Mark Finkelstein: Bloomberg Columnist Defends Bergdahl Deal: ‘The President Managed to Get Five Guys Out of Guantanamo’ (HUH???)
http://online.wsj.com/articles/bloomberg-columnist-defends-bergdahl-deal-1401828159
Who was President Obama rescuing: Bowe Bergdahl or the Taliban terrorists themselves?
The question arises out of the mind-boggling defense of the Bergdahl deal proferred on Tuesday’s “Morning Joe’ by Bloomberg columnist Jeffrey Goldberg, who argued that by dint of the deal, “the President managed to get five guys out of Guantanamo, which is a goal.” Well, at least President Obama didn’t have to send Navy Seals in helicopters over the Gitmo fence to rescue the Taliban. He achieved his goal with a mere stroke of his mighty pen.
Mika Brzezinski had been expressing real skepticism about the deal, but supportively responded to Goldberg’s inanity, saying: “maybe this is — and the hopeful part of me thinks this is at least the beginning of trying to figure out what to do with these [Guatanamo] people.”
Transcript:
EUGENE ROBINSON: To one of your questions: why now? There’s an obvious difference in Afghanistan now. We’re in the end game in Afghanistan now. We were not three years ago. We were in the surge and now we know when we’re leaving and how we’re leaving.
JEFFREY GOLDBERG: There was a strong impulse in the White House, we’re trying to close off and cauterize some wounds here. The President managed to get five guys out of Guantanamo, which of course is a goal. And getting this guy out before American troops are gone from Afghanistan is an important goal obviously.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: We’re never going to know exactly what the circumstances around these five are. I would like to believe that —
Mr. GOLDBERG: We could take a guess.
Ms. BRZEZINSKI: Yeah. Actually, we probably could. I’d like to believe that there are few options in terms of closing Gitmo, and this is a president who wanted to, okay, who is not for the Guantanamo Bay concept and thinks that it tears away at the fabric of what we stand for. Maybe this is — and the hopeful part of me thinks this is at least the beginning of trying to figure out what to do with these people.
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