Republicans call POW a deserter

I hate war. I hate the usual reasons given for war, and I hate the destruction and death caused by war.

But there's no excuse for attacking a brave American prisoner of war over his war record. Naturally, the Republicans and the right-wing media are doing exactly that.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl - the only American soldier to be held as a POW in the Afghanistan conflict - was recently freed when President Obama negotiated a transfer in which 5 prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay death camp would also be released. Predictably, the Tea Party threw a temper tantrum about Gitmo inmates being released, and demanded a congressional investigation into the transfer.

The real scandal though was that Gitmo was still open. As one of his first acts in office, Obama signed an executive order to close the facility. So why in the fuck is it still open 5 years later?! Because - among other reasons - Congress blocked the effort to close it.

I guess the Tea Party realized they were looking stupid when they grumbled about the transfer itself, so they decided to up the ante. They've begun painting Bowe Bergdahl as a military deserter. No evidence, of course. Just wild Tea Party speculation.

The military's creed is to leave no soldier behind. In other words, even if Bergdahl was a deserter, that doesn't change the other facts of the story. Was the Obama administration supposed to leave an American POW in captivity forever? Plus, if there's reason to believe that Bergdahl deserted, that's what the Uniform Code of Military Justice is for. That's not what the Tea Party is for.

It gets stupider. Sarah Palin says that by securing Bergdahl's release, Obama is helping Osama bin Laden - even though bin Laden has been dead for 3 years.

The Defense Department has already discredited any claims that Bergdahl is a deserter. In fact, the Army promoted his rank. But the right-wing media has of course run with the ball by amplifying the desertion claims. In doing so, media outlets have even blurted out classified information. Tell me who's really putting the nation's security at risk?

In the meantime, Republicans plan to use this story as an electoral sledgehammer. The GOP itself has called it Obama's "Willie Horton moment." Like their Horton talking point in 1988, this one also appeals primarily to meth-heads. But the GOP chickenhawks may have bitten off more than they can masticate, since it's hard to see how anyone can win votes by assailing a POW's war record. I've criticized John McCain - but not for his war service.

It is downright unpatriotic to be calling a war hero a deserter.