Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan had some tough words for the Obama Administration following its decision to release five Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl.
Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, June 8, Noonan argued “I would be sleeping better if I had a sense that the administration had a real plan as opposed to a desperate dumping.” [See video below.]
Noonan’s comments came after Thomas Friedman, liberal columnist for The New York Times, minimized the severity of the release of five dangerous Taliban terrorists. Friedman argued:
This whole business with Guantanamo, we can’t move people into our country into a super max prison they might fly off the roof. We have built these people up. I'm sorry. Into giants and I'm in the saying it's not important to release them.
The details of this case aren't irrelevant but come on let's have a little perspective on here. You know what, I'm going to sleep okay tonight whether these guys are in Qatar whether they’re in the Ritz there or whether they are around the block. It's a much bigger problem. The real problem is, get the heck out of Afghanistan.
Noonan shot back and insisted “If the administration had said to Congress this is how we're going to make sure these five serious operatives and strategists for the Taliban are going to be controlled in the future they won't be in the game.”
The Wall Street Journal columnist concluded her dismantling of both Friedman and the Obama Administration:
There seems to be no plan, there seems to have been a dumping and a hope that it wall all turn out okay. And a trust that if it doesn't turn out okay these guys turn bad and do bad in the future that's okay because we all will have forgotten by the time that story blows.
See relevant transcript below.
CBS
Face the Nation
June 8, 2014
11:01 a.m. Eastern
THOMAS FRIEDMAN: This whole business with Guantanamo, we can’t move people into our country into a super max prison they might fly off the roof. We have built these people up. I'm sorry. Into giants and I'm in the saying it's not important to release them. The details of this case aren't irrelevant but come on let's have a little perspective on here. You know what, I'm going to sleep okay tonight whether these guys are in Qatar whether they’re in the Ritz there or whether they are around the block. It's a much bigger problem. The real problem is, get the heck out of Afghanistan.
BOB SCHIEFFER: I see some raised eyebrows offer here.
PEGGY NOONAN: I would be sleeping better if I had a sense that the administration had a real plan as opposed to a desperate dumping. If the administration had said to Congress this is how we're going to make sure these five serious operatives and strategists for the Taliban are going to be controlled in the future they won't be in the game. There seems to be no plan, there seems to have been a dumping and a hope that it wall all turn out okay. And a trust that if it doesn't turn out okay these guys turn bad and do bad in the future that's okay because we all will have forgotten by the time that story blows.
