Prisoner Exchange vs Negotiating with Terrorists
Predictably some elements of the Obama Opposition (because that is really the best description of them at this point) are up in arms at the exchange of Sgt. Bergdahl for Gitmo Detainees on the grounds that “We don’t negotiate with terrorists”. Well you know who DOES negotiate DIRECTLY with groups that actively commit periodic violent assaults/terroristic attacks on their population and troops in order to facilitate release of the occassional prisoner?
The Israelis. From Wiki: List of Israeli Prisoner Exchanges .
The latest three listed:
On June 1, 2008, Israel released the Lebanese prisoner Nissim Nasser, in exchange for which Hezbollah handed over the partial remains of up to 20 Israeli soldiers killed during the 2006 Lebanon War.
In July 2008 Israel released long time serving Lebanese prisoner Samir al-Quntar, four Hezbollah fighters captured in the 2006 Lebanon war and the bodies of 199 Palestinian, Lebanese of Arab fighters captured by Israel in the past three decades. Kuntar had been convicted for his role in the 1979 Nahariya attack, which resulted in the deaths of four Israelis, including two small children. According to eyewitness accounts, Kuntar bludgeoned a four-year-old girl to death. In exchange Hezbollah released the bodies of two Israeli soldiers (Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev) captured in a cross-border raid July 12, 2006.
On 18 October 2011 captured IDF tank gunner Gilad Shalit, captured by the Palestinian militant organization Hamas in 2006, was released in exchange for 1027 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. The released prisoners were responsible for the deaths of 569 Israeli civilians.
So unless our Neo-Con pro-Likunik ‘friends’ want to concede that Israel is complicit with terrorists because they refused to leave Shalit behind, and even released live “terrorists” in return for “partial remains of up to 20” or “bodies of two Israeli soldiers”, they can either shut up or admit that they believe the lifes of Israeli soldiers are more important than those of American soldiers.
Welcome Home Bowe!
It is all very fine and manly to say “we don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
but when the terrorists kill prisoners or have the power to keep them in prison forever,
it is better to “negotiate” than to assure the death or misery of real humans who feel real pain
you don’t lose anything by letting a bad guy go…. even a really bad guy. you lose a whole world by letting a human being die.
“we don’t negotiate” sounds all very manly, but it is the advise of those who feast off human misery.
and no, you won’t be encouraging more kidnappings. they already do that.
Just beyond partisan stupidity.
Imagine if Obama had traded guns instead of human beings.
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB210/14-Weinberger%20Diaries%20Dec%207%20handwritten.pdf
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/reagan-iran/
Maybe WE could give Sgt. Bergdahl back and get OUR Terrorist back to GITMO? If WE hurry they could be back in a week or so eating $1,000,000 each a year again.
A farce within an enigma, within a scam, within a lot of hollerin’ from scare-mongers.
Nothing the US is doing: fighting phoney “wars”, building nations to some arcane specification, propping puppets, spending atrillion a year contributes to providing for the common defense.
Business developmnent for war profiteers since 1948.
I would rather have one (all of them for that matter) soldier safe than the lot of detained public enemies incarcerated forever at GITMO.
If you took the money out of war there would be no more war or GITMO’s.
Ilsm: EXACTLY!!!
You do realize that by allowing this the Taliban now has more reason to capture every US troop they can… that’s why we’ve generally had a “no negotiate” policy. Don’t get me wrong though… I’m very happy to see Sgt. Bergdahl go home safely.
I seem to be the only one that thinks these may be 5 GITMO detainees that they were trying to release to someone who agreed to take them anyway.
Rob: Don’t forget, WE INVADED Afghanistan. They will try to grab anyone when the opportunity presents itself. Bergdahl apparently was the only such opportunity. Taking and trading prisoners IS a part of any war, much like getting shot or bombed. Its ALL in it.
Rob
I think if you will think about it slowly and carefully you will realize that “they” were always going to try to capture (or kill) as many of our troops as they could. It’s our business not to let our troops get captured. And if captured to get them out safely. The people who call it “negotiating with terrorists” are just confused. To be really cold blooded about it I could say that you probably don’t want to trade “the whole game” for one prisoner, but once you are “negotiating with terrorists” you are on your way to solving whatever led to the war (aka “terrorism”) in the first place. And saving the lives of our guys… as well as their guys… is a very good first step.
I mentioned those who live off human misery. There really are such people. On both sides. We ought to do what we can to reduce the quantity of human misery. And if we think about it “exchanging prisoners” doesn’t hurt us. Stuffing our heads with tough sounding nonsense like “we don’t negotiate with terrorists” does.
Rob, Coberly, Mike,
Not to mention that prisoner exchange makes it much more likely that they will keep the prisoners alive and in something closer to good health since there is value in them doing so.
DSimpson
glad you mentioned that.