Tag: terrorist

Originally published in Daily Kos Dave Brat cosponsored HR 4420, the No Welfare for Terrorists Act of 2016. According to the Congressional Research Service, "This...

I am not going to pretend that I have enough information to pass judgment on the swap for Bowe. No one I've read is working with the information and in the moment the President acted. I am perplexed he did not consult Congress, IF he didn't. Credible deniability baby.

Here are some takeaways I haven't seen discussed. Bowe Bergdahl is an intelligence coup. The process of negotiation even through an intermediary in Qatar must have yielded all sorts of high value information. The jerks we sent back are no more high value (right in the head) as combatants than Bowe will be (that this isn't appreciated makes it obvious that PTSD just isn't generally understood); their value to the "cause" will be zilch point nada (we treated them very poorly and that will last forever). We are supposedly in a war, though Congress never had the cojones to declare it. In war there are always trades and releases of captives. The angry reaction that has followed this swap negates any concern that we have established a precedent for "negotiating with terrorists."

Bowe is a walking encyclopedia of information about language, customs, mores, tactics, and other information about the Taliban. Unlike the five guys we released, we won't have to torture him to harvest that information. As in we might actually be able to rely on what he hands us. Even Bowe doesn't know what he knows.