The Bergdahl Debacle: The White House Was Relying On Emotion For Cover

When news first broke that the US had – does the word “rescued” really apply here? We’ll use “retrieved” – retrieved Bowe Bergdahl from the Taliban (or Taliban affiliates) after five years the reaction was pretty unanimous. Everyone was glad a US soldier was no longer in the custody of terrorists. Politicians, as is their habit, quickly rushed to the nearest microphone and / or Twitter account to celebrate the news.

This is what the White House was hoping for. They were expecting euphoria over the news. And they got it. The problem is it didn’t last long.

When details began to surface of the price the US government agreed to pay for Bergdahl the euphoria quickly turned to puzzlement. Was Bergdahl worth releasing five top level Taliban terrorists? That’s when things went south. When people began to ask who this Bergdahl guy was, and learn the answer, the puzzlement turned to anger.

The White House was relying on emotion to win out, but they miscalculated. Badly. Instead of overwhelming positive emotions, they got anger. And they’ve been in crisis mode since.

For a few days, the White House and its allies in the media went with the “Throw Everything At The Critics And Hope Something Sticks” defense. They tried to argue that Bergdahl was very sick and the deal had to be done quickly. The video released today by the Taliban (or whoever had him) shows a very healthy looking Bergdahl being handed over to the US. Nothing is holding up.

Naturally, the White House and its allies in the media (but I repeat myself) have desperately tried to paint their problem as a Republican created pseudo-scandal. This, too, isn’t holding up. I’ll let the normally center-left NY Daily News do the talking:

President Obama betrayed the highest obligation of his office — safeguarding national security — in trading five hard-core Taliban for the American serviceman who appears to have deserted in Afghanistan.

The five sworn enemies of the United States are now in the Gulf state of Qatar, where they are free to come and go as they like, beyond the watch of American agents. In just one year, they will be free to return to Afghanistan to fight there and stage terror attacks far beyond that country’s borders.

These facts were known to Obama when he made the deal, and yet he went ahead in irresponsible disregard for lives he has endangered.

This comes after a few days of leftist wingnuttery where Bergdahl was a hero, not the guy who deserted his post and created a situation where brave soldiers who didn’t desert their posts died looking for him. The White House was hoping none of this would matter. Again, they miscalculated. It turns out only the most ardent throne sniffers in the leftist media are even trying to defend this ridiculous deal.

After days of flinging feces against the wall to see what would stick, they’ve settled on the ridiculous idea that 1) everyone else is lying – including the soldiers who served with Bergdahl – except for the White House and 2) those people who were initially happy about the retrieval – including Republicans who took to Twitter, etc. to celebrate the moment – are hypocrites for objecting to the deal that brought this beloved POW (he was never designated a POW, by the way) home.

Yes, despite overwhelming opposition based on facts, the leftist fever swamp is still banking on emotion. Accusing those of us who were initially happy about the situation of hypocrisy is like accusing someone who was told they’d just won a million dollars of being a hypocrite for being pissed off after finding out they also now owe five million dollars.

In their minds, the only thing that matters is that Bergdahl was brought home. Real life doesn’t work that way. When the cost of doing something greatly outweighs the benefits, it’s a bad deal. And when you lie about it, or you call someone a hypocrite or worse for objecting to the bad deal, you reveal your ignorance. In the case of the White House and others who we know aren’t ignorant, the only conclusion is that they’re being dishonest.

That is what is pissing people off. The gross dishonesty. This is a problem without adding the fact that the administration broke the law by failing to notify Congress about the prisoner release.

Suddenly, the very same people who have spent the better part of the 20th century calling soldiers “baby killers” or worse want us to believe they’re the pro-soldier camp. This while they call the soldiers who served with Bergdahl, and are calling him a deserter, liars.

These are not rational people. And the scary part is they’re running the country.