Yes comparing the 5 Taliban to Goering and Himmler is a bit of a stretch, at least in the capabilities of those two had compared to what these 5 have/had. But the desired point is there. I and others have the feeling the threat assessment on these 5 was not either done or totally ignored. There may have been political reason for that, I do not know. The good news surrounding the release of Bergdahl to over shadow all the bad news coming out at the time. But after all these years, I am nothing more than an old cynic.
The surrounding circumstance of these 5 capture has never been addressed that I know of. Whether bounty, a raid, or being captured on the battlefield, I suppose on has to take his best guess. The bounty situation was never addressed at any of the meeting I attended.
Yeah, ironies occur all the time in war and in geopolitics in general. Today’s friend becomes tomorrows enemy and vice versa. One has to look no farther than Iraq to see that today. We are trying to overthrow Assad, and yet Assad is on our side fighting ISIS or IS in Iraq to help store up Maliki and the government we installed. Talk about Irony and then throw in Iran as helping too.
Super heroes no, but those 5 were received as such by the Taliban and their followers. The Taliban Commander we let loose has already stated he is headed back to the battlefield to do what damage he can, whether to us, our allies or the Afghan people. Sometimes technology and better training can be overcome with higher moral and determination. This has been proven time and time again throughout history. There are many ways to fight a superior enemy with much more firepower, head on charges never work. But there are many ways to sap the will and moral of your enemy. You also do not need to defeat them in battle either, that is if you make time your ally instead of your enemy.
It is true these 5 put their pants on the same as us, but so too did Genghis Kahn, Himmler, Hitler, Stalin, Giap, Pol Pot, etc.