Republican Senator John McCain on Sunday said the White House administration could have swapped other prisoners for Bowe Bergdahl, the Army Sergeant held for five years by Taliban militants.
McCain said that others besides five commanders the Taliban requested could have been given their freedom.
Last February McCain said he had been inclined to support a swap of prisoners, depending of course on the exchange’s details.
McCain said on a nationwide cable television station on Sunday that he believed other prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay prison could have been released instead of the actual five that did gain their freedom.
He called the top five the Taliban’s top five, not the U.S.’s.
McCain himself was a Vietnam prisoner of war. He said the swap should have been weighed against whatever risk it would have posed to troops from the U.S.
McCain emphasized it was important to do everything humanly possible to win the release of all Americans being held abroad. However, he said it should not be at the expense of the well-being and lives of men and women who serve in the U.S. military.
Last week Senator Kelly Ayotte a Republican from New Hampshire gave a speech on Memorial Day urging that all Americans keep in their prayers and thought Bergdahl.
She called on the U.S. Department of Defense to increase its efforts to gain Bergdahl’s freedom.
Not even a week later Bergdahl’s freedom was announced and Ayotte still had more criticism for the Obama administration.
McCain has flopped back and forth on the swap, calling it bizarre and then saying it was good but for the wrong people.
McCain said he would support the swap when interviewed by Anderson Cooper on television, of course if he were given all the details, back in February.
Over the weekend, McCain said it pleased him that Bergdahl was freed but it was disturbing that people that can re-enter and fight were released.
