“The Republicans won’t go after a prisoner of war, will they?” I said. Podesta grimaced. “I don’t share your optimism.” I had rarely been more wrong. I knew that Bergdahl had walked off his base, but I didn’t know about the allegations that members of his unit had been killed looking for him. In the high of the moment, I’d failed to do my homework. Hostility toward Bergdahl from fellow servicemembers boiled over, and there were days of heated criticism of the swap, and of our decision to celebrate Bergdahl’s release. The Cubans read the Bergdahl episode the wrong way. “We have noted Obama’s
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