Negotiating with Terrorists

 Posted by at 1:02 am  Politics
Jun 032014
 

There are two nations on earth, not allied with the US, that could engage the US using conventional military means.  They are China and Russia.  For any other nation or group, engaging the US militarily using conventional means would be suicide.  Therefore those that do fight us use nonconventional warfare.  For propaganda value, we label them terrorists, just like Great Britain labeled US patriots terrorists during the Revolutionary War.  Therefore the notion that we can not negotiate with terrorists is obsolete, with one key exception.

0603POWAfter five years as a prisoner of Afghan militants, U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been returned to American custody. But because President Obama released five Afghan detainees from Guantanamo Bay in trade for Bergdahl’s freedom, several Republican lawmakers have attacked the administration for “negotiating with terrorists.”

According to Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), the exchange “may have consequences for the rest of our forces and all Americans,” because “our terrorist adversaries now have a strong incentive to capture Americans.” House Intelligence Chair Mike Rogers (R-MI) added that he is “extremely troubled that the United States negotiated with terrorists,” suggesting that the exchange “signals to terrorists around the world a greater incentive to take U.S. hostages.”…

…National Security Advisor Susan Rice took to several of the Sunday shows to defend the exchange. On This Week, she explained that Bergdahl was not a “hostage,” but a “prisoner of war, taken on the battlefield,” and that the U.S. has a “sacred obligation” to free such prisoners of war. She also clarified on State of the Union that the U.S. did not negotiate directly with the terrorist Haqqani network, but with the government of Qatar, which will hold the five released Taliban prisoners for another year.

One of the other complaints lodged against the exchange is that President Obama did not provide Congress with the 30-day notice required for releasing prisoners of war. Rice explained that the Departments of Defense and Justice had reasons to be seriously concerned about the urgent state of Sgt. Bergdahl’s health, and noted that Congress had long been informed that such negotiations were already underway…

Inserted from <Think Progress>

First let’s get real.  Contrary to the Republican excuse for condemning Obama, the Taliban (or anyone else with whom we are at war) already has a strong incentive to capture American soldiers.  It’s what battlefield enemies do.

Here is a clip of the infamous (in Republican fantasy) Susan Rice in an interview with a Republican mouthpiece at CNN.

Lopsided journalism aside, Rice is technically correct.  We did not negotiate directly with the Taliban, but it would not bother me, if we did.  Without negotiation withy enemies, how can peace be achieved?

Another angle to this is that the five “terrorists” released numbered among those that we could not bring to trial, because the Bush Reich extracted evidence against them illegally.  Congress still refuses to allow Obama to imprison detainees here, and Afghanistan does not want them, so in the process, Obama got five people closer to closing the GOP Gulag at Gitmo.

Republicans had one more beef and that’s where the key exception in my intro comes into play.  Republicans say Congress should have ad a 30 day notice.  Obama had noted that he felt that restriction violated his Article II authority  at the time he signed the NDAA.  To do otherwise he would have had to veto all defense spending.  Also, given the Republican track record for leaking top-secret data to score political points, and given the posture of congressional Republicans, they are a greater threat to America than Al Qaeda ever was.  By informing them of the process, while keeping them out of the loop on the specifics, Obama fulfilled his obligation out to negotiate with terrorists.

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  26 Responses to “Negotiating with Terrorists”

  1. TY TC, you are right.

  2. Everyone is forgetting that St. Ronnie Ray-Gun gave Iran about 1,500 missiles in exchange for the hostges taken at the American Embassy in the late 1970s. Wasn't that negotiating with terrorists too?

    • Sorry. I have to correct myself.

      It was in 1986 that the Sainted RAY-Gun secretly sold weapons to Iran for the unsuccessful release of 6 US citizens held hostage in Lebanon.

      • Don't forget: And then LIED About It

        Bottom Line: Never … never ever … never, never ever ask if a Rethuglican can POSSIBlLY go any lower in their despicable hate for the average American …

        They ONLY view that as a CHALLENGE!

  3. IMO, the President negotiates with terrorists all the time – what else might we call those in Congress who refuse to  cooperate in the smallest way with the President and who put their own interest above the interest of the country?

    • You are 100% correct, Arielle!

    • Arielle, I was thinking that earlier today when I was reading.  He negotiates with terrorists in 3 piece suits everyday . . . they're called Republicanus/Teabagger Congress Critters led by the Weeper of the House, Agent Orange, and McTurle in the Senate.

    • See Wednesday's Cartoon.

  4. Finding peace in a haystack centuries of war.  There must be a beginning and I think Obama has found one.  Yes it may get spammed by the right and people who can not see past nose but with the next generation it just might start thread for the next idea.  After all peace is far better than war

  5. Well done ALL. Positive and correct. One point that has been forgoten (by the Repug hypocrits) Our President DID NOT negotiate with the ultimate terrorist. . Osama Bin Laden is DEAD!

    ps. I love the President,s New attitude. Go for it !!

  6. Someone on Daily Kos, writing on this story, addressed the accusation "He negotiated with The Enemy!" by saying "Well, yes.  That's how negotiation is done."

    It really wouldn't make sense to negotiate with anyone else, now, would it?

    Failure to negotiate with the other side is the recipe for permanent conflict and civil unrest.  Gee – no wonder the Republicans are so opposed to negotiation.

