well I don't know what. Can't find the words.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know Tweety swings more than a weather vane on a windy day. He is utterly confounding in his ability to get it so right on some nights and so utterly wrong on other nights. You decide you can't stand him, and then he comes out swinging for something you believe in, and you re-evaluate.
But seems to me he is totally stuck in his younger days of politics, for the better part. A time when deals were made and obstructionism was not the goal. AND, he like so many pundits, are not caught up on the facts as much as many folks here are. They are LAZY. Chris Mathews is LAZY. Rachel Maddow is NOT.
Tonight he began his program stating that our veterans come home wiser, as if we've done them a favor sending them into useless wars. And no shit, Sherlock, you bet they're wiser, but not in the positive patriotic way Mathews envisions.
They are wiser in a way we can all hope to never be that wise, or cynical, or wounded, or damaged. It is one thing to respect the sacrifices of our troops, it's another thing to romanticize it, and this is ALWAYS done by those who have never fought on the ground in a war--- like Chris Mathews, or for that matter, Dick Cheney, and tonight I'm having a hard time differentiating between the two.
Mathews then ends his show talking about the "disgusting" way we freed Bergdahl. By giving up POWs who have been in Gitmo for over a decade without a trial. What exactly makes us any different in this than our adversaries? NOTHING.
But what really incenses me is the lack of historical perspective, the ratings hysteria of speaking to the moment. GOOD journalists always have historical perspective. See Matt Taibbi, IMO, for one.
What really chaps my ass is that if Mathews was worth his paycheck, he might have mentioned that Richard Nixon freed McCain from the POW camp, by trading Vietnamese POWs for him. Yes he did. And no one questioned it. Because those were the days when you brought your boys home, and figured out the rest later.
And, check out/and or remember Taibbi's 2008 article on exactly why McCain ended up in that POW camp, and I think you'll find as many questionable issues as w/Bergdahl.
Seems to me ever since the word "terrorist" has entered our national vocabulary, we have somewhat lost our minds, in so many ways. Mathews went on and on tonight in his final statement about the dangerous men we were releasing. And according to him, all for a guy who we don't know was worth it.
Think about that.
We are now to the point where even supposed Democrats question our age old commitment to bringing our men and women home and deciding the rest later. Our men and women who have faced horrors and decisions most of us will never know, and too often for no God damn reason that's worth it.
Of course there is the hypocrisy of the republicans, what else is new? We all know Bergdahl is their new Bengazi, and how convenient they both begin with a B. Republicans hope maybe Americans will mix it all up and not know what side is up.
But to hear Democrats like Mathews and Feinstein play the purity card---hearing Feinstein differentiate between "mal nourished and under nourished" today, made me want to PUKE---is just more than I could take tonight.
This to me is the MOST irresponsible sort of journalism, the sort that ignores historical perspective, ignores inconvenient facts, and gets lost in the salacious.
SIGH. I guess we will have to decide as a country, if because Obama freed Bergdahl with a deal, like Nixon did with McCain---that some don't agree with---we are willing to say to each and every soldier, we might have your back, we might not. It all depends on politics.
So hey dear soldier, hope you don't mind if we send you into useless wars, with repeated tours, and expect your sanity to stay in tact. Expect you to come home "wiser."
Oh, and actually, we might not be there for you at all. Not in a fair hearing, and not in the treatment of your many psychological and physical wounds. It's all about the politics of obstructionism these days, and our hands are tied from promising you anything.
So now, who wants to sign up?