No sooner had the yellow ribbons started to come down from the trees than the backlash started up. Not everyone is delighted about the Obama administration’s deal to free American POW Bowe Bergdahl by exchanging him for five Guantanamo Bay prisoners.
It’s pretty easy to view this cynically, as a sign that in these times, everything is political and the country can’t come together over anything. And to a certain extent that’s true: If dueling, pro-forma charges of politicization from official Democratic and Republican spokesmen don’t instill pessimism, what will? But while there are plenty of controversies that seem far from producing any meaningful revelations, despite extensive inquiry—Benghazi comes to mind—there are important constitutional and policy issues at stake in this case.
Curated from www.theatlantic.com
It is exceedingly sad that our nation’s loss of its social ethics compass has spilled over into the one area that was universally agreed upon: we always bring all of our boys home. It’s sad but, given our politics of the last five and a half years, not shocking. A nation that forsakes its workers, veterans, children, hungry, and homeless, eventually does the same to its captive heroes.
Whatever this young man did, he is worth bringing home. All of our young men are.
To read my comment on The Atlantic site, click here.