Bergdahl worse than we thought

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/423705/pentagon-throws-book-bowe-bergdahl-david-french

PRINT ARTICLE EMAIL ARTICLE ADJUST FONT SIZEAA by DAVID FRENCH September 8, 2015 3:24 PM @DAVIDAFRENCH It looks like the Obama administration may have traded five high-ranking Taliban prisoners for someone who was worse than a deserter: Military prosecutors have reached into a section of military law seldom used since World War II in the politically fraught case against Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier held prisoner for years by the Taliban after leaving his post in Afghanistan. Observers wondered for months if Bergdahl would be charged with desertion after the deal brokered by the U.S. to bring him home. He was — but he was also charged with misbehavior before the enemy, a much rarer offense that carries a stiffer potential penalty in this case. Misbehavior before the enemy violates Article 99 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and includes grotesquely dishonorable behavior, including running away, “shamefully” abandoning any place that it is his “duty to defend,” “cowardly conduct,” or endangering the safety of his unit through his own “disobedience, neglect, or intentional misconduct.” The maximum penalty is death, but it’s highly unlikely that the Army will seek to execute Bergdahl. Life imprisonment, however, is much more realistic. Given what we know about this case, Article 99 is an appropriate charge. As he knew — as everyone knew who served downrange — the military will launch a massive search for any soldier missing in action. Not only is there a moral imperative not to leave a fallen comrade, prisoners in enemy hands would likely be tortured, exploited for intelligence information, then executed (on film) in the most brutal way possible. While the military apparently disputes the allegation that soldiers died searching for Bergdahl, he unquestionably put his brothers-in-arms at immense risk. Next up is an Article 32 hearing on September 17. More evidence will emerge during the court-martial proceedings, but thus far I’ve seen nothing to contradict the charge and much evidence to support the prosecution. In the meantime, five Taliban commanders were unavailable for comment. They were too busy plotting the deaths of American soldiers and civilians.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/423705/pentagon-throws-book-bowe-bergdahl-david-french

The leftist support of this loser is predictable... just more green participation ribbon mentality. They celebrate losing. Encourage others to lose. Lament about why people keep losing... while fomenting losing social circumstances. Cry about how hard and unfair it is to be a winner. Push through govt solutions and social engineering for making things more fair for losers. But above all... keep losing people. Don't commit... don't take risks to succeed... don't celebrate strength... don't admire bravery... just keep whining and complaining and blaming others. I'm sick of this weak ass mentality. Y'all deserve to be enslaved.

PkrBum wrote:The leftist support of this loser is predictable... just more green participation ribbon mentality. They celebrate losing. Encourage others to lose. Lament about why people keep losing... while fomenting losing social circumstances. Cry about how hard and unfair it is to be a winner. Push through govt solutions and social engineering for making things more fair for losers. But above all... keep losing people. Don't commit... don't take risks to succeed... don't celebrate strength... don't admire bravery... just keep whining and complaining and blaming others. I'm sick of this weak ass mentality. Y'all deserve to be enslaved.

The leftist support of this idiot falls in step with there support of Obama. I have no sympathy for Bergdahl.

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/06/23/p26420#more26420

June 23, 2008 By William Oconnor



I recently wrote an essay Counterpunch published. Judging from the amount of emails I received, a lot of people took the time to read it. This surprised me, both because I have never written anything of consequence before, and because the essay articulated the deceitful policy of our government in both Vietnam and Iraq. Despair, not disloyalty, drove me to write and point out parallels between the two worst foreign policy mistakes of my lifetime. Particularly rewarding was the number of responses I received from vets of every rank and every branch of the service, some active and some disabled, applauding the essay. Some offered encouragement in moving prose. When I wrote the piece, I had no idea how emotionally tied I was to it; yet, my voice cracked and my hands trembled more than once while reading the heartrending responses of this unique fraternity, this special band of brothers: veterans.

An issue this sensitive, however, insures dissent and when a veteran assumes an antiwar stance the criticism is fairly predictable: socialist, communist, faggot, and traitor are all epithets that found their way to my computer screen. The vitriol was expected and if the emails were peculiar it was only in the similarity of their endings; all of them were signed “Thanks for serving.” The veterans agreed with my position, yet all the dissenters curiously chose the exact same phrase to end their emails. Then it dawned on me. Writing “thanks for serving” implies the writer hadn’t served.

