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Captured US soldier's e-mails suggest he deserted in Afghanistan "I am ashamed to even be American"
NY Post ^ | June 8, 2012

Posted on 06/08/2012 7:47:54 AM PDT by dead

HAILEY, Idaho -- E-mails from a US soldier, sent before he was captured by the Taliban in 2009, suggest he was disillusioned with the military and considering deserting.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 26, told his parents in e-mails obtained by Rolling Stone magazine that he was disgusted with the US Army and ashamed to be American.

In one, which was not verified, he wrote, "I am sorry for everything here. These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live... I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be American."

Bergdahl, then a private first class, went missing on June 30, 2009, sparking a manhunt that saw other military missions canceled or diverted.

According to the magazine, his e-mails to his family back home in Idaho began to take on a more somber tone when one of his close friends was killed in Afghanistan.

Initially military officials thought he was captured by the Taliban after walking away from his outpost near the Pakistani border....

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; bergdahl; bobbergdahl; bowebergdahl; gitmo; taliban
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To: exit82

I would have to read the emails, if they really exist. This could also be a ploy by the family and the military to keep him alive. He has been held for three years. Let the Taliban think that he identifies with their cause. They are using him as a bargaining chip to release some of their own people.


21 posted on 06/08/2012 8:25:41 AM PDT by kabar
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To: SMARTY

He did it for the education benefits, don’cha know. Never thought he’d have to go to war, his recruiter lied to him, his drill sergeant was mean to him, they made him cover up his self-expression tattoos, made him run (gasp) and carry heavy stuff (shocking).

KMA, Bowe.


22 posted on 06/08/2012 8:25:51 AM PDT by jagusafr ("Write in Palin and prepare for war...")
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To: kabar

Well, let’s hope so. Although the Taliban wants Gitmo guys in exchange, and that is not going to happen.

Besides, the Taliban doesn’t read Rolling Stone.


23 posted on 06/08/2012 8:33:11 AM PDT by exit82 (Democrats are the enemies of freedom. Be Andrew Breitbart.)
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To: kabar
As you noted the State Dept. & TB had been in SECRET negotiations for around a year - sticking point was the release of TB members.

When negotiations broke down the parents came forward with the story on the negotiations.

It's been a month or so since then and now the folks are throwing out the e-mails.

I'm sure the folks would like their son back - and he would have been home almost three years ago if he would have just done his job.

24 posted on 06/08/2012 8:34:51 AM PDT by PeteB570 ( Islam is the sea in which the Terrorist Shark swims. The deeper the sea the larger the shark.)
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To: PeteB570
I really don't know the facts of exactly how and why he was captured. Maybe he had an Afghan girlfriend and was caught while meeting with her. Do we really know that he was deserting? Maybe he just had some sort of mental breakdown caused by the loss of friends.

My point is that we should not draw conclusions until we get the facts. After the Treyvon Martin shooting, many posters claimed that Zimmerman was guilty of gunning down an unarmed teenager. They bought into the MSM racist stampede.

I will give the benefit of the doubt to someone who volunteered to serve putting his life on the line in defense of this country in a combat zone and being held as a prisoner for three years.

25 posted on 06/08/2012 8:35:11 AM PDT by kabar
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To: PeteB570

Some of the things I would miss if I were held by the goat fornicators in the desert:

Freedom
Love
Air conditioning
Central heat (in the winter)
Ice cream
Fresh cut french fries
Fried chicken
Deviled Eggs
Mayonnaise
Peanut Butter and peach jelly sandwiches on homemade bread
Forks and spoons and napkins
A soft bed with crisp cotton sheets
A straight, clean man who uses deodorant and shaving cream
Vaginal sex
Central vacumning
Air conditioning
A car with air conditioning
Showering with hot and cold water
Soap
Toilet paper
Restaurants
Music
My dogs
My girlfriends
Air conditioning

I will bet he is now missing America and all things American.

Let him stay there.


26 posted on 06/08/2012 8:45:29 AM PDT by Cowgirl of Justice
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To: dead

There are always a few.

We had a handful of nutballs who defected to Communist China during the Korean War too.


27 posted on 06/08/2012 8:49:46 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: pterional

I agree completely with your post. We have no business being over there.


