The Fox News commentator, however, took a detour from the sweeping issues of national security to address the case of Robert Bergdahl, Bowe’s father. O’Reilly: “But it is Robert Bergdahl, the father, who is also engendering some controversy. He has learned to speak Pashto, the language of the Taliban, and looks like a Muslim. He is also somewhat sympathetic to Islam, actually thanking Allah right in front of the president.”Robert Bergdahl, 54, is indeed an interesting case. According to this account in The Washington Post, his actions and appearance have struck some people as “curious, even troubling. ” And those “some people” include, well, Internet lurkers: “Commenters online asked if the father had become a Taliban sympathizer or converted to radical Islam.”
Weird comment
As for the beard, Robert Bergdahl grew it as a way to mark the time since his son was captured in 2009, and also as an attempt to curry favor with his son’s captors, according to the Post account. He studied Pashto, a national language of Afghanistan, in an effort to familiarize himself with the culture of the place where his son was a prisoner. “I guess you really had to be in his shoes,” said a pastor who had watched Robert Bergdahl deal with his son’s situation. Bergdahl also raised some suspicions with a since-deleted tweet regarding Guantanamo prisoners. Just some context to append to O’Reilly’s characterization.
Apparently, the talking heads over at Fox News have now decided to attack the father of recovered POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl due to the way he looks. It really was only a matter of time. With questions surrounding Bergdahl’s actions prior to his capture by the Taliban, and his views on America as a whole, Bob Bergdahl, his father, has now become a target due to both his appearance and some statements he’s made recently. Basically, because Bob Bergdahl has grown a beard to mark the time his son has been held captive, and he has taught himself Pashto, the language used by the Taliban, Fox media figures have decided Bergdahl must be a Muslim, a terrorist sympathizer and perhaps a member of the Taliban himself. On Monday night, during an episode of The O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly decided to lay into Bob Bergdahl. During O’Reilly’s ‘Talking Points Commentary’ segment, which started with O’Reilly ripping the Obama Administration and expressing disgust and surprise at the number of ‘scandals’ the White House has suffered recently (with absolutely NO HELP from Fox News, I’m sure), O’Reilly decided to attack Bob Bergdahl for both the way he looked and Bergdahl’s audacity for learning another language and not hating Muslims.
Ugh. Have we really sunk this far when it comes to our level of discourse? We now have news personalities claiming that someone is a terrorist because of the way that person looks? Seriously? At the same time, I’d doubt highly that either Bill O’Reilly or Brian Kilmeade would say that Phil Robertson or his clan of bearded grifters look like members of the Taliban. Of course, that’s because Robertson is a real ‘Murican who loves the Bible, so he can’t be a Muslim terrorist. However, Bob Bergdahl, whose son has a very conflicted tale, must be an anti-American Muslim terrorist sympathizer because he has made some statements and expressed sentiments that run contrary to the xenophobic narrative of Fox News. And he has a big beard.
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I am confused. He is an American. He is in the military. He fell into enemy hands. They got him back. Prisoner exchanges are nothing new. What does whether or not he was sick have to do with it?
The Obama Administration showed the Senate a classified Taliban "proof of life" video of Sgt. Bergdahl, but some lawmakers remain skeptical that his health was as dire as the Administration has claimed
A classified Obama Administration briefing for the U.S. Senate Wednesday night failed to convince several lawmakers that the freedom of America’s final Afghanistan prisoner of war, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, had been worth the price of releasing five Taliban leaders from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. A main feature of the briefing was the presentation of a short “proof of life” video of Bergdahl, which administration officials have said led them to believe that Bergdahl’s health was in danger. After watching the video, estimated to last about 90 seconds by Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk, several Senators said they did not see evidence of an imminent threat to his life. “It appeared that he was drugged and that he was barely responsive in the video,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “I don’t think from a health standpoint there was any issue that dictated the release of these five [Taliban members] in exchange for Bergdahl.” Chambliss, who says he thinks the video should be released to the public, added that he could not speak to whether or not Bergdahl’s safety was at risk. “His health was not the critical factor,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia. ”In that one video you could tell that he had been drugged. He was in a different state. That was back in December, five months ago.” “That did not sell me at all,” Manchin added. “He was not in that type of dire situation when he was released—didn’t look sick to me.” Nonetheless, Kirk said he believes the video still had some effect on influencing President Obama to make a deal for Bergdahl’s release. “I would definitely think that it would have an emotional impact on the President, which is probably why the Taliban released it,” said Kirk. “He didn’t look good. I understand the emotional power of that video.”
Fox News Medical A-Team psychiatrist Keith Ablow on Wednesday suggested that returning prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s history of “narcissistic” ballet dancing was an example of President Barack Obama’s lack of “Americanism.” On the Wednesday edition of Fox & Friends, host Steve Doocy asked Ablow to analyze Bergdahl based on personal details about his life before joining the military. “He was homeschooled,” Doocy explained. “His family, they were Calvinists. We know that at one point, he became involved in ballet, he was a lifter.”
Ablow said that those sounded like “good things,” but he argued that they showed a “narcissistic core, where he’s developing a taste for adventure, for outsized adventure.” The doctor admitted that he had not evaluated the Bergdahl family formally, but that they seemed to have a “desire to distance oneself from institutions, to diminish the, sort of, rule of law, and to elevate the individual above all else” because they did not “feel part of our country.” “The fact that he was a dancer and a lifter, not a weight lifter, but he would lift up and throw the other ballerina, what does that mean?” co-host Brian Kilmeade wondered. Ablow speculated that Bergdahl had been “recruited” by female dancers. “Front and center is this guy’s M.O., unless it doesn’t feed him narcissistically, you can’t give him a job unless you’re going to tell him you’re the star, and we’re going to keep you at a throttle of 12 out of 10,” he opined. And then Ablow connected the dots from ballet to the president of the United States. “Here’s the thing — I’ve been saying it before — Barack Obama does not have the will of the American people, Americanism in his soul,” he insisted. “And this swap — somebody who may not feel very American for five people who definitely don’t — is symptomatic of that. It was bound to happen when you have a leader that doesn’t affiliate with patriotism.” Doocy agreed that the president “definitely wanted out of Afghanistan, and maybe [the prisoner swap] is his way of closing Gitmo.” “He wants out of America!” Ablow interrupted. “Trust me.” Watch the video below from Fox News’ Fox & Friends, broadcast July 4, 2014.
When its hot in the jungle of peace I go swimming in the ocean of love.....
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