The Takeaway...

I'm bombing the Khorasan Group in Syria because frankly, I'd look like an idiot bombing al-Qaeda.  It wouldn't fit the narrative.

Which if you recall from previous speeches was:

"al Qaeda is on the path to defeat, and Osama bin Laden is dead." 

"We have gone after the terrorists who actually attacked us 9/11 and decimated al Qaeda."

“al Qaeda has been weakened"

“al Qaeda’s core leadership has been decimated.”

"today, al Qaeda is on its heels"

Yes, apparently al Qaeda is on its heels in Syria planning to blow up American and European subways.

The Khorasan Group IS al-Qaeda

Fiction vs. Reality

Negotiating with Terrorists?

Like the fictional character Brody in Showtime's Homeland, Bowe Bergdahl is a person of questionable status.  Did Obama just trade our top five Al-Qaeda prisoners for a deserter? A sympathizer? A Traitor? Or is he just a dumb kid who got in over his head?

Three days before he went missing from Afghanistan Bowe Bergdahl had this to say:

“I am ashamed to be an American. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools,” he concluded. “I am sorry for everything. The horror that is America is disgusting.”

Desertion?

One night, after finishing a guard-duty shift Bowe Bergdahl asked his team leader whether there would be a problem if he left camp with his rifle and night-vision goggles — to which the team leader replied “yes.”  Bergdahl then returned to his bunker, picked up a knife, water, his diary and a camera, and left camp, according to Rolling Stone.

Bowe Bergdahl... Hanoi Jane or John McCain?

What do you think?

NY Post
Washington Post 
NY Times
Rolling Stone