WE DID BIZ WTH THE TALIBAN

[HairOfTheDog]

Never mind. Don't answer that. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I'm not going to argue about it anyway.

Why not?

I still feel badly thinking I pissed off Kid, but then I'm pretty sure that's giving myself and mocking too much credit.

Anyway, the impeachment threats are a dime a dozen. They were tossed about in regards to "Fast and Furious", "Affordable Health Care", and too many others to list.

In this case, some of the uproar appears to be in relation to the seeming inequity of the trade: 5 top Taliban for 1 low-ranking US soldier who may well have walked away from his post. Definitely, from a military/fight standpoint, the Taliban got more than they gave up in the trade. But, that's in part because we'd taken more from them in the first place.

We captured 5 top ranking Taliban and removed them from the equation for 12 years so we could do our thing in their country. They had only one US soldier in captivity as this "conflict" comes to an end. (Of all the others in Gitmo, many of whose intelligence and strategic value is questionable or limited, those 5 guys are the ones the Taliban wanted back in trade for our one guy.) If we weren't gonna charge those 5 with any crimes like we have with the Qaeda Gitmo detainees, then could we really keep them forever without due process?

IMO, Obama expects their transfer to Qatar to widely increase the chances for successful peace talks between the Afghan government, the Taliban and the US -- allowing the US to back all the way out of Afghanistan.

But, I don't think it's off-base for Republican and some Democratic Congresspersons (Dianne Feinstein, even) to be very concerned about the threat that these Taliban members could pose in the future and irked about being side-stepped. The Congress doesn't know the terms of the release to Qatar, AFAIK, and weren't apprised of the prisoner trade 30 days in advance, like the law requires (I've heard Obama's reasons, truth or fiction, from his mouth and the mouthpiece -- Susan Rice -- they leave room for questions, IMO).

I'm glad Bergdahl is out of captivity; now just gonna watch the story unfold -- I think there are a lot of plot lines.