Thursday, June 5, 2014

The Taliban Fighters Bummed - He Didn't Even Say Goodbye

BI- The Taliban fighters who handed off Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl to a Special Forces team during a prisoner exchange in eastern Afghanistan were reportedly bummed they didn't stick around long enough to exchange pleasantries.
An interesting
report by the New York Times' Matthew Rosenberg goes into detail about the now-viral Taliban propaganda video of the exchange, but one passage stuck out in particular.

Rosenberg Writes:
But once on the ground, the Americans, to the dismay of the Taliban, proved uninterested in any pomp. They rushed through the encounter and did not stop to talk or exchange polite greetings, as is customary in Afghanistan, even during hostage releases. The narrator complained that they had managed to shake hands with only two of the Americans, and that one of them had hastily shoved his left hand forward, considered a particularly rude gesture in Afghanistan.
“We wanted to convey some messages to them via the interpreter, but they didn’t spend much time with us,” a Taliban fighter said on the video speculating that perhaps the Americans were too frightened to linger. “They even didn’t let us shake hands with the soldier and say goodbye, and they behaved in a very simple way....."
[SNIP]

Still, you can't really blame the American rescuers for wanting to get out of there quick, especially with Taliban fighters standing on a hillside overlooking the helicopter and heavily armed with RPG's.

And another point:  if Sgt.Bergdahl was not a deserter/collaborator, and indeed the Prisoner of War that the Obama administration claims he was, why would his captors be expecting hugs and kisses and a warm goodbye?   

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