I am all over this latest brouhaha in American politics regarding the soldier who was recently released from the Taliban via a prisoner exchange swap.The Obama haters have done their best to turn this chapter in American history into something that it is not. And a clueless and disengaged public is buying whatever is being sold in the latest cable news sound bite. (For some real insight into this story read here.)
When the nation's leading magazine has a headline questioning if freeing an American soldier from his captors was worth it you have to wonder what else is going on.
A wonderful blog post from one of my tweeter fam, the very talented Charlie Preach, might offer some insight.
"This week America should be rallying in celebration for the safe release of our soldier, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl; who has spent more than five years in captivity with the Taliban after being taken captive during the unjustified & volatile Afghanistan War. We should also be rallying together to thank our President, Barack Obama (for once again finding peaceful solutions that didn’t lead to war), his administration and especially the servicemen who placed their lives on the line to facilitate the exchange. However, instead Obama is once again caught off guard for doing something that the GOP had been urging him for years to facilitate, but like anything he achieves or is for, they find a reason to be against…even if it means the complete & utter disgraceful attacking of both Bergdahl and his family. It's very sad that as I write Bergdahl's hometown has had to cancel their celebration due to threats and all of the negative coverage of his release that our US media is all too happy to engage and exploit.
However, instead of celebrating the republicans & some rogue democrats, have once again found a reason to “Stop & Frisk” the president and demand that he explain why he chose to secure a deal without their knowledge. Interestingly, when Bush released more than 500 detainees (this is backed up by Military Task Force that runs the detention camps) from Guantanamo Bay, there weren’t any rules in place demanding that he run to congress before doing so. It would be remiss of me not to mention that at least one of those whom Bush released was a suspect in the Benghazi Embassy bombing attack. Yes, "Leading America While Black" is an unequal proposition. It should also be noted that this so-called permission slip from congress, was only implemented in December of 2013, after congress knew that the president was considering a trade to obtain Sgt. Bergdahl’s release...nothing more than another obstacle the republican's have put in place to do everything they can to limit his power and ultimate control as POTUS. I’m confused at how congress can come together and agree on laws that limit the president’s power, but never seem to agree when it’s time to do anything for those in need…after this revelation one must also ask themselves, how much of this is all political games and posturing with no real intentions from either side of helping Obama and ultimately Americans in achieving the goals he was elected twice to achieve.
After this week’s display of complete hypocrisy and subversion from the right (and some democrats) how can America look itself in the mirror without honestly saying that Obama’s only real crime is that of, “Leading America While Black”? When we will stop pretending that race has not been the defining factor in the treatment that he’s received? Unfortunately, the president is receiving the same type of scrutiny and racial discrimination that African Americans deal with daily with “driving while black”, “stop and frisk”, ‘prison industrial complex”, and other systemic racially motivated acts of unjust. How will there ever be a “Post Racial America”, when we allow the types of discord & political treason that’s levied against the first black POTUS on a daily basis? How can America root for the potential campaign and election of its first female president when we've not given Barack Obama the same chance that has been given to all of his predecessors before him? How can women fight so hard to elect any woman to higher officer when we've let the first black president be subjected to such vehemence and racially motivated hate? Sadly, it's a fact that most of those same women have not joined the fight against racial discrimination and inequality, but shout loudly to coronate a woman to higher office, while daring anyone to subject her to the least amount of scrutiny or discord. It’s easy to ignore things that one sees as no significance or threat to them. " {More here}
Does she have a point? I think she does. But I also think that there is more going on here.
I think that a lot of it is just pure politics and the greed and shallowness of a corporate controlled media running for the ratings at whatever cost.
Also, Barack Obama, with all his seeming naivety when it comes to matters of race, should also share some of the blame for whatever treatment he receives. This is a guy who just loves and wants to please his fellow white Americans, but like Charlie wrote in her post; the feelings aren't necessarily mutual.
Someone posed a question in the comments section of this blog the other day and it had me thinking: If Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was a black man would he have been rescued? Would the Obama administration have swapped five high ranking Taliban officials to get him?
I wish I could say that of course we would have, but I can't. Not with this president.
That's my dilemma.
O, I will ride with you when the racists unfairly attack you and don't treat you like they did all the other white male presidents who came before you. But don't feel bad if I keep looking over my shoulder. Sorry, I am not quite comfortable with you having my back just yet.
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