It is important that the stories of Americans held captive overseas do not fade from the front pages.
Since I updated last week’s post about the captured American soldier depicted in the Taliban video - identified as PFC Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho, member of 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment – I received some comments from various sites.
I usually don’t reply to comments - the template is to post, generate discussion and move on. But this issue is somewhat personal: I am a US Army soldier, retired, and half my family is Korean.
Red, White & Blue trumps politics and opinions for all of us in situations like this. Bergdahl, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, myself - and I’m assuming most of the readership - we are all Americans; politics ends at the water’s edge.
It is not correct to armchair quarterback these situations.
I don’t know how or via what misadventure Bergdahl ended up in enemy hands; I have heard some scuttlebutt directly out of Afghanistan re Bergdahl but at this time it is simply impossible for us to know the truth of his situation. The Taliban are terrorist scum with a world view straight out of the 13th century. However Bergdahl arrived in his circumstances, it is not incorrect to hope & pray for his safe return.
As for Laura Ling & Euna Lee, yes it seems they are guilty of faulty judgment - but The North Koreans are capable of unimaginable intolerance and harsh cruelty. Whether Laura Ling & Euna Lee are in a labor camp or a “guest house” in Pyongyang, I can assure you their current circumstances make Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo look like a Sunday School picnic.
In both cases it is the height of poor taste to offer some of the opinions expressed.
They are Americans, held against their will by people who regard them as “bargaining chips”; insane savages who see fit starve & torture their own people into submission, via state-sponsored terrorism.
Regarding the suggestion of negotiating with the Taliban - the reason why our official policy is that we do not negotiate with terrorists, is because it only encourages them to kidnap more Americans. As for the thought that because we liberated their country by military force, the Taliban possess some kind of moral high ground over us; this is laughable and pathetic all at the same time.
- LINNANE SENDS
Well said.
ReplyDelete