[Peace-discuss] Thank Obama for bringing Bowe home

Wed Jun 4 13:19:59 EDT 2014

Right now, public debate is joined on the following:

Should the Administration have negotiated with the Taliban?

Should the Administration have swapped five Gitmo detainees for Bergdahl?

Judging from the media, the pro-diplomacy, pro-ending the war side of the
debate is losing the argument.

I understand that you find "thank Obama" offensive. But judging from my
correspondence, many rank-and-file Democrats - which, substantially, are
our target audience - are worse on these issues than the Obama
Administration right now. If they would support the actions of the
Administration to free Bergdahl, it would be an advance.

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1

On Wed, Jun 4, 2014 at 11:27 AM, C. G. Estabrook <cge at shout.net> wrote:

> Isn't than rather like thanking Mussolini for making the trains run on
> time?
>
> Of course "we want to end the war in Afghanistan, bring all of our troops
> home, and close the Guantanamo prison."  That can't be done by lending
> critical support to an executive whose policy is to continue the war, keep
> 1,000 military bases abroad, and continue imprisonment, rendition, and
> drone strikes.
>
> That's a policy of useful idiocy which the Obama administration is
> counting on, as popular opposition to its economic and military policies
> grows. As Chris Hughes and others point out, its last line of defense is
> the liberals.
>
> --CGE
>
> On Jun 4, 2014, at 10:40 AM, Robert Naiman <noreply at list.moveon.org>
> wrote:
>
> Dear C. G. Estabrook
>
> Some in Congress—including even some Democrats—have attacked the Obama
> Administration for using diplomacy and transferring prisoners from
> Guantanamo to bring home U.S. prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
>
> No critic of the Administration has explained how President Obama and
> Secretary of Defense Hagel were supposed to bring Bowe home without
> negotiating with the Taliban or agreeing to the prisoner transfer. None has
> explained why, if the prisoners at Guantanamo are "prisoners of war," they
> should not be treated like prisoners of war in other conflicts: exchanged
> for other prisoners of war, or released at the end of hostilities.
>
> If we want to end the war in Afghanistan, bring all of our troops home,
> and close the Guantanamo prison, we can't be silent when the President is
> attacked for pursuing diplomatic solutions, because if those attacks go
> unchallenged, the pursuit of diplomacy will be chilled in the future.
>
> *Show your support for diplomacy and for bringing our soldiers home by
> signing and sharing our petition at MoveOn to President Obama and Congress:*
>
> *http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/welcome-home-bowe*
> <http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/welcome-home-bowe>
>
> Thanks for all you do to help support diplomacy and end war,
>
> Robert Naiman
> Just Foreign Policy
>
> P.S. I wrote about this campaign at Huffington Post. *You can read and
> share that here:*
>
> *If You're Not Cheering Bowe's Return, You Didn't Want to End the War*
>
>
> *http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/bowe-berghdal-return_b_5440866.html*
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/bowe-berghdal-return_b_5440866.html>
>
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