas"","block_context":{"text":"Defining Ideas","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/defining-ideas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7562,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-quits-afghanistan\/","url_meta":{"origin":7523,"position":2},"title":"Obama Quits Afghanistan","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Bringing Bergdahl home was useful for closing Gitmo and winding down the war. by\u00a0Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Soon we shall get to the bottom of the swap of five Taliban kingpins from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for one Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. In time we will learn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via AFP Photo by Peter Muhly","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/2obama-gitmo-hunger-strike.si_-500x281.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7662,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/2014-obamas-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":7523,"position":3},"title":"2014: Obama\u2019s America","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Scandals now come so fast that each new mess makes us forget the previous one. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online The summer of 2014 will go down in history as the season when America fell apart. Let\u2019s take a tour of the disasters. \u00a0Germany in 2008 enthusiastically\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "America's Future"","block_context":{"text":"America's Future","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/americas-future\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Obama_epic_failure2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7515,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-bad-habit-of-negotiating-with-terrorists\/","url_meta":{"origin":7523,"position":4},"title":"Our Bad Habit of Negotiating with Terrorists","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine \u00a0 Every parent should be happy for the Bergdahl family, whose son was returned to them after five years of captivity among the Taliban. 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