Veterans have no monopoly on sensitivity, but having been in uniform they are painfully aware that every casualty has a face, a life, a story. People, unlike numbers, can’t be adjusted, erased, or corrected; they are bones and blood, organs and limbs. Bones shatter, blood spills, organs are exposed and limbs come off. It is easy for a television commentator to say a car bomb exploded and a soldier was lost -- the words roll effortlessly from his well paid lips, but a 19 year old boy compressing a head to prevent a brain from sliding into the sandy street might not describe a soldier’s death so casually. The uninitiated have no conception what explosives do to the human body, or the toll such horrific sights take on the human psyche. Corporations control the media and are not moved by unknown names tagging faceless victims, but other soldiers who survived combat see victims not as strangers, but as unlucky reflections of themselves. By vicariously reliving their own nightmares they share in the agony of the fallen: “There but for the grace of God.”

Anyone exposed to the sickening stink of roasted flesh never forgets it. The stink affects all your senses simultaneously: it makes your eyes water, it seeps under your nostrils, it permeates your nasal cavity and it overwhelms your brain. It joins with the nausea from your stomach and then the conjunction lodges like a rotten oyster in your throat. Whiskey won’t chase it. Mouthwash can’t evict it. For this is not a just a smell that lingers; this stench comes with its belongings and takes up residence. Only time can eradicate it. Of course, by then it is too late; by then, this abomination has attached itself to the subconscious and is forever sealed in your memory.

A number of “experts” in the corporate media who remind the public of our responsibility to Iraq and the consequences of a premature withdrawal make valid points; however, the more strident advocates prefix their remarks of support for the troops by berating critics of the war as soft on terror, liberals or pacifists. It is both disingenuous and fatuous to believe every soldier in Iraq is a right wing Republican or that every voice of dissent belongs to a pacifist or defeatist. Are civilians aware of why these men are dying? They are not dying to liberate Iraq, nor are they dying for love of country. They are not even dying for the uniform our government will bury them in. A man doesn’t throw himself upon a live grenade because he wants Iraq free of Saddam Hussein, or for a red, white and blue flag, or love for Exxon Mobil; he does it to shield the men fighting next to him, to protect his brothers.

Most voices insisting our forces continue in this wasteful enterprise unsurprisingly belong to men who decided not to play on the field with the team they champion. No, many of the voices belong to men all too content watching others sacrifice for the jingoism they rally around. They support the war through heavy lenses. They seem to prefer the safety of more profitable “no spin zones” to combat zones. My opinion is neither solicited nor appreciated like the “experts” who didn’t serve, but it seems as usual the poor and the middle class will supply the corpses and the taxes while the spectators (speculators?) continue to stand on the sidelines and profit from the sacrifices of the combatants.

Webster defines an expert as a person with special knowledge or one who performs skillfully. Logic would dictate that to be an expert about war one should have been in combat or at the very least been in the armed forces; yet, the veterans, the men who did serve, are urged to ignore their experiences by the people who have none. The following armchair gladiators, none of whom ever burdened the defense budget with requests for dog tags, were all vociferous advocates for the decision to invade sovereign Iraq: Dick Cheney, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Karl Rove, Dennis Hastert, Tom DeLay, John Ashcroft, Joe Lieberman, and Newt Gingrich. This decision was applauded by a host of corporate shills that impersonate representatives of the common man for a living, including: Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson, Joe Scarborough, Roger Ailes and the laughably self-anointed “warrior” Bill O’ Reilly. None are veterans.

Six years now in Iraq, long past the six weeks or six months the experts said it would take. Still there are no links to Al Qaeda, no links to 9/11, no weapons of mass destruction. There are over 4,000 Americans dead, over 30,000 Americans maimed, over 2 million Iraqi refugees, and unknown numbers of civilian casualties, all the results of a mission disgracefully labeled “shock and awe.” Now the administration tells us it’s about democracy. Jefferson, who knew a bit about democracy, tells us the three major enemies of democracy are: “political instability, violence and intolerance.” Insiders like Bush’s first Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill said in his book, “The Price of Loyalty,” that sitting in a cabinet meeting of this administration was similar to sitting with “a blind man in a room full of deaf people.” O’Neill tells us days into his presidency, well before 9/11, Bush was searching for a reason to invade Iraq, “It was all about finding a way to do it” (Suskind, 86). Other insiders Richard Clark, George Tenet, and Scott McClellan have written books emphasizing the indifference, insincerity, and incompetence of these men we allow to continue masquerading as leaders; yet a gutless congress paid for by big business refuses to even consider impeachment.

