Congress Has Another Chance To Stop Playing Politics On Bergdahl Deal

Members both parties got cold feet the minute there was controversy about the deal to release Bowe Bergdahl. Some even ditched briefings so they could rush in front of television cameras. There will be a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday which will give members a chance to get answers, and they’ll hopefully get it right this time.

As a New York Times editorial puts it, “fearful Democrats” have been just as quick in resorting to a “duck and cover response,” and just as quick to jump on the anti-Bergdahl “bandwagon,” as Republicans have been. For instance, Joe Manchin opined: “I think we can all agree we’re not dealing with a war hero here.” Okay, and that tells us what, exactly?

Answers may be more nuanced than media sound bites allow.

For instance, the narrative was previously dominated by charges, first made by soldiers in interviews with CNN’s Jake Tapper, that Bergdahl was a deserter who may have tried to link up with the Taliban. But we have since learned that an internal military report completed just after Bergdahl disappeared in 2009 casts at least some doubt on both of those notions, though they could both still be true.

What’s more, a former military official has since explained to Tapper that even if Bergdahl did seek out the Taliban, he could have had a motive other than treachery, such as a “messianic mission on his part to stop the violence and perhaps help broker an understanding with the local Taliban.”

We have also since heard from a senior administration official that the exchange had to be kept secret from Congress out of fears that a public leak could lead Bergdahl’s Taliban captors to kill him, in part because of a split among the Taliban about the wisdom of the deal. If true, that rationale goes well beyond the belief that Bergdahl’s deteriorating health required rapid action (which Senators have not found persuasive, based on video evidence).

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.