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From: acoustic@panix.com
In article <87a963oln6.fsf@wintersun.localdomain>,
jdeluise wrote:
>acoustic@panix.com (lo yeeOn) writes:
>
>> And we can expect that if Joe Biden's son were taken hostage in the
>> chaos of today's Ukraine, a lot of negotiation would take place to get
>> him back alive - since he is a part of the elite, whereas the Foleys
>> are not.
>
>What about the prisoner swap for Bergdahl...?
You brought up a very very good point, jdeluise!
It's very worth our while to take a deeper look into the business of
"you don't negotiate with terrorists" rhetoric people like the NSA's
Caitlin Hayden was mouthing, regarding "threats" high US government
officials had made to Foley's family before his tragic beheading.
So what about Bergdahl indeed?
Bergdahl was really lucky, IMO.
Bergdahl was very lucky because he was held cative by none other than
the Haqqani network - which I believe the US government has declared
as "the biggest threat" to the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan and a
terrorist organization. So, what was Hayden talking about, as she
tried to explain away the threats various high US government officials
had made to Foley's family that eventually cost Foley's life?
Here is more about Bergdahl from the wikipedia:
Bowe Robert Bergdahl (born March 28, 1986) is a United States Army
soldier who was held captive by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network
in Afghanistan from June 2009 until his release in May 2014. The
circumstances under which Bergdahl went missing and how he was
captured by the Taliban have since become a subject of intense media
scrutiny.
Bergdahl was released on May 31, 2014, as part of a prisoner
exchange for five Taliban members who were being held at the
detention center at Guantanamo Bay. This exchange quickly became a
political controversy within the United States.
The US government does negotiate with enemies all the time. It has
to, especially when it is so trigger happy and has waged so many large
wars around the world in the last half century.
In the case of Bergdahl, I have the eerie feeling that a) the guys at
the Guantanamo prison aren't really valuable POWs, as far as being
threats to America is concerned; and b) the White House had also
decided that having Bergdahl back alive and getting to the bottom of
his story would be more valuable than to sacrifice him to the Taliban;
and c) maybe there was some kind of goodwill gesture involved in
getting the Taliban to the negotiation table in preparation for a more
manageable Afghanistan after NATO's 2014 withdrawal.
In the case of most others, including James Foley's, it's my feeling
that the government doesn't want its lowly nobody citizens to think
that they have the power to do anything, even though it is the lives
of their loved ones that are at stake.
The life of an individual citizen isn't worth much to our government
officials - they only care about maintaining the power of the
government.
Notice that Bergdahl's parents had five years of an agonizing wait.
They tried all kinds of things, including learning to speak the Arabic
language and were criticised for it. Clearly, the were learning the
language so that they could better communicate with his captors.
Bergdahl's case was helped by the fact that the Afghan war in the last
five years had largely subsided in intensity and the Taliban wasn't
worried about being eliminated by our bombs and bullets any time soon.
Some form of low-level negotiation between the US side and the Taliban
was humming on and off. By contrast, the ISIS fighters were facing
large scale US bombing and their own existential question. So, they
exercised their hostage option, with futility. Unfortunately, two
American citizens were killed in a war between the US government and
the ISIS fighters.
But even in the case of Bergdahl, a lot of those in Washington are
very unhappy about his release. They say: "but what about our
doctrine of not negotiating with terrorists?" The results were a lot
of explaining, such as the Taliban fighteres that we have fought for
13 years "aren't really terrorists".
To me, the real reason our government chose to bring Bergdahl home
(alive) remains a mystery. Someday we'll know more.
But it remains true that Israel cares a lot more about its own people,
as it seems to me from Schalit Galead's case than Washington cares
about Americans who go overseas to cover the damned wars that it
ignited in the first place. And therefore, I was proposing that the
government should try harder to discourage Americans from going there
and being exposed to the risk of hostage taking. Hope it helps.
lo yeeOn
About Haqqani-network"
United States
According to US military commanders, it is "the most resilient enemy
network" and one of the biggest threats to the U.S.-led NATO forces
and the Afghan government in the current war in Afghanistan.
It is also the most lethal network in Afghanistan. Presently, the
United States is offering a reward for information leading to the
capture of their leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, in the amount of
$5,000,000.00.
About the "controversy" of Bergdahl's release
House pushes resolution condemning Obama for Bowe Bergdahl prisoner
swap The GOP-controlled House prepared to vote on the measure, which
chastises Obama for not giving Congress a 30-day notice about the
controversial exchange.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tuesday, September 9, 2014, 4:40 PM
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/house-push
s-resolution-condemning-obama-bowe-bergdahl-prisoner-swap-articl
-1.1933919#ixzz3DF4NBNRf
And about the threats from high US government officials to James
Foley's family who tried to save him:
Subject: Foley's family has suffered at the hands of our
anti-terrorism law: If our government is actively stopping families of
hostages from getting their loved ones home alive, it should have
stopped them from going in the first place!
I think that our government should have made a greater effort in
stopping American citizens from going to the Middle East to collect
news if it has the law at its disposal to forbid families of hostages
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* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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