28 posted on 06/08/2012 8:52:51 AM PDT by ColdSteelTalon (Light is fading to shadow, and casting its shroud over all we have known...)
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To: Cowgirl of Justice

I started reading you post and was going “Wonder if she lists Toilet Paper?” - And there it was.

But having traveled in the general area a good bit I learned when heading out make sure you have a couple of those MRE TP wraps in your pocket.


29 posted on 06/08/2012 9:08:09 AM PDT by PeteB570 ( Islam is the sea in which the Terrorist Shark swims. The deeper the sea the larger the shark.)
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To: dead

I suspect the reason that this has come to light now is because either he has been dispatched along with some Taliban in a drone strike, or they know where he is and do not intend that there will be a body.

So the Taliban, or the Paks, will announce that he was killed by a US air strike, and died a martyr to Islam, or whatever. Case closed.


30 posted on 06/08/2012 9:24:16 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: kabar

I’m with you on this one. The left has an agenda for Afghanistan. It is still a Muslim country and is not going to accept that agenda. Could that be what he is talking about? Are we trying to force western values, and even worse, left wing western values on the Afghans? Could that be what the cause of his “shame?” I think the facts are too slim to judge.


31 posted on 06/08/2012 9:27:28 AM PDT by trubolotta
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To: Cowgirl of Justice

Don’t forget BACON!!!


32 posted on 06/08/2012 9:47:44 AM PDT by catman67
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To: dead
Bergdahl, then a private first class, went missing on June 30, 2009, sparking a manhunt that saw other military missions canceled or diverted.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 26, told his parents in e-mails obtained by Rolling Stone magazine that he was disgusted with the US Army and ashamed to be American.

On June 30, 2009, when he went missing, Berghahl was a Private? But now, at age 26, he's a Sgt? How does that happen?

33 posted on 06/08/2012 9:54:36 AM PDT by SoldierDad (Proud dad of an Army Soldier who has survived 24 months of Combat deployment.)
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To: pterional; ColdSteelTalon
Currently, I don't understand our mission in Iraq and Afghanistan . We would be safer in this country if we didn't import Muslims or other people that hate this country and quit trying to nation build other countries with borrowed money.

My son returned from Afghanistan the end of January. He stated to me many times during his deployment that he and his fellow soldiers didn't know what their mission was - that it didn't seem to them their was a true mission. I disagree with the notion that the U.S. has NO business being in Afghanistan. However, I'm of the opinion that, if our soldiers are deployed to Afghanistan (or anywhere else) without a clear mission, then the U.S. has NO business having boots on the ground being served up as human targets. War should only be fought as a war, with WWII style goals - complete and utter destruction of the enemy at ALL costs and damn the collateral damage.

34 posted on 06/08/2012 10:02:37 AM PDT by SoldierDad (Proud dad of an Army Soldier who has survived 24 months of Combat deployment.)
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To: ColdSteelTalon

Bring the troops home now. We should end most of our foreign troop deployments and place some of them on our southern border.


35 posted on 06/08/2012 10:09:27 AM PDT by Taylor42
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To: PeteB570

What is this fool going to do in the desert? Wait till they chop his head off.


36 posted on 06/08/2012 10:13:04 AM PDT by angcat (GO YANKS!)
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To: SoldierDad

For people like him in similar situations the military will promote them with their peer group.

In his case he has had to time to make E4/SPC and E5/SGT. They keep him much longer and he’ll make SSG.

His pay continues and when/if he’s released he’ll get all his back pay.


37 posted on 06/08/2012 10:36:32 AM PDT by PeteB570 ( Islam is the sea in which the Terrorist Shark swims. The deeper the sea the larger the shark.)
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To: Izzy Dunne

AYE!


38 posted on 06/08/2012 10:58:43 AM PDT by 2CAVTrooper ( For those who have had to fight for it, freedom has a flavor the protected shall never know.)
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To: SMARTY

Like all those morons who joined the National Guard for the cash then bitched when they were called up for the Iraq war. They never expected to fight in a war when they signed up for the military!!!! Hey,thats what the military does.
When you take the kings shilling,you do the kings bidding.
This douche should be hanged.....


39 posted on 06/09/2012 12:44:28 AM PDT by Yorlik803 (better to die on your feet than live on your knees.)
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To: dead

Ironically, I’m ashamed of him, too.


40 posted on 06/09/2012 12:51:47 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
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