RUTHFULLY YOURS

Is Obama capable of touching anything without converting it into fertilizer?

Hot on the heels of the White House’s reckless outing of the CIA’s chief spy in Kabul — which itself was a mere station break in the ongoing VA medical-abuse scandal — Obama waded into the world of America’s sole POW in Afghanistan. Obama swapped Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl for five Guantanamo detainees. Bergdahl is now undergoing medical examinations in Landstuhl, Germany, and these Taliban leaders have left tropical detention for new lives in Qatar. Not to worry: Qatar agreed to assure that they do not leave that Middle Eastern nation — for one year.

Ruining yet another weekend, and weakening America even further in the process, Obama managed to accomplish several new milestones with this one action.

First, America’s long-standing policy of never negotiating with terrorists is now fully ablaze. As strategic reversals go, this was a five-alarm fire.

Free-market economists like to say: Incentives matter. While kidnapping Americans previously bought terrorists nothing from the U.S. government, Obama’s message to the jihadists is: “Go ahead. Kidnap more Americans.” Terrorists now know that a wobbly-kneed America will negotiate with them.

“All praise is to Allah Almighty!” Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar said in a statement Monday on its official website. “This huge and vivid triumph requires from all Mujahidin to offer thanks to the Benevolent Creator who accepted the sincere sacrifices of our Mujahid nation and managed the release of these five renowned Mujahidin from the enemy’s clutch.” Omar added: “May Allah Almighty get, just like these five heads, all those oppressed prisoners released who are incarcerated in the path of liberating their country and serving their creed.”

Even worse, Obama fixed the jihadist–American foreign-exchange rate, not at one to one but at five to one. Islamofascist thugs now know that the price tag for an American’s safe return is at least five of their comrades.

Tactically, it would have been bad enough had Bergdahl been swapped for five members of the Taliban’s halal kitchen patrol. No such luck. These five anti-Semitic, misogynist terrorists were among the top brass of the anti-American regime that the United States toppled in Afghanistan — although its members are fighting feverishly to regain power. Each of these former Gitmo detainees was the subject of a Department of Defense “Recommendation for Continued Detention Under DoD Control.”

Meet this militant-Islamic scum:

Khair Ulla Said Wali Khairkhwa was the Taliban’s interior minister — the rough equivalent of U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Janet Napolitano’s replacement at DHS. Khairkhwa also was the governor of Herat, Afghanistan’s second-most populous province. This made him the leader of the Afghan Texas or, essentially, the Taliban Rick Perry. According to the Pentagon, “Detainee was directly associated to Usama Bin Laden (UBL) and Taliban Supreme Commander Mullah Muhammad Omar, and was added to the UN financial freeze list.”

Mullah Mohammad Fazl was the Taliban’s army chief of staff, the approximate counterpart of U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno. The Pentagon describes Fazl as having “HIGH intelligence value” and being “a HIGH risk, as he is likely to pose a threat to the US, its interests, and allies.” While still in power, the United Nations accused Fazl of massacring thousands of Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan. “When asked about the murders, he did not express any regret,” stated a detainee assessment.

Mullah Norullah Noori was the governor of Balkh, Afghanistan’s No. 6 province. This made him the chief executive of the Afghan Pennsylvania or, basically, the Taliban Tom Corbett. Noori’s detainee assessment described him as having “high intelligence value” and being “high risk.”

The five high-level Taliban terrorists recently freed from Guantanamo and their approximate administrative counterparts in America: Governor Rick Perry (R., Texas), former Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell, former White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, Governor Tom Corbett (R., Pa), and Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno. Photo composite: Deroy Murdock.

Abdul Haq Wasiq was deputy chief of Afghan intelligence, or the Taliban answer to deputy CIA director Avril D. Haines. (Her predecessor, Michael Morell, became a better-known name in the aftermath of the Benghazi massacre.) One intelligence source described Wasiq as “an al-Qaeda intelligence member.”

Mohammad Nabi Omari was the Taliban’s chief of communications, about equal to White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri (she replaced the higher-profile Dan Pfeiffer). Omari reportedly helped al-Qaeda terrorists flee Afghanistan for Pakistan.

So, in exchange for Bergdahl, these five high-level Taliban evildoers left Guantanamo, where they were surrounded by brave U.S. GIs, barbed wire, and sharks. Now they are in Qatar, where they can plot, plan, and preach with fellow Muslim extremists. Who knows? They eventually may return fully to jihad, as have at least 29 percent of the Gitmo detainees whom America has liberated, under both Obama and Baby Bush.

Atop all of this, Obama (typically) broke a law — which he signed! — that required him to notify Congress 30 days before springing anyone from Guantanamo. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel tried to justify this by saying that Bergdahl’s “health was deteriorating.” Yet CBS News described the 28-year-old soldier as “in good condition and able to walk.” The truth on all of this likely will evolve in the days ahead, even as facts emerge on whether Bergdahl went AWOL, deserted the Army, or even collaborated with the enemy.

From unleashing Taliban chieftains to jeopardizing U.S. citizens overseas, to assaulting the rule of law (again), this is yet another Obama policy initiative that plunges America deeper down the toilet.

— Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University.