God bless the man and his family.The problem here is simple, the precedence has been set!!!!!!!

@lynnsgirl: and we did not bargain with North Vietnam to release our POW's. BS

@tb505: With respect, how do u think this should have been handled !

@tb505: He broke the law.... Do you understand that?Regardless of why.... And these prisoners ( commanders) will be fighting against us again...

@lynnsgirl: I think Obama did the right thing. Need to end this mess. As in v/ietnam, let's admit we cannot win.Again, if we need to go to war, we should have an open draft for personnel and tax to pay as we go. It won't last long in this manner.

Yeah that's what I thought

@macdaddy: and what would you do with these detainees in gitmo?

If this soldier left note rebuking USA and went AWOL why was he not stripped of his country?Now we have forfeited 5 men who will fight against us again for one man that truly didn't support us!I agree with Lana these soldiers take an oath a brotherhood amongst each other! One that should never be broken.What do his fellow brothers think about the 5?JMOWhat did we gain? I know his life independently but as a Nation we lost! Not to imply his life should have been taken. How do we know he didn't make deals with them while detained?I don't have all the answers and I admit I don't understand all the politics.

@tb505:
Military trial and punished to full extent of that law....Busting rocks for the rest of their lives or death

At first, I had similar thoughts as MD on this: Trading people could open the door to more people being captured/held in the future for negotiations...One of the key reasons we shouldn't negotiate with hostage takers...However, with a little research and looking at the "big picture", I've changed my initial opinion of it...First, this isn't a hostage situation, it's a war situation and these are prisoners of war...It's also common to trade prisoners of war when it's over, and this one is coming to a close...Lastly, to me, this is good policy because it promotes safe treatment of prisoners in future wars...If a rouge group knows there would never be a chance of getting their people back in a swap, why not just kill the POWs right away instead of dealing with them for all those years?

For those that say these five will enter the fight again appears to tell us that we have not changed or won anything in 10 years or so. What makes anyone think continuing this stupidity into the future will accomplish anything. Let's admit we again destroyed thousands of lives for essentially nothing.

yes after 9-11 , we should have just put the terrorists in a time out, and made them stand in a corner......never have seen such weakness

@macdaddy: Not at all, once we decide to use our military , we should fight to win.

I would like to point out the following. I could be wrong but as far as I'm aware the soldier in question has not been court martialed or convicted of anything at this point. As such he is still considered innocent as a matter of law. Therefore that made him a prisoner of war in which the U.S. was obligated to do everything possible to secure his freedom.The Commander in Chief fulfilled that responsibility. I'd be willing to wager that most people who wear or have worn the uniform would agree with him.

Regardless of anyones "feelings" ... The President broke the law.