Is there such a thing as good swap with terrorists?

[d_tyler]

5 for 1...

The 5 top Taliban figures are released for one less than stellar individual...who apparently forgot how to speak English in just 5 years...(still trying to work that out in my head) and who apparently didn't want to be an American soldier anymore so he took off.

"No man left behind" is reserved for members of the Armed Forces. 6 fine soldiers died at the hands of the enemy while they were searching for this knuckle-headed traitor.

So how was this a good trade? Even if the guy was an honorable soldier with an exemplary record, he could have been extracted in many other ways other than freeing the worst of the worst in the terrorist community.

 

[theHawk]

To the progressives anything that weakens the US is a move in the right direction.

 

[MaxGrit]

Send the heads before the rest.

 

[candycorn]

5 for 1...

The 5 top Taliban figures are released for one less than stellar individual...who apparently forgot how to speak English in just 5 years...(still trying to work that out in my head) and who apparently didn't want to be an American soldier anymore so he took off.

"No man left behind" is reserved for members of the Armed Forces. 6 fine soldiers died at the hands of the enemy while they were searching for this knuckle-headed traitor.

So how was this a good trade? Even if the guy was an honorable soldier with an exemplary record, he could have been extracted in many other ways other than freeing the worst of the worst in the terrorist community.

See the whole board....

The "top Taliban figures" have been incarcerated for some time. If you've been out of the army for 10 years, will you still be considered one of the "top Army figures". Hardly. I doubt they will be useless but it's not as if we gave up von Clausewitz.

Would you be willing to vouch for the character of ever prisoner we've ever spent blood and treasure trying to rescue? You just know about this guy because he was the only one being released and the media stories center on him. During previous prisoner extractions/exchanges there was ample media coverage but nobody spent any considerable time examining the circumstances of the extraction/exchanges. But in the rush to criticize Obama, it's been done to a nausea inducing degree.

The story we were told about Jessica Lynch was that she fought to the last bullet. The real story was that her gun jammed and she never fired a shot.

In her congressional testimony to an oversight committee:

"I believe this is not a time for finger pointing. It is time for the truth, the whole truth, versus hype and misinformation."

"I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary. People like Lori Piestewa and First Sergeant Dowdy who picked up fellow soldiers in harm's way. Or people like Patrick Miller and Sergeant Donald Walters who actually fought until the very end. The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate tales."

"The truth of war is not always easy to hear but it is always more heroic than the hype."

The troopers even gave her a full color US flag to hold on to during the extraction...in a combat zone...illuminated by the light from a camera...
BBC NEWS | Programmes | Correspondent | Saving Private Lynch story 'flawed'



When the rescued POW is referring to those above her at the Pentagon as "liars"...something seems amiss.

The bottom line is that we got both Lynch and this guy back...or at least that should be the bottom line. Your mileage may vary.