Says the party who blamed Bush for the weather.
If you don't think the Obama Administration should face scrutiny for the deal to trade five captured terrorists for a deserter, say so here and now.
Scrutiny, sure, but don't act like Obama came up with the concept of prisoner exchanges just because you hate him.
"Despite Republican criticism and a planned congressional hearing, President Obama’s decision to trade five Taliban fighters for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was not a departure from history, U.S. law, or his long-delayed promises to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
None of the men involved in the swap are members of al-Qaida. What’s more, the five detainees – who spent more than a decade at Guantanamo – were
transferred under heavy restrictions that will prevent them from rejoining the battlefield, unlike hundreds of Guantanamo prisoners who were released by former President George W. Bush.
In fact,
Bush released dozens of men held in secret CIA prisons. Yet prisoner swaps, even lop-sided ones, are nothing new. “[Exchanges] have long been viewed as a very human way of effectuating the goals of international law, which is to make war as humane as possible,” Steve Vladeck, a constitutional law professor at American University said in an interview.
Prisoner exchanges for individual soldiers are not uncommon among heavily militarized U.S. allies.
In 2011, Israel traded 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for a single soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was kept captive in the Gaza Strip for five years."
"The United States has a long history of negotiating prisoner trades in times of war."
"
There’s little that’s actually new here," said Mitchell Reiss,
who worked in the State Department under President George W. Bush and served as national security adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney."
"Here’s a few, according to Reiss’ book:
-After the North Koreans captured the U.S.S. Pueblo in 1968, President Lyndon Johnson apologized for spying as part of negotiations to secure the release of 83 American prisoners.
-In 1970, President Richard Nixon pressured Israel, Switzerland, West Germany and Britain to release Palestinian prisoners after two airlines were hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
-During the Iran hostage crisis of 1979 to 1981, President Jimmy Carter agreed to unfreeze $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets after more than a year of negotiations with the Iranian revolutionaries.
-In perhaps the most famous swap, after seven Americans were captured in Beirut, Lebanon, President Ronald Reagan agreed to send missiles to Iran in what became known as the Iran-Contra scandal.
-President Bill Clinton’s administration sat down with Hamas in attempts to negotiate peace with Israel. His administration also worked directly with the Taliban nearly two decades ago on several occasions to see if the group would hand over Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders.
Reiss also noted that President
George W. Bush engaged in negotiations with Iran and North Korea even after decreeing them part of the "Axis of Evil."
James Jeffrey, a former ambassador to Iraq under Obama and
deputy national security adviser for George W. Bush, agreed that "there have been many cases of negotiations with terrorists or rogue regimes for the return of Americans."
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...uz-us-policy-has-changed-now-we-make-deals-t/
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_...f_prisoners_for_bergdahl_was_illegal_the.html
http://time.com/2809612/bowe-bergdahl-obama-taliban/
