Dumb and Dumber. Excuse the rest of us for not slobbering over a deserter. Sorry, wrapping yourselves in the flag is not going to work here.
Yessir, the Taliban have conservative friends right here in the good ol' USA. I wonder what their first tip off was. I mean, was it the American evangelical religious movement's embrace of a fundamentalism when it comes to scripture? I'm referring to the whole literal interpretation of the Bible that rejects modernism and very often any scientific theory that challenges religious orthodoxy. After all, that's the way the Taliban views science and modernism vis-a-vis their own religious faith too. Or was it the American conservative movement's shared values that women should embrace the traditional roles for women in society instead of education and working outside the home?
Well, maybe that doesn't matter at this point.
Once the Taliban caught wind of just how much American conservatives hated their own gov't (much like the Taliban hates the gov't in Afghanistan), they probably saw an opportunity to divide and conquer. My guess is that some of the leaders of the Taliban thought that American conservatives would NEVER side with them against the American gov't in any dispute involving an American POW. But those doubters were proven wrong when American conservatives took the Taliban's word regarding anything they said about Sgt Bergdahl, AND American conservatives also actually railed against President Obama when he repatriated an American soldier. How ironic that is considering that the Taliban celebrated the return of their own countrymen even though they weren't actually sent back to Afghanistan.
But once the Taliban saw American conservatives rail against one of their own citizens who the Taliban had tortured and held prisoner for five years as well as the fact that American conservatives denounced their own president, then the Taliban knew they had friends here in this country. Well, maybe not friends in the truest sense of the word. But they had allies who shared some of the same goals. While it's true that the motives were different, that doesn't change the fact that some of the goals were the same.
One of those goals was undermining the American gov't. That's why the Taliban didn't miss the opportunity to release further statements about Sgt Bergdahl after he was released once they saw the reaction of American conservatives. So, the Taliban further called Sgt Bergdahl's patriotism into question. And what happened? American conservatives didn't miss a beat. As if Pavlov had rung a bell, American conservatives started salivating at the chance to go on the offensive against their own countrymen; they jumped right on Sgt Bergdahl and denounced him while also denouncing President Obama who's the commander-in-chief of the military fighting in Afghanistan. The North Vietnamese could never have attained anything of this magnitude just by getting a naive young actress like Jane Fonda to let her picture be taken while sitting on an NVA anti-aircraft gun. No, the Taliban have 10s of 1,000s of American conservatives trying to undermine the American gov't even as the Taliban is feeding them propaganda which they take at face value. These American conservatives are elected representatives of the Republican Party. They're also highly visible members of the national media, reaching millions of listeners and viewers. And they're also spread out ALL across America on the Internet, posting on forums and blogs. But that Internet reaches ALL around the world, and the Taliban is watching...and listening.
The conclusion, I'm sorry to say, is very clear. American conservatives, due to their self-serving motives to regain power, have now abandoned any semblance or pretext of patriotism to the nation as a whole. They are now, first and foremost, a pro conservative movement which is dedicated to undermining the US Gov't. Let's be clear here. I'm not talking about just being against policies they don't agree with. No, they are now essentially an anti E pluribus unum movement, and therefore an anti-American one, that has no qualms about taking the word of the Taliban in the conservative effort to undermine their own gov't if and when they believe it serves conservative interests to retake power. That's true even at the expense of the national interest. After all, it used to be said that politics stopped at the water's edge. That's obviously not true anymore as far as conservatives are concerned. For the Taliban, that makes American conservatives fifth columnists.
