The Demonization of an American Soldier

Zoe Carpenter, writing in The Nation, put the Bergdahl exchange in the larger context of the future of Gitmo:

"Just weeks ago the president of Uruguay, Jose Mujica Cordano, offered to accept six of the cleared men as refugees. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said on May 28 that he would decide to reject or accept the proposal 'fairly soon.' Now that Obama has shown a willingness to push legal boundaries in order to move detainees whose designation as a threat seems at least plausible, the circumstance of men like Diyab, who the government never intends to charge with a crime, is even more indefensible.

"'What's changed is that the president has finally taken the initiative,' said Wells Dixon, a senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents eight Guantanamo detainees. 'What we're hoping is that he will continue to take bold steps to transfer the remaining men, who are not nearly as complicated or as controversial.'"

"Leave no one behind on the battlefield" is a sacred and long-standing U.S. military commitment. President Obama honored that commitment with his carefully-negotiated prisoner swap for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Presidents are fair game for criticism. When they get it right, we must say so.