With me is the indelible memory of a 19 year old boy staring vacuously at a procession of coffins being unloaded from an endless line of C-130 cargo planes at Charleston AFB, coffins containing thousands of boys slaughtered in Southeast Asia. This unemotional young soldier was me. Thirty years later, recalling my indifference, I cried. The following was written by the man the public held largely responsible for that parade of wasted promise, a man many would consider an authority on war, an expert. He was haunted by the profound consequences of his decisions and in retrospect gave the Vietnam War solemn, somber, and regrettable thought. He was neither liberal, nor pacifistic, and was never accused of being soft on anything. If you have read the memoir of Robert McNamara already, his main points are worth your reconsideration. If you haven’t, his self assessment of his administration’s mistakes is summarized below. You decide if they are applicable to Iraq. The tragedy of Vietnam is once again repeated in the desert of the Middle East; let us pray our country -- unlike me -- doesn’t take 30 years to realize it and cry.

Lessons Learned from Vietnam. (McNamara, 321-23)

1. We exaggerated the dangers to the U.S. of . . . [our adversaries’] . . . actions.

2. We totally misjudged the political forces within the country by seeing in them a thirst for and a determination to fight for freedom and democracy.

3. We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight and die for their own beliefs and values.

4. Our misjudgments . . . reflected our profound ignorance of the history, culture and politics of the people in the area.

5. We failed to recognize the limitations of modern, high technology military equipment, forces and doctrine in confronting unconventional, highly motivated people’s movements.

6. We failed to draw Congress and the American people into a full and frank debate and discussion of the pros and cons of a large scale U. S. military involvement . . . before we initiated the action.

7. A nation’s deepest strength lies not in its military prowess but rather in the unity of its people. We failed to maintain that.

8. We do not have the God given right to shape every nation in our own image or as we choose.

9. We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action other than threats to our own security should be carried out only in conjunction with multinational forces supported fully (and not merely cosmetically) by the international community.

10. We failed to recognize that in international affairs, as in other aspects of life, there may be problems for which there are no immediate solutions…at times we may have to live with an imperfect, and untidy world.

11. The executive branch…failed to analyze and debate our actions, . . . our objectives, and the risks and costs of alternative ways of dealing with them.

This written by the youngest Secretary of Defense in our nation’s history; his prophetic warnings go unheeded while we sheepishly allow the less informed to lead our children to slaughter. There are as of this day 4,082 American dead, and 30,329 wounded that our government “officially” acknowledges (according to the website antiwar.com, this figure is much higher -- between 23,000 and 100,000 wounded). Perhaps the list of “expert” policy makers and broadcasters mentioned above whom never felt the need to wear a uniform can answer a question for a dilettante like me: how many more of my brothers will be washed down the sewers of Iraq before this atrocity is permitted to end?

Footnote: Appallingly, the death count is never accurate because lives are affected that will not show up in the statistics. Case in point: while visiting a Veterans Hospital this Memorial Day, I was admitted to the room of a young man who has been back from the desert of Iraq for three years. He tried unsuccessfully to blow his brains out, and is now a virtual vegetable. His 86 year old mother takes a three hour bus ride every other day to his bedside in the hope her boy might recognize her. As of yet, her prayers have not been answered, but she has never missed a visit.

Author’s Note: I was reluctant to relegate this tragic story to a footnote, but then realized of course that all of the dead will end up here -- in footnotes. It is fitting that this boy’s story should be buried among his brothers’.

References:

• McNamara, Robert S. In Retrospect. New York: Random House, 1995.
• Suskind, Ron. The Price of Loyalty. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.

And a post not even related to the topic.

It is clearly related; you're just failing to make the connection. There are people...Bergdahl's fellow soldiers and his superior officers are trying to make him a scapegoat for their failures. You're helping. It's all to easy for you to pass judgement here, even with little evidence to back up your position. You want him to be a traitor...you want him fried. You want your misadventures to have meaning.

