Thursday, March 26, 2015
From: Gary L. Bauer
Obama’s Bad Deal
After a ten month investigation, the Army formally charged Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl yesterday with two charges: One count of desertion and one count of misbehavior before the enemy. The first charge carries a penalty of five years in prison. The second charge is far more serious and could send Bergdahl to prison for the rest of his life.
These charges make it absolutely clear just how badly the Obama Administration handled this issue. The trade was incredibly unbalanced — five of the worst Taliban leaders in our custody for a known deserter. There was enough known at the time to reach that conclusion. It’s pretty clear which side gained the most from this deal.
Does any of this sound vaguely familiar? It should. We are reliving the Bergdahl episode all over again, except this time the stakes are much higher.
The Bergdahl deal should frame the debate over Obama’s nuclear negotiations with Iran. There was no price (five Taliban leaders) Obama was unwilling to pay to get Bergdahl back and there seems to be no price he is unwilling to pay to cut a deal with Iran.
Let’s not forget that the Bergdahl deal also broke the law by failing to notify Congress that five jihadists were being released from Guantanamo Bay. And now Obama is vowing to end-run Congress yet again when it comes to any deal with Iran.
The Left-wing Mind
Once again, I am dumbfounded by the bizarre worldview of the left-wing mind. Whether it was the Cambridge cops, Trayvon Martin, Ferguson, Benghazi or Bergdahl, this administration leaps to judgments that defy common sense.
National Security Advisor Susan Rice assured us that Bowe Bergdahl “served the United States with honor and distinction.” Obama called Bergdahl’s parents to the White House for a Rose Garden ceremony in which we were treated to his father speaking in Arabic.
Members of Bergdahl’s platoon believe six of their fellow servicemen died searching for him. They were outraged by that Rose Garden ceremony. The families of those lost heroes did not get that kind of attention and respect.
Yet even with the benefit of hindsight and full knowledge of the charges, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki insisted yesterday that the Bergdahl/Taliban swap was “absolutely” worth it.
There are rumors that Bergdahl’s attorneys will seek a plea deal to drop the most serious charge and may seek to have his five years in captivity counted as time served. That would be tragic. Good men followed orders and went to their deaths to save a deserter who disobeyed orders. 
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Indiana Defends Religious Freedom
Kudos to the Indiana legislature and Governor Mike Pence! This morning, Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to further protect the rights of men and women of faith.
In a nation founded by religious pilgrims, whose founding documents acknowledge that our liberty comes from God, this legislation shouldn’t be controversial. Moreover, the federal government and dozens of states have similar laws.
Sadly, several tech companies, including Salesforce, opposed the legislation and urged Pence to veto it. In fact, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff warned Pence that if he signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Salesforce would “dramatically reduce our investment in Indiana.”
As unelected judges have forced same-sex marriage on state after state, we have seen bakers, florists, photographers, college administrators and high tech executives lose their jobs and their livelihoods because they refused to violate their deeply held beliefs. The Indiana legislature passed this law so that no Christian business owner would be required to participate in a same-sex wedding.
Now, I assume that Salesforce initially invested in Indiana because the state has the kind of pro-business policies a company usually looks for. It will have to decide what is more important to it: forcing Christians to violate their consciences or doing business in a state with pro-free enterprise policies.
I pray this wakes up Christians, particularly young Christians, who have become confused by the marriage debate. The fight over the definition of marriage inevitably becomes a fight over religious liberty itself.
Notice that the gambit over tolerance is gone. Surely there must be plenty of “progressive” catering and photography companies that would appreciate the business of same-sex couples. But rather than simply finding another business, the left is forcing Christians to participate in same-sex weddings or risk financial ruin.
The fundamental issue isn’t same-sex marriage anymore. It is very likely that the Supreme Court will force same-sex marriage on every state in the union in the near future. We are now fighting for the very concept of religious freedom. Should men and women of faith be forced to participate in something that violates their faith?
Conscience protections for doctors and medical professionals are also at risk. If a baker can be forced to participate in a same-sex wedding, why shouldn’t a doctor or a nurse be forced to perform an abortion? The left has been trying to do that for years, and if we lose this battle over religious liberty, it may well succeed.
Pilot Deliberately Crashed Plane
France has launched a criminal investigation into the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525. The plane smashed into the French Alps Tuesday morning. After analyzing the plane’s cockpit voice recorder and other data, investigators have determined that 27 year-old co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane after he locked the pilot out of the cockpit.
There have been reports suggesting that Lubitz may have suffered from depression. Perhaps this was suicide. But as the CEO of Lufthansa (the parent company of Germanwings) said, “If one person takes 149 people with him to death, it is not suicide.”
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