Anger Explodes Over Treatment of Bergdahl’s Release as Veterans, Troops Call Him a Deserter

McClatchy ^ | Monday, June 2, 2014 | Hannah Allam and Jonathan S. Landay

[kristinn]

For all the yellow ribbons strewn across his hometown in Idaho and the gratitude expressed by his parents in an emotional visit to the White House on Saturday, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will receive a hero’s welcome when he returns to the United States after nearly five years in Taliban captivity.

From military forums across the country, a groundswell of anger is rising over the Obama administration’s silence on perhaps the most controversial question surrounding the deal that freed Bergdahl in exchange for five senior Taliban members: Was he a deserter?

So far, the U.S. government has shied away from the long-nagging question, which raged anew Monday with growing clamor on the Internet about the circumstances of Bergdahl’s disappearance from his unit’s small forward position in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009.

Military-related blogs, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages were filled with screeds from commenters accusing Bergdahl of being a “traitor” or a Taliban “collaborator.” The online publication The Daily Beast published a nearly 2,000-word first-person account by a former Army infantry officer who said he was privy to details of Bergdahl’s disappearance and who stated flatly that “he was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down.”

The mother of one of six soldiers who’ve been identified as being killed in circumstances related to the search for Bergdahl was furious over the opaque handling of the case, telling Army Times that the Pentagon “really owes the parents of these fallen soldiers the truth.”

But instead of addressing the desertion issue head-on, complained many military analysts and war veterans, the Obama administration is allowing the debate to fester, only deepening the skepticism of current and former service members who demand to know how Bergdahl left his unit,...

[leapfrog0202]

Good job LeoWindhorse. I emailed the city admin, didn’t have the mayor’s email.

[no-to-illegals]

Have to agree the world is full of information. This is why I have to go with Leo Windhorse’s idea at post #10.

[husky ed]

That little person Susan Rice is one pathetic piece of shite.

Ed

[Ray76]

https://twitter.com/redsteeze/status/472931863875833856/photo/1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yBrp0VDUvjA

[no-to-illegals]

Thank You.

[flaglady47]

I posted this on another thread; fits here too:

I have a bit of a different slant on this issue, and I’ll bet I’m not too far off the mark. I think the son, Bowe, who may have initially switched to Islam to save his neck, so to speak, jumped in with both feet and became a true believer. I bet he was in on teaching his new fellow Muzzies how to make bombs and was slamming the U.S. twice as much as his newfound buddies, while growing his beard out. I think he saw himself as one of them, now trusted by them and a fellow Jihad travellor.

However, what Bowe didn’t bargain for was that his fellow Islamists were getting ready to throw him under the bus in order to liberate 5 real Afghan Taliban, being held at Gitmo as prisoners. What Bowe didn’t bargain on, was that the Taliban would want 5 real Jihadists back in their fold, especially ones that were probably the brains behind many an attack on Westerners, preferably on U.S. ones. And the Taliban was more than happy to trade in one faux Jihadist for 5 real ones. That hadn’t entered into Bowe’s equation.

Now Bowe has been traded in for the 5 Gitmo Jihadists, and I’m sure he is exceedingly bewildered and feeling very betrayed. He thought he was one of them, a fellow Jihadist. Now he has been jilted and sent back to what he now considers the enemy, that’s us. And could end up in the klink back in the good old USA for desertion to boot. What a culture shock.

Hence he doesn’t want to speak the enemy’s language, that’s English. So Pops (I can’t say a chip off the old block as Pops IS the old block) who seems to have mimicked his son’s Islamist propensities, speaks to his son who won’t speak English, in Arabic. How jolly, how easily Pops and son will be able to communicate with one another when Bowe gets home. Poor young Bowe, he’s got to be one big psychological mess right now; he’s neither fish nor fowl, just a lonely Jihadist without a country. The fun begins.

[Paladin2]

Sounds like your analysis is likely quite close.

The situation is totally bizarre.

[no-to-illegals]

I also agree that Americans have placed a moslem in the White House. Any moslem is dangerous. A moslem in the White House is the most dangerous of all moslems (imho). I continue to stay with LeoWindhorse's idea. That maybe is our nation's safest course for this moment. I maybe am wrong but the horses are no longer in the barn. Five released or was it Six? That question should be answered. The media will never answer that question or any question. Maybe a Military Trial will?

My apology Leo for keeping you pinged. Please see Leo's idea at post #10. Is an idea more than worthy of consideration.

[Paladin2]

Something for your consideration:

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023125347_waterrightsxml.html

[keat]

his unit’s small forward position

Ah, so typically McClatchy. As if deserting from a small forward position is so much less. important than deserting from, what? A large forward position?

[hinckley buzzard]

Who knows what he did or did not run into on the ground. Hewitt quoted servicemen from the scene who attested that he was tracked by drone and other surveillance for weeks after he deserted. The government knew where this guy was at all times, he was apparently never in danger.

The whole messy abortion flunks the smell test, including the role of the puke's parents.

[Milton Miteybad]

The President exchanged five top Taliban operatives, all of whom will eventually return to jihad, for some bozo who deserted his post and cost the lives of six of his fellow soldiers who sought to find him.

The USA PATRIOT Act makes it a crime to provide material support for terrorism, which is defined in our broad classes: training, expert advice or assistance, service and personnel.

There is no exception in the Act for the President, even when purportedly acting within the scope of his duties.

Considering that Obama has obviously supplied personnel (the five released Taliban kingpins) to a terrorist organization by releasing them and dropping them on their own doorstep, how is it possible for him not to have violated the USA PATRIOT Act as a result, considering there is no exception to the statute, even for the President?

[llevrok]

Considering this was a McClatchy story, quite an indictment !

[Eagles6]

When did the pos father turn to the dark side? If it was before the traitor son joined the Army this would add a whole other dimension to the story.

[Guenevere]

Bttt

[Blue Highway]

This story sounds eerily similar to the traitorous schems of one John F Kerry. He gets a multitude of purple hearts for putting his own men in danger and he attempted to desert his men when under attack. The bad mouthing American soldiers in front of the world stage. To me that is one traitorous POS and this guy sounds a lot like Kerry in those regards.

[llevrok]

they cannot even conceive that traitors are actually bad.

I think I read one of the Regime's flacks asked "What's the big deal? It's like the release of our people from Iran"

Coffee sprewed all over my living room on that one.

[elcid1970]

Agree totally except they speak Pashtun or Dari in Ashcanistan, not Arabic. The Weirdometer here is maxing out; my wife asked if the father is Amish & I said that’s not an Amish nor a Duck Dynasty beard, it’s an Islamic one as the father goes muzzie native in seeking his son’s release.

The father of this deserter also said “salaam aleikum” IIRC.

[llevrok]

Mom is looking like the Milf next door.
Obama is all over her.
Dad has gone full Muzzie
Junior won’t speak American any more.

Welcome to liberal America 2014

[LeoWindhorse]

thanks

here ya go :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ5IAVFHR-I