Another norm bites the dust #POWs

Another norm bites the dust #POWs

by digby

I wrote about the right's conditional love for American troops this morning at Salon. I recounted the history of Limbaugh and the like and his loathing for "phony soldiers" -- you know, soldiers who criticize war. And then:
It shouldn’t, therefore, be surprising that while these right-wingers are reverent toward the uniform and the flag (to the point where they are even willing to defend them torturing prisoners in order to ”blow off steam”) they are equally quick to announce that the prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl should have been left in the hands of the Taliban. One would think that the idea of leaving an American who had been tortured for five years by a ruthless enemy to rot would strike them as at least slightly unpatriotic, but apparently his alleged desertion and political thought crimes are so abhorrent that the U.S. government should abandon its tradition (as well as its legal and moral obligation) to exchange prisoners of war going all the way back to George Washington.

It’s not hard to imagine that if the president had been named Bush and the prisoner had left behind a diary proclaiming his love for Rush Limbaugh the right wing that today insists that Bergdahl is a traitor would be throwing parades in his honor, deserter or not. He was, after all, held for nearly five years by the enemy, something that would probably be seen as heroic if it weren’t for his hippie-dippy beliefs. If we have learned anything by now it’s that for all their pompous flag-waving, the right only supports some of the troops. The government should probably take a poll among them before deciding which soldiers are worthy of the nation’s concern.
Mainly I'm concerned about the idea that yet another norm is being discarded in the name of the GWOT, in this case the norm going all the way back to George Washington that says we will exchange prisoners of war. Also too this ridiculous idea idea that these specific middle aged men who've been held prisoner for a decade for the last decade are uniquely dangerous. Unless Guantanamo has been teaching its prisoners advanced military strategy it's highly doubtful those guys present more of a danger than the thousands of battle-hardened Taliban soldiers who have been receiving training day in and day out on the battlefield. How silly.

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