Taliban should win Academy Award for Best Foreign Film

There has been much discussion about whether Bo Bergdahl’s health was deteriorating prior to his exchange for 5 Taliban prisoners. This is the wrong way to analyze the situation.

President Obama’s claim that Bergdahl’s deteriorating health forced him to act quickly and without providing Congress the 30 days notice required by law before the release of prisoners from Gitmo is complete nonsense.

Bergdahl was the only US combatant the Taliban held. Bergdahl was their only bargaining chip. Bergdahl’s value to the Taliban can be seen from what they eventually got for him. He was the proverbial goose that would lay 5 golden eggs. The suggestion that the Taliban would have let Bergdahl die, and thus lose any negotiating leverage they had with the US, is simply preposterous on its face.

Even if the US had videos from the Taliban that supposedly showed the physical deterioration of Bergdahl, that is simply an indication of how savvy the Taliban were at producing such videos.

Next year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Film is definitely in order.