Obviously referring to Prisoners of war.
I don't know about your history or experience Pete, but I've been on actual missions where we went in and got a guy out of terrorist hands by force, and none of those missions required giving up terrorists. It has been released by the DOD that they had "eyes on" this soldier for weeks leading up to the trade. If they knew where he was, they could have sent guys in to get him. I want to know - why not? Maybe it's because an AWOL soldier wasn't worth putting special operator's lives in danger for Obama? Maybe it was because Obama planned on giving these guys up all along and this gave them a chance to get Bergdahl back at the same time? Who knows??? I sure don't, but I damn sure want to know.
We went in and got Noriega, after we sent SOF in to get a CIA operative out of his hands on the very first day of that conflict. We went in and got two of our guys in Somalia that were being held by Al Qaeda. We went in and got Jessica Lynch in Iraq. Hell, we even went into another sovereign nation (a military invasion by international law) that was supposedly an ally and got Bin Laden, without giving up anyone.
No, we don't leave anyone behind, if we can. There are guys that walked off their posts in Vietnam and are still there today. There are guys that walked off their post in many conflicts, and this guy wasn't the first. However, this is the first time this country traded high ranking terrorists for
anyone... not just a soldier that went AWOL.
This action by the Obama Administration has put every US citizen abroad in danger of being grabbed to use as ransom for a trade to get more terrorists released.
For all US citizens that are overseas, the world just became a much, MUCH, more dangerous place. All US citizens, not just those in the military.
What about Robert Levinson in Iran? He's a CIA operative who has now reached the dubious distinction of being the longest held hostage in US history. Why have we left him behind, now that the government has admitted he was working for them? Why??? Because it doesn't work out that we can always get them back, that's why. You don't give up our sovereign security to get anyone back... never.
Saying we leave no man behind is great. And, when at all possible, it's true. But, it doesn't always work out that way.