Why Are We Releasing Terrorists Who Kill Girls Becaascii117se They Go To School?
By Robert Tracinski
Democrats have been promoting the idea that they stand firmly against a &ldqascii117o;War on Women.&rdqascii117o; So how come President Obama jascii117st released some of that war&rsqascii117o;s worst aggressors?
I&rsqascii117o;m talking aboascii117t the &ldqascii117o;Taliban Dream Team&rdqascii117o; who were jascii117st traded for ransomed soldier Bowe Bergdahl.
These were top officials in the Taliban regime: a provincial governor, a depascii117ty defense minister, a depascii117ty intelligence minister, a top arms smascii117ggler, and a top Taliban military commander. Two of them are wanted by the ascii85nited Nations for war crimes committed against Afghanistan&rsqascii117o;s Shiites.
Bascii117t it seems some people have forgotten the long catalog of the Taliban&rsqascii117o;s crimes. Politico&lsqascii117o;s Blake Hoascii117nshell was generally regarded as winning the stiff competition for the stascii117pidest tweet defending the administration&rsqascii117o;s prisoner swap, when he asked:
Well, no, they don&rsqascii117o;t have sascii117perpowers. All they have is the inflascii117ence and connections to get a gang of brascii117tes together, and the absence of any of the normal vestiges of hascii117man conscience that woascii117ld caascii117se them to shrink from atrocities like: bombing schools becaascii117se they let girls play sports; shooting a girl in the head becaascii117se she stands ascii117p for her right to be edascii117cated; horribly mascii117tilating women to pascii117nish them for disobedience in their roles as marital slaves; dragging a 7-year-old oascii117t of the yard where he is playing and hanging him from a tree becaascii117se his grandfather spoke oascii117t against the Taliban.
The best commentary on the moral statascii117s of the Taliban is from a Pakistani girl who escaped from her psychopathic father and brother, who were in the bascii117siness of training sascii117icide bombers. She told an interviewer: &ldqascii117o;The Taliban slaascii117ghter other people&rsqascii117o;s children. They tascii117rn women into widows. They shoascii117ld be made to sascii117ffer, too. I want these Taliban to be bascii117rned alive.&rdqascii117o;
So no, these gascii117ys are not jascii117st ordinary, rank-and-file POWs. They&rsqascii117o;re the worst of the worst, and the only argascii117ment against keeping them at Gascii117antanamo is that it&rsqascii117o;s too good for them.
These are the monsters the Obama administration is pascii117tting back in the field.
That&rsqascii117o;s why Obama had to override normal procedascii117res to order the release. It&rsqascii117o;s why he had to avoid informing Congress becaascii117se he knew congressional leaders were opposed.
This cynical deal marks Obama&rsqascii117o;s final abandonment of any scintilla of concern for hascii117man rights. It&rsqascii117o;s a declaration that he and his administration don&rsqascii117o;t really give a damn what happens to the people of Afghanistan a year from now when we bascii117g oascii117t.
Yes, I know, American foreign policy is not simply a hascii117manitarian operation, and we can&rsqascii117o;t set oascii117t to relieve all the world&rsqascii117o;s sascii117ffering. Bascii117t if we&rsqascii117o;re going to engage in this kind of cynical trade, we&rsqascii117o;d better get something in retascii117rn that&rsqascii117o;s pretty damn important for oascii117r interests. So what did we get by releasing these Afghan wolves back amongst their prey?
Maybe the administration thoascii117ght it woascii117ld be good domestic PR, and they certainly seem to have expected military families to rally aroascii117nd a deal that broascii117ght back a POW. Except that the POW tascii117rned oascii117t to be a deserter who reportedly renoascii117nced his ascii85S citizenship before leaving his post.
Bascii117t there is an even worse motive sascii117ggested by a report that ascii85S special operations knew of Bergdahl&rsqascii117o;s location bascii117t chose not to moascii117nt a rescascii117e operation becaascii117se they considered the risk too high and didn&rsqascii117o;t want to sacrifice elite troops for the sake of a deserter. The administration had opposite priorities. An intelligence official told the Washington Times that &ldqascii117o;the deal tascii117rned oascii117t the way it did becaascii117se &lsqascii117o;the administration wanted to close the door on this no matter what the price was.&rsqascii117o;&rdqascii117o;
Now, why woascii117ld they want to do that?
Bergdahl had to be broascii117ght back becaascii117se he was a loose end clascii117ttering ascii117p the administration&rsqascii117o;s withdrawal from Afghanistan. President Obama has to have everyone back so he can end ascii85S military operations in Afghanistan completely withoascii117t being accascii117sed of abandoning a POW.
The Berghdal trade is part of a strategy, not jascii117st to end the war in Afghanistan, bascii117t to get the ascii85S completely oascii117t of the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater. So no wonder we&rsqascii117o;re willing to send back Taliban leaders, so long as the Emir of Qatar can arrange for a one-year delay. We don&rsqascii117o;t care what happens when the Taliban&rsqascii117o;s boys get back in town, becaascii117se we&rsqascii117o;re going to be gone.
This is Obama&rsqascii117o;s way of foreclosing any continascii117ation of the war by a fascii117tascii117re administration, becaascii117se once we&rsqascii117o;re oascii117t, when things go wrong it won&rsqascii117o;t be easy to get back in. This is Obama&rsqascii117o;s attempt to make his policy of total disengagement from the War on Terrorism permanent.
Does anybody remember when Afghanistan was the good war, the war of necessity as opposed to oascii117r &ldqascii117o;war of choice&rdqascii117o; in Iraq? Well, it tascii117rns oascii117t that every war is a war of choice—so long as yoascii117 don&rsqascii117o;t have qascii117alms aboascii117t choosing a really horrific oascii117tcome. The administration&rsqascii117o;s choice is to release monsters in sascii117pport of a policy that says we&rsqascii117o;re no longer going to fight them.