It's unrelated and you are a moron for trying to link it to Bergdahl.

Floridatexan wrote:
It is clearly related; you're just failing to make the connection.  There are people...Bergdahl's fellow soldiers and his superior officers are trying to make him a scapegoat for their failures.  You're helping.  It's all to easy for you to pass judgement here, even with little evidence to back up your position.  You want him to be a traitor...you want him fried.  You want your misadventures to have meaning.  

More of your hogwash. You are clueless...try reading about Bergdahl on a site other than your Democratic (up Obama's butt) sites.

Joanimaroni wrote:

PkrBum wrote:The leftist support of this loser is predictable... just more green participation ribbon mentality. They celebrate losing. Encourage others to lose. Lament about why people keep losing... while fomenting losing social circumstances. Cry about how hard and unfair it is to be a winner. Push through govt solutions and social engineering for making things more fair for losers. But above all... keep losing people. Don't commit... don't take risks to succeed... don't celebrate strength... don't admire bravery... just keep whining and complaining and blaming others. I'm sick of this weak ass mentality. Y'all deserve to be enslaved.

The leftist support of this idiot falls in step with there support of Obama. I have no sympathy for Bergdahl.

That's why you're a republican, isn't it? Everybody should be brave,fearless warriors willing to give up their lives for a cause we had no business being in? That's the American way. Those who dare to see the inhumanity of killing innocent people should be killed themselves,right? It's just not enough to be beaten,starved and tortured for five years. You must go on w/ endless suffering. And you call yourselves human beings?

Vikingwoman wrote:

Joanimaroni wrote:

PkrBum wrote:The leftist support of this loser is predictable... just more green participation ribbon mentality. They celebrate losing. Encourage others to lose. Lament about why people keep losing... while fomenting losing social circumstances. Cry about how hard and unfair it is to be a winner. Push through govt solutions and social engineering for making things more fair for losers. But above all... keep losing people. Don't commit... don't take risks to succeed... don't celebrate strength... don't admire bravery... just keep whining and complaining and blaming others. I'm sick of this weak ass mentality. Y'all deserve to be enslaved.

The leftist support of this idiot falls in step with there support of Obama. I have no sympathy for Bergdahl.

That's why you're a republican, isn't it? Everybody should be brave,fearless warriors willing to give up their lives for a cause we had no business being in? That's the American way. Those who dare to see the inhumanity of killing innocent people should be killed themselves,right? It's just not enough to be beaten,starved and tortured for five years. You must go on w/ endless suffering. And you call yourselves human beings?

He had a choice....he didn't have to be there.


Perhaps he should have gone with his other career-oriented goal of being a ballet dancer.

by Vikingwoman Today at 7:08 pm
Joanimaroni wrote:
“
PkrBum wrote:
“
The leftist support of this loser is predictable... just more green participation ribbon mentality. They celebrate losing. Encourage others to lose. Lament about why people keep losing... while fomenting losing social circumstances. Cry about how hard and unfair it is to be a winner. Push through govt solutions and social engineering for making things more fair for losers. But above all... keep losing people. Don't commit... don't take risks to succeed... don't celebrate strength... don't admire bravery... just keep whining and complaining and blaming others. I'm sick of this weak ass mentality. Y'all deserve to be enslaved.
”
The leftist support of this idiot falls in step with there support of Obama. I have no sympathy for Bergdahl.
”
That's why you're a republican, isn't it? Everybody should be brave,fearless warriors willing to give up their lives for a cause we had no business being in? That's the American way. Those who dare to see the inhumanity of killing innocent people should be killed themselves,right? It's just not enough to be beaten,starved and tortured for five years. You must go on w/ endless suffering. And you call yourselves human beings?
-----
We have a voluntary military. He made a choice to enlist

Obamasucks wrote:It's unrelated and you are a moron for trying to link it to Bergdahl.

Really? At least I'm not a sick, twisted little butt-kissing, warmongering pig playing out some conquering hero fantasy while trying to blame it on a young, impressionable soldier who was a POW for 5 years...who had had enough of killing innocent children for sport. You disgust me.

