Hi readers.
The old guys down at physical therapy are pissed. Evidently five of the Arab freedom fighters the US has been holding captive somewhere are going to be released so’s to get back one GI Arabs captured. Hell of a deal, seems to me, though some might argue a GI is worth ten of anyone else anywhere.
But there are a lot of different ways of looking at the matter. Elected officials are afraid we didn’t get our moneys worth on the deal. I’d have to suspect they think after five years captivity that GI isn’t going to be much use to anyone, which might be their rationale.
On the other hand, people get out of prisons all the time after being gang-raped repeatedly the way that GI almost certainly has been in captivity. And it doesn’t hold them back. Ex convicts are almost all able to stick up convenience stores, steal cars, sell drugs, do a little rape and mayhem. Being gang raped in prison hardly slows them down at all.
So my gut feel is this guy’s probably going to be okay and if he plays his cards right maybe he can sit on top of a building with a rifle somewhere and plink off a dozen-or-so anonymous people of one sort or another. Plenty of ex-GIs are doing that nowadays anyway who haven’t even been gang-raped that we know of.
Anyway, people who are against the trade still ought to feel good knowing an American is worth five Arabs. I can’t help wishing it was ten, though. Would have been ten back during WWII when it was Japanese, I’m guessing.
Old Jules
So Far From Heaven 
Jules, you’ve got my vote.
Kenneturner: Thank you. Thank you vury much. J
Well …
here’s an interesting wrinkle on the fabric of the general response to his return:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/01/us/bergdahl-deserter-or-hero/index.html
I can’t help but think that the overall political response to this deal / trade / arrangement will depend on the one thing ALL governmental actions are subject to: whose administration is this?
Let’s not forget that those who will continue to fight Obamacare to the death once thought the concept to be brilliant when the folks in Massachusetts called it “Romneycare”.
Benghazi? There have always been widespread beliefs Bush should have been aware of 9/11 before it happened.
For God’s sake, I’ve had friends tell me that it was all the work done by the intelligence community under Bush that finally got bin Laden.
So …
some people will say we needed to “bring our hero back home”.
Others will say that we should have left his traitorous ass over there.
Others will say Obummer should have gotten him back here years ago.
And then there’s the old five-for-one angle. People who don’t have all the info on hand always argue about baseball trades like that.
Operational phrase here: “it happened on that Kenyan boy’s watch.”
Orphan: Maybe there ought to be a medal for desertion in a war of the sort happened during our lifetimes, and another medal for dodging the draft and skipping out to Canada. Along with medals and free health care at VA hospitals for everyone who didn’t join the all-volunteer military after conscription ended. Gracias, J
Lol