    As far as terrorists go, BTW, the overwhelming majority of terrorist attacks in the US are from the right.  My "modest proposal" to protect us from terrorism is:  Any tim (a) anyone leaves his/her home with an assault wepon, or (b) a person with any history of mental illness leaves his or her home with any weapon – drone strike.  (I trust everyone here is familiar with the expression "modest proposal.")

  7. We negotiate with terrorists all the time – CONgre$$, Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Agra, big Liars of all Corporations, our own police, our own Media, etc.,etc.,etc.

     

  8. So far things are based on other soldiers who suddenly remember conversations from 5 years ago, without context. I knew men in Vietnam and some that have or are serving now in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of them wrote letters home and expressed their true feelings about being used for wars of attrition and profit. It just might have been worse during Vietnam because many were not draftees but college graduate volunteers, and they knew well that what they once believed, and what they saw were worlds apart. Even during WWII, men questioned their own loyalties and wondered what they were doing so far from home. I believe that is called being human and having a thought process.

    Bergdahl's father has learned to speak some Arabic, he learned the religion and culture of the people that held his son captive. I have no idea what I might do walking in his shoes. It must be a daily terror to know your son is being held captive. Because Mr Bergdahl spoke some Arabic when he met with the president, that sure does not make either he or his son enemies of the state. One more symptom of our republican fed National In-Security.

    I will wait to pass any judgments on this man who has been held for 5 years against his will. As for the exchange of prisoners, those men were already scheduled to be released – finally. Of course it was Obama that made the exchange and therefore the lunatic fringe is sure that this must be a part of the conspiracy. The conspiracy of that communist, Muslim, Kenyan tribesman (lacking a birth certificate) who was secretly planted in the United States to take the presidency and hand over this country to the Caliph. (If you do believe that, please see me about a bridge in Brooklyn I have for sale.)

    What happens when you lie enough times? It becomes politics. You can bet that will become a news article for endless speculation by the media. There is little need for truth when the story can be spun and sold to a gullible public.

    Could we please ignore the rabble and allow this man the decency of a welcome home?

    ****

    By the way, if Bergdahl slipped way only to be captured. Shouldn't we be discussing the tragic state of the mental health of our soldiers serving in these wars of choice? That hardly seems the actions of a person who is mentally sound. Why the did the military promote this man if this information has long been known?

    Benghazi – yes. Benghazi a tiny operation in Libya by some wild assed terrorist that took less than 30 minutes from start to finish and yet, the more it's talked about the more the gullible public begins to question their own eyes and ears. Why didn't Obama call in the military? What military is that, exactly? If you attack with generalizations it sure sounds like something happened. In fact, this is and the Congress is aware of this, a story created for election time. I fear that so too is Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl.

    I have decided that there are now two issues that I will not discuss with the republican looney tune squad, Benghazi and climate change.  If you lack the ability to use your computer for finding actual answers and not just a repeat of those that the media bounces around, you are not worth my time.

    Some say that 97 of 100 scientists concur on Climatic Change.  I say that is a compromise position.  Of the scientists that are true specialists in the many fields that do address climate change there are none that are even wavering in their conclusions.  Example:  If 7 gastroenterologist told me I needed my appendix removed, but my eye doctor, my dentist and my ENT said there was nothing to worry about, I would ignore the last three.

    Thanks for the opportunity to blow off steam, TC.
     

    • Good rant Miss Kitty!  Only 1 thing, Bergdahl's father learned Pashto, the language of Afghanistan and neighbouring parts of Pakistan, not Arabic.

    • Most of these same Republicand were urging Obama to get him home and complaining that Obama needed to do more to do so just weeks ago.

  9. Rice is correct.

    IF the guy did something wrong, then bring the witnesses and charges, but we bring him home first.

  10. TC, I totally agree with your summation.  Whether or not this man deserted, he was still a member of our armed forces being held prisoner and we owed him a rescue.  How else could that have been accomplished?  The Republicans will latch on to anything they think will harm the president.  Cindy Crowly really needs to move to Fox.  Oops, I forgot, CNN is Fox light.

  11. "…several Republican lawmakers have attacked the administration for “negotiating with terrorists.”"

    It doesn't matter what Obama does, as far as Republicanus/Teabaggers are concerned, Obama is always wrong.

    1) Obama did not negotiate with the Taliban directly.  Qatar was the negotiator.

    2) Had Bergdahl not been repatriated, the Republicanus/Teabaggers would be yelling bloody murder that Obama did not support the troops, all of the troops and left a man behind.

    3) Why are the Republicanus/Teabaggers having a hissy fit about 5 Afghanis that they could not prosecute because there was insufficient evidence legally obtained with which to prosecute them.

    "…“our terrorist adversaries now have a strong incentive to capture Americans.” "

    That is the nature of war.  Hell, that is the nature of a chess match . . . take your opponents pieces.  With touting "American exceptionalism" all the time and American interests over anyone else's, the US has put a target on its back.  The US has provided the “strong incentive to capture Americans” , no one else.

    In a post on Care2, I questioned whether the US military would have promoted Bergdahl twice while he was captured had they known he was a deserter.  The fog of war muddles everything, including individual thoughts and actions.  As Miss Kitty says, how can soldiers remember conversations from 5 years ago?  I can't even remember what I had for breakfast 5 days ago.

    I say, let the young man come home, reacclimate to life in the US, get his life back. Reconnect with family and friends.

  12. Thanks all.  Kudos all around!

  13. It horrifies me to hear the views of the GNOP, I insured that my kids not go in the military under the last administration GWB and associated War Criminals… One POW is too many… 🙄

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