The 5 prisoners that were released, weren't they hand-picked by the Taliban, who is still over there blowing shit up, trying to kill US soldiers, the Afghan military, etc? Aren't they recruiting Afghan military personnel to suicide-bomb US forces?
I'd feel a whole lot better about the situation if the guy didn't desert. But it's looking like he wasn't necessarily the most deserving candidate for this deal.
Obama pushed this thru to distract from the VA mess, that's what I firmly believe. He is a career politician, why should I expect anything differently? And it seems like the majority of people agree with that, otherwise his approval rating wouldn't be tanking again - this isn't a fox news poll, this is a collection of polls:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...oval-1044.html
It's all words and political arguing of whether it was right or wrong (and theres a case for each side), until one of those 5 kills a bunch of people, Americans or non-Americans. Then when that happens, will you still say it was a good deal? If one of those guys arranges one attack, and 3 American soldiers die because of it, is it a good deal? If they say they are going to do it then I am going to believe it. The fact these guys were held in captivity for so long doesnt make me feel better about the situation. And for the people in the thread who said they'll likely be killed by the Taliban themselves, then why were they hand-picked by them for release?
When you deal with assholes, some times you have to be the asshole and just get your way, whether its right or wrong, to protect your own. That's what Obama taught me in 6 years of being President. Of course, when you're the asshole and you only care about getting your way, then you have to be right / accurate. And that's what George W taught me. Obama is a bad reaction to George W. They are both trash. We went from hard to soft, and we really need to be hard, but we need to accurate and correct on situations.