Joanimaroni wrote:

Floridatexan wrote:
It is clearly related; you're just failing to make the connection.  There are people...Bergdahl's fellow soldiers and his superior officers are trying to make him a scapegoat for their failures.  You're helping.  It's all to easy for you to pass judgement here, even with little evidence to back up your position.  You want him to be a traitor...you want him fried.  You want your misadventures to have meaning.  

More of your hogwash.  You are clueless...try reading about Bergdahl on a site other than your Democratic (up Obama's butt) sites.

KMA, harpy.

Floridatexan wrote:

Joanimaroni wrote:

Floridatexan wrote:
It is clearly related; you're just failing to make the connection.  There are people...Bergdahl's fellow soldiers and his superior officers are trying to make him a scapegoat for their failures.  You're helping.  It's all to easy for you to pass judgement here, even with little evidence to back up your position.  You want him to be a traitor...you want him fried.  You want your misadventures to have meaning.  

More of your hogwash.  You are clueless...try reading about Bergdahl on a site other than your Democratic (up Obama's butt) sites.

KMA, harpy.

Not on your life.

Joanimaroni wrote:

Vikingwoman wrote:

Joanimaroni wrote:

PkrBum wrote:The leftist support of this loser is predictable... just more green participation ribbon mentality. They celebrate losing. Encourage others to lose. Lament about why people keep losing... while fomenting losing social circumstances. Cry about how hard and unfair it is to be a winner. Push through govt solutions and social engineering for making things more fair for losers. But above all... keep losing people. Don't commit... don't take risks to succeed... don't celebrate strength... don't admire bravery... just keep whining and complaining and blaming others. I'm sick of this weak ass mentality. Y'all deserve to be enslaved.

The leftist support of this idiot falls in step with there support of Obama. I have no sympathy for Bergdahl.

That's why you're a republican, isn't it? Everybody should be brave,fearless warriors willing to give up their lives for a cause we had no business being in? That's the American way. Those who dare to see the inhumanity of killing innocent people should be killed themselves,right? It's just not enough to be beaten,starved and tortured for five years. You must go on w/ endless suffering. And you call yourselves human beings?

He had a choice....he didn't have to be there.


Perhaps he should have gone with his other career-oriented goal of being a ballet dancer.

Yeah, he didn't have to be there but he made his choice before he saw American soldiers killing innocent people,Nurse Rachett.Thank God you weren't serving. I'd hate to see those wounded soldiers under your christian judgmental touch.

He is still a desserter.

Worse... he aided the enemy by offering himself up as a bargaining chip. Which paid off handsomely for them.

Obamasucks wrote:And a post not even related to the topic.

Progressive tactic. If you can't refute something logically, answer your own imagined question or simply rant on about a totally different subject. Worthless.

Markle wrote:

Obamasucks wrote:And a post not even related to the topic.

Progressive tactic.  If you can't refute something logically, answer your own imagined question or simply rant on about a totally different subject.  Worthless.

You poor sad old man. I almost feel sorry for you, except for the fact that you continuously lie, and your lies hurt other people. Please read what Robert McNamara said about Vietnam...and try, although I know it's hard for you to think, to realize that everything he said could easily apply to Iraq.

PkrBum wrote:Worse... he aided the enemy by offering himself up as a bargaining chip. Which paid off handsomely for them.

Do you have any evidence of that or are you just making up stuff as usual?

Joanimaroni wrote:He is still a desserter.

I don't think he ever served desserts in his life.

Vikingwoman wrote:

Joanimaroni wrote:He is still a desserter.

I don't think he ever served desserts in his life.

Lol...you never know!...especially with auto correct.

Again, why the rush to judgement of Bergdahl? This reminds me of ancient times when some spiritual leader would drive the sins out of the people into whatever herd or flock of animals was nearby. And the war in Afghanistan continues. My friend's son just returned from there...and will most likely be going back. "Welcome, my friends, to the (war) that never ends..." Bergdahl wrote that he had witnessed his comrades in arms killing a child for sport. Who, with a conscience, could see that happen and do nothing? So, he tried to report it and no one cared. And it's a small piece of a much larger puzzle...a war that has dubious origins and appears to be self-perpetuating...where soldiers are still dying without a clear rationale for their missions.