Released POW Sgt. Bergdahl arrives back in America, along with stories of his horrendous mistreatment while in captivity.

Courtesy of Fox News:  

American Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, while held prisoner in Afghanistan, was locked in solitary confinement for two straight years and did not see another human face for that entire time, senior military sources with knowledge of his "reintegration process" told Fox News. 

Officials said Bergdahl, during that period, only talked to his captors through the wall of a six-foot-by-six-foot metal box, in which he was kept. 

The box was just big enough for him to stand up straight and stretch his arms. If he was ever taken out of the box, Bergdahl was apparently hooded. Bergdahl told officials that this treatment started immediately after he attempted to escape captivity. 

"His mental and physical state match this description -- and we believe him from what we see," one official told Fox News. 

The details emerged as Bergdahl arrived early Friday at an Army medical center in San Antonio, Texas.

Two straight years without seeing another human face, and without hearing his native tongue.

That would destroy the will of just about anyone. 

Seems to me that he will need a lot more help reintegrating back into society than simply purchasing him the Rosetta Stone, right Sarah? 

Referring to the release of Sgt. Bergdahl former Bush administration official says any other president in office, including his old boss, would have done the same thing.

Courtesy of Think Progress:

 A former Bush administration official broke with Republicans on Tuesday to defend President Obama’s prisoner exchange, arguing that since “the war in Afghanistan is winding down,” the United States would be required to return prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay back to Afghanistan. 

“I don’t see how these particular Taliban officials could ever have been tried in the southern district of New York,” John Bellinger, who served as an adviser to President George W. Bush explained during an appearance on Fox News Tuesday. “They’re certainly some Al Qaeda detainees who committed actual terrorist acts against Americans who perhaps could have been tried in a federal court because they committed federal crimes, but these particular Taliban detainees I think could never have been tried in federal court.”

In other words, and I have heard this from various sources, the government will HAVE to release these prisoners once the war in Afghanistan is officially over. 

So using prisoners, that will soon be released anyway, to secure the release of one of our own seems like a win win to me.

Asked about the circumstances of this capture Bellinger had this to say: 

Asked about reports that Bergdahl deserted his unit, Bellinger added that the former hostage “will have to face justice, military justice.” “We don’t leave soldiers on the battlefield under any circumstance unless they have actually joined the enemy army,” he said. “He was a young 20-year-old. Young 20-year-olds make stupid decisions. I don’t think we’ll say if you make a stupid decision we’ll leave you in the hands of the Taliban.”

Exactly!

“I’m not saying this is clearly an easy choice but frankly I think a Republican, a president of either party, Republican or Democratic confronted with this opportunity to get back Sgt. Bergdahl, who is apparently in failing health, would have taken this opportunity to do this,” he added. “I think we would have made the same decision in the Bush administration.”

And there you have it. If this had been ANY other President this would have been seen as a positive, and in fact there would have likely been kudos aplenty.

But not this President. In the eyes of the conservatives, he simply cannot do ANYTHING right.

John McCain's POW status officially jumped the shark on Jay Leno last night.

This almost looks like a parody that they might do on Saturday Night Live.

I almost cannot believe he is serious.

How can somebody take, what is a very impressive story of heroism, and turn it into a joke? John McCain will live to regret treating his POW experiences like a "get out of jail free" card to be used every time the questions get tough.

P.S. And yes I know the cool term is no longer "jump the shark". It is now "nuke the refrigerator". But I did not think most of my visitors would get that reference.

Maureen Dowd finally takes on the McCain trump card. His POW excuse.

The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, the pastor who married Jenna Bush and who is part of a new Christian-based political action committee supporting Obama, recently criticized the joke McCain made at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally encouraging Cindy to enter the topless Miss Buffalo Chip contest. The McCain spokesman Brian Rogers brought out the bottomless excuse, responding with asperity that McCain’s character had been “tested and forged in ways few can fathom.”

When the Obama crowd was miffed to learn that McCain was in a motorcade rather than in a “cone of silence” while Obama was being questioned by Rick Warren, Nicolle Wallace of the McCain camp retorted, “The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous.”

When Obama chaffed McCain for forgetting how many houses he owns, Rogers huffed, “This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison.”

As Sam Stein notes in The Huffington Post: “The senator has even brought his military record into discussion of his music tastes. Explaining that his favorite song was ‘Dancing Queen’ by Abba, he offered that his knowledge of music ‘stopped evolving when his plane intercepted a surface-to-air missile.’ ‘Dancing Queen,’ however, was produced in 1975, eight years after McCain’s plane was shot down.”

Nicely done.

I have noticed, along with many others, that McCain has been using his experiences as a Vietnam prisoner of war as a shield to block every single possible criticism.

At first it worked perfectly. If a reporter asked a question which questioned McCain's qualifications, he simply whipped out the POW card and the journalist simply slinked away and hoped no Republican blogger would eviscerate them for daring to insult a war hero.

But since McCain has used his POW status with such reckless abandon he has not only reduced it to an excuse for his every gaffe or mistake, but he is also in danger of making the experiences of other POW's into a joke