Of all the many, many heinous and offensive things that former President Barack Obama did, exchanging five Guantanamo Bay held prisoners for Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl has to be in the top four. Now the Taliban Five are sitting at the negotiating table in Doha, Qatar working on a peace deal for Afghanistan. Chickens always come home to roost and Obama’s feckless foreign policy could furnish Colonel Sanders’ Kentucky Fried Chicken for years, both original and extra crispy.

For some of you who slept through the 743 years of the Obama Administration, in 2009, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl deserted his post in Afghanistan and then spent five years as a Taliban “captive”. Barack Obama exchanged the Taliban Five for Bergdahl and welcomed Bergdahl’s folks to the White House. Bergdahl pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy and avoided jail time. You can read a Washington Post article on Bergdahl here. Truly feckless does not adequately capture the anger that anyone who respects our military feels when thinking about the Bergdahl swap.

The Taliban Five now sit negotiating with top military and State Department types. The New York Times has written an entirely sympathetic piece almost lionizing these terrorists. I know you are wearing your shocked face right now. From the article:

“During our time in Guantánamo, the feeling was with us that we had been brought there unjustly and that we would be freed,” said one of the former detainees, Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa. “But it never occurred to me that one day there would be negotiations with them, and I would be sitting there with them on one side and us on the other.”

The five senior Taliban officials were held at Guantánamo for 13 years before catching a lucky break in 2014. They were exchanged for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only known American service member to be held by the insurgents as a prisoner of war.

Unjustly, he said. Hmmm. Again from the article:

The five former Guantánamo detainees had varying roles during the Taliban government. Mullah Khairkhwa served as a governor and acting minister of interior. Abdul Haq Wasiq was deputy minister of intelligence.

Perhaps the most infamous figure in the group is Mullah Fazel Mazloom, a front-line commander who was also chief of the Taliban army. While accusations of human rights abuses by the others have generally remained vague, there seems to be considerably more evidence against Mullah Mazloom, who is accused of mass killings and scorched-earth brutality.

During an initial tribunal hearing at Guantánamo — The New York Times obtained the transcript via the Freedom of Information Act — Mullah Mazloom (his last name means “meek”) showed no remorse.

“There is a 25-year war between person to person, village by village, city by city, province by province, and tribe against tribe,” he told the tribunal. “If you think this is a crime, then every person in Afghanistan should be in prison or bring them here.”

These many claim they didn’t fight against the government, but in Taliban terms that means nothing. After all, the word Taliban just means “student” so these innocent lambs were just student demonstrators. Riiiight! More from the article:

When they were toppled and hunted down, the Taliban were an oppressive regime, denying citizens basic rights, including keeping women and girls out of school and behind house walls. In the group’s 18-year insurgency since, they have resorted to acts of terrorism like truck bombings that have caused mass civilian casualties.

We sent these men to the Island Paradise of Guantanamo Bay, with food, medical care, prayer rugs, Korans and a soccer field. But they ain’t holding it against us:

In their introductions around the table as negotiations started last month, the five men held up their detention at Guantánamo as the most important part of their identity.

“In important moments like this, my own personal troubles don’t come to mind,” Mullah Khairkhwa said in the interview, after the negotiations had ended. “I am really not thinking about who is sitting across from me and what they had done to me.”

I want to pound my head on the desk. Where is a MOAB when you need one. We could have used one at the exchange for Bergdahl four years ago.

Yeah, welcome home heroes. Ka-pow. I know that I really know nothing about this stuff, but how do you negotiate with someone who still wants to kill you. Again, thank you Barack Obama. How many more chickens are to come home?

Just in case you were wondering, the other three items in my Top Four Obama Feckless Moments were when he said that he didn’t know anything about the situation, but that the Cambridge police “acted stupidly” when they arrested Professor Gates, his apology tours everywhere and the Iran deal that President Trump wisely pulled out of after inaugurated.

Photo Credit: Bowe Bergdahl by U.S. Department of Defense/This image is a work of a U.S. Army soldier or employee, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.