Tubularsock

Now let Tubularsock go way out on a limb here only because Tubularsock always likes to be closest to the new leaves.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American soldier held prisoner in Afghanistan, was freed by the Taliban. 

The deal was simple: Five Tortured Afghan detainees from the U.S. torture-prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for One not-tortured American soldier. Cool!

Now, the limb part, is Tubularsock is making a big assumption here. And that assumption is that the Taliban DIDN’T torture Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is still under a cloud from his departure from the ranks back in 2009 because the circumstances surrounding Bergdahl’s capture remain something of a mystery.

Some have speculated that he willingly walked away from his unit but Tubularsock has one of those Tubularsock hunches that the Sargent was lit on a combination of alcohol and Afghan Gold and just found himself captured ……… bummer.

Now Tubularsock can hear you doubters, asking how would Tubularsock KNOW the obvious. Come now, really? Let us see ………

But the bigger the bull-shit the less likely we’ll ever know and here it comes from the Commander-in-Chief himself ………. Bergdahl’s recovery “. . . is a reminder of America’s unwavering commitment to leave no man or woman in uniform behind on the battlefield.”

Aren’t we so fucking noble!

It could be that on that Memorial Day visit Odroner made to Afghanistan to outline the direction his administration will be taking in that war that they just needed one more solider to be withdrawn from the forever battle and so they worked out this deal because they thought 22,200 withdrawn troops looked better from a PR perspective than 22,199.  

And it’s not the 9,800 troops that are going to stay there that you should be looking at anyway. They aren’t worth shit.

What you should be looking at is the number of mercenaries/contractors that will be remaining. Most American still don’t understand that removing troops does not reduce exposure and death to the Afghan people. That’s if the American public cares about that anyway. Using contractors to supply or enhance weapons is not unusual. But expeditionary warfare, stabilization and reconstruction operations, and intelligence services are tasks that most Americans believe are the sole job of the government or the military. It’s not. It’s all about privatization and profit. NOT ending the conflict.

That is why it doesn’t matter how many Taliban and remnants of al-Qaida are killed. There are ALWAYS more. And in many cases we supply THEM with weapons and training as well. Constant war requires it!

In fact according to a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan (SIGAR), an auditing agency created by Congress to provide oversight on government spending in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2013, almost 70% of the 4 billion dollars spent by the State Department for “rule-of-law” projects, like training and equipping the Afghan police force went to one corporation …. Dyncorp.

Dyncorp is known for it’s well-documented history of corruption investigations and subpar performance and yet the governments contracts flow in regardless of the fact that in 2010 the inspector general for Iraq  along with the State Department found that Dyncorp could not account for $1 billion spent training the Iraqi police force.

Oh well, business is business.

Now the exchange deal went down in Qatar. The same little country where we are currently “training” fighters to over throw Syria. Sweet.

But this wasn’t the first time the U.S. dealt with the Taliban on this exchange. In 2011 a deal was being worked out but in early 2012 Sen. Diane Feinstein made the negotiations public because in Congress, there was bipartisan opposition to any release of Guantanamo prisoners.

This all changed because of a small change in the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which passed last December, made it only a requirement that the Defense Secretary notify Congress when releasing Guantanamo prisoners.

Before that change, Congressional sign off on any Guantanamo releases would have been needed but they gave up that power either knowingly or not. Depending on which of the Congressional members actually read what they were passing.

But now they can bitch but say they are powerless!

Now the Five Tortured Afghan detainees from the U.S. torture-prison at Guantanamo are, of course, “the worst of the worst” and are Taliban commanders. The deal requires that they can not leave Qatar for a year after their release. Tubularsock feels better all ready.

And the great thing …….. none of them hold a grudge or anything, right?