[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Warmonger Media Storm Against Saving Sgt. Bergdahl

Sun Jun 8 14:15:10 EDT 2014

Decent article by Robert Naiman, except that he tries to imply that it 
is ONLY the republiccans who are the warmongers and that none of the 
democrats are, which we all know is nonsense.

David Johnson

--------

  Warmonger Media Storm Against Saving Sgt. Bergdahl

Screen Shot 2014-06-07 at 9.35.29 AM
Educate! <http://www.popularresistance.org/category/educate/> Congress 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/congress/>, Guantanamo Bay 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/guantanamo-bay/>, Policy 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/policy/>, Wars and Militarism 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/wars-and-militarism/>
By Robert Naiman, www.truth-out.org 
<http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/24178-warmonger-media-storm-against-saving-sgt-bergdahl-shows-why-we-have-so-much-war>
June 7th, 2014
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/Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) departs a rare briefing of 
the full Senate regarding the exchange Taliban prisoners for Sgt. Bowe 
Bergdahl, on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 4, 2014. (Photo: Gabriella 
Demczuk / The New York Times)/

    *The political forces trashing the rescue Sgt. Bergdahl are the same
    political forces that got us into the Iraq war.*

If you want to understand why it’s the case that on the one hand, the US 
public and the majority of Congress turned against the war in 
Afghanistan a long time ago, and yet on the other hand, it’s been so 
hard to end the war, this week’s warmonger media storm against the 
diplomatic rescue of US prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been very 
instructive. It’s been known for years that a key step toward ending the 
war would be exchanging five Taliban prisoners of war at Guantanamo for 
the release of Sgt. Bergdahl. There has never been any serious dispute 
of the case that this would be a key step toward ending the war. I 
challenge anyone to find a counter-example to my claim.

The political forces that are trashing the deal to rescue Sgt. Bergdahl 
are the same political forces that got us into the Iraq war. They are 
the same political forces who want to keep the Afghanistan war going 
indefinitely. They are the same political forces who want to keep the 
Guantanamo prison open indefinitely.

Voters for Peace banner in support of Sgt. Ben Bergdahl created by Ellen 
Davidson and Tarak Kauff 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Bergdahl-welcome-home-e1402151498619.jpg> 

Veterans for Peace banner in support of Sgt. Ben Bergdahl created by 
Ellen Davidson and Tarak Kauff

Again, I challenge anyone to provide a single counterexample of someone 
in Congress who voted against the Iraq war, or who has been a leader in 
trying to end the war in Afghanistan, or who has been a leader in trying 
to close the Guantanamo prison, who is now trashing the diplomatic deal 
to rescue Sgt. Bergdahl. So, you might think, that if it’s obvious that 
the prisoner exchange was a key step toward ending the war, then the 
majority of the population who have long been telling pollsters that 
they think the Afghanistan war should end would see this as a slam-dunk: 
exchange the prisoners and end the war. And therefore, the prisoner 
exchange should have been relatively uncontroversial.

Recall that when the last US soldiers left Iraq in 2011, there was an 
attempt by Republican warmongers to stoke public outrage. It went over 
like a lead balloon. The public was done with the war and wanted the 
soldiers to come home. But that’s not how it has played out in this case 
– at least, that is not how it has played out so far. Instead, there’s 
been a warmonger media storm, that has confused a lot of Americans about 
the essential fact that this is a key, necessary step toward ending the 
war – the result that the majority of Americans have long said that they 
want. I know this from my own personal correspondence.

Just Foreign Policy put up a petition at MoveOn 
<http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/welcome-home-bowe> backing the 
diplomatic deal to rescue Bergdahl. So far, there are about 14,000 
signatures on the petition. For comparison, a recent petition 
<http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/Welch-Syria-no-manpads> we did 
backing Rep. Peter Welch’s letter 
<http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/1517> urging President Obama to 
resist pressure to transfer manpads to Syrian insurgents also got about 
14,000 signatures. So, among our core base of people who support 
diplomacy and want to prevent more war, our level of support has been 
about the same.

What’s different is my correspondence. I’m getting a fair bit of hate 
mail from people claiming that Bergdahl is a “traitor” (not true 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/06/world/asia/bowe-bergdahl-walked-away-before-military-report-says.html>, 
as far as we know) or that he caused the deaths of US soldiers (also not 
true 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/04/world/middleeast/can-gi-be-tied-to-6-lost-lives-facts-are-murky.html>, 
as far as we know.) Some of these people write things like, “I want to 
end the war and close Guantanamo too, but . . . ”

Here’s the good news: We can turn this around. I got similar hate mail a 
year ago, when we pushed back on the media storm that NSA whistleblower 
Edward Snowden was a “traitor.” (Isn’t it sad how glibly some people 
throw that word around?) Today, the climate has decisively changed. 
There are certainly still people who bash Edward Snowden, but you don’t 
find people today saying, “I want to end NSA blanket surveillance, but 
Edward Snowden is a traitor.”

Similarly, I predict, we can now get people who want to end the war in 
Afghanistan and to close the Guantanamo prison to understand and accept 
that this is a necessary step toward doing so, and to stop repeating Fox 
News talking points. Sooner rather than later, people who want to end 
the war will understand that trashing the diplomatic deal to free Sgt. 
Bergdahl is a Republican warmonger thing. And when we can confine 
trashing diplomacy to end the war to the Republican warmongers – as 
trashing diplomacy with Iran was confined to the Republican warmongers – 
such trashing will become harmless, and ending the war can proceed.

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid went to the Senate floor 
and gave a speech 
<http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/208213-reid-charges-gop-with-hypocrisy-on-bergdahl> strongly 
defending the administration’s diplomacy to rescue Sgt. Bergdahl and 
denouncing Republican critics as hypocrites. If we can get enough 
Democrats to #StandWithReid 
<https://twitter.com/justfp/status/474607879711109120>, we can close the 
prison and end the war.

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