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December 19, 2014

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anon

What a bizarre analogy!

According to CBS News, Hottelet was exchanged for "a Nazi reporter held in the US."

To compare this to the Berdahl exchange is simply more than just sloppy. It is so nakedly politically motivated!

It is perfectly fine, it seems to me, to post stories based on reliance that the truth goes down the memory hole and everything can be spun with impunity for political reasons. That is the nature of an open forum.

However, is it not fair to ask that in an academic setting, the political nature of an inquiry or reference to historical facts be revealed/disclosed? What is the point of this post other than to defend actions today based on a inaccurate claim to supposedly apposite precedent?

PaulB

A more appropriate comparison might be the trade of Gary Powers, the U-2 pilot shot down over the USSR, for Colonel Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy in 1962.

anon

Paul

Comparison to the Bergdahl exchange?

PaulB

Anon, I was thinking of the Cuban spy trade, not Bergdahl.

anon

Paul

Fair enough. The post above seeks to rebute "critics of the Obama administration's prisoner exchange [with] ... the Taliban" by reference to the Hottelet precedent. It seems that you recognize that comparison is obviously ludicrous.

Barry

"Critics of the Obama administration's prisoner exchanges (with Cuba and the Taliban)..."

Frankly should STFU; these people are hawks and neocons, and have a record which is amazing in it's deliberate wrongness and damage.

anon

"hawks and necons should STFU"

Like any good junior high school argument, profanity laced with name calling is always quite convincing on the merits.

Well done!

Barry

Coming from 'anon', that's rich.

More and more I've come to believe that the proper response is mockery and refusal to engage, when the other side is being evil.

You[1] are opposing prisoner exchanges - note, you're only opposing them when the President is on the other side. I never heard you or any of your ilk have a problem with that beforehand, and numerous politicians on your side were supporting an exchange for Bergdahl right up until it happened.

Similarly, nobody had a problem with prisoner exchanges from communist countries, until President Obama did them.

Frankly, Steve Lubet is doing what The Faculty Lounge does best, which is to act as a 'transmission belt'[2] for insane right-wing ideas.

[1] Hey, if you don't want to set up a pseudonum, and go by 'anon', I'll judge you.

[2] Coined by Dave Nieward - look it up.

Barry

Steve, I apologize; I accidently accused you of working with the right here.

However, even seeking justification is playing into these guys hands; if there's one thing that I've learned since 2001, it's that treating evil as subject to debate cedes it half the battle.

anon

Barry

Niagara Falls.

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