Phil - Veterans for Peace & Justice, California 2009
Posted on 07/07/2014 3:25:51 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Recently released prisoner of war U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is a man I can identify with. On April 20, 1965, I was flying a night combat mission in an A4C Skyhawk over what was then called North Vietnam. My own bombs malfunctioned upon release during a run on enemy trucks. They exploded just below my airplane, blowing the wings and tail section off. Instantly I was in a whirling cockpit hurtling toward Earth, over enemy territory, but managed to eject and parachute to the ground. I spent the next four days on the run through the jungle before being captured. I then spent the next 2,855 days as a captive POW in North Vietnam.
During those years I – and other POWs – endured terrible conditions and periodic torture sessions for political propaganda, public display and false confessions. We each resisted to our individual utmost but ultimately our captors extracted written confessions (ones that we made as improbable and silly as possible) from everyone.
I’ve been asked if I was a POW with U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The answer is no – John McCain was a POW with me. You see, he got there two and a half years after I was captured. John and I were in the same company at the U.S. Naval Academy, so I had a prior personal relationship with him. I say this because I can’t understand his hawkish attitude toward getting involved in more wars, let alone his attitude toward the prisoner exchange that led to the release of Bowe Bergdahl. I heard John say the price of exchange for Sgt. Bergdahl, five of our Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was too high because they might be dangerous when released. Maybe he has forgotten that in 1973 our country made an exchange to bring 801 of us back home. The price of that exchange? A country.
We agreed to give up and withdraw our troops in exchange for Vietnam. Could anyone dispute that there were dangerous people in North Vietnam (maybe 30 million of them) at that time? In fact they could – and did – harm American soldiers for the next two years before we completely withdrew in 1975. So I don’t hear McCain complaining about that prisoner swap.
Speaking for myself, I’m pretty happy with both of them.
No one could possibly believe the Taliban treated Bergdahl well. Reports so far indicate the Taliban confined him to total darkness in a small metal cage for weeks at a time. They also suggest he was beaten and otherwise tortured during his nearly five years as a POW and that he was extremely ill when he was finally released. Yet there is a clatter of nonsense coming from right-wing pundits and multiple armchair warriors, writing and appearing on national TV, arguing that we should have left Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an American POW, in Taliban hands.
It’s easy for political hacks and chicken hawk commentators to discount the value of one American soldier, especially when there is a perceived partisan political benefit to doing so. Since he was rescued, Bergdahl has been the target of constant attacks. There have been suggestions that he deserted, that he did not deserve to be rescued and that he was somehow worth less than five members of the Taliban. Even his family has had to endure violent threats and his hometown canceled a parade in his honor because of the vitriol it inspired. In my opinion this is simply un-American, unpatriotic and unconscionable. The circumstances of Sgt. Bergdahl’s departure from his unit and capture are still being investigated. And he might very well have had the same popular political views now held by a majority of Americans: that we can’t win a war in Afghanistan and should get out as soon as possible. It’s true that if he did hold those views, he should not have acted on them while involved in active combat duty. And tragically, some of his fellow soldiers may have faced Taliban attacks during the search for him. But none of that obviates our country’s sacred obligation not to leave its fighting men and women in enemy hands. The Taliban held Bergdahl for nearly five years. Five years of brutality at the hands of our enemies.
There are real costs to war. I know that in a way that most of our politicians never will. And there are real risks; make no mistake that releasing five Taliban members was a risk. But to suggest that because there is a risk to trading five Taliban members for our own soldier we should not have done so is cowardly and un-American. Moreover, following that line would put our men and women in uniform at further risk. Why would the enemy keep captured soldiers alive if they knew we didn’t value them enough to exchange enemy prisoners for them? I believe this prisoner swap for Bergdahl was brave and honorable. I am disgusted and sickened by the armchair warriors and political hacks that have come out of the woodwork to attack Bergdahl’s release from captivity. The majority of them are political partisans who oppose everything the president does and they are using this young soldier as a means to attack the president. My hope in all this is that Americans will eventually understand the truth underlying this incident, and that truth is this: We can never give up on our young men and women who we send into harm’s way. The broader lesson is that we shouldn’t be getting into all these needless wars, wars that we can’t win or benefit from to begin with. We should use better judgment and diplomacy to avoid the terrible costs in blood and treasure. But who knows? Maybe this incident with Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will create a greater national discussion that will bring sensibility and humanity back to our country. To that end, I’d like to offer a personal and heartfelt note: Welcome home Bowe.
Phillip Butler, PhD, a retired U.S. Navy aviator, is a peace and environmental activist who lives on the Monterey Peninsula. For more, visit www.philbutlerphd.com
The North Vietnamese did a number on this guys head...Same as John McCains
We are talking in the context of a John Kerry type in fact a John Kerry supporter talking about a deserter in sympathetic terms to an ideological paper
To say that being a pow will mess you up is wrong
It can mess you up but the story is not that all of these guys are messed up. The opposite is true
So why even try to support this guy?
And why bring down the rest in order to do it
That’s not generous
And if you want to go and bring McCain in, he’s a senator. He can either be same or go home no excuses in that position
It is instructive that i have disagreed with every point that the author makes. But i am on the naughty list because i won’t crucify the old fool...
For the record, for the logical, to say that he is typical of POWs and to say that being a pow will necessarily ‘scramble ones mind’ is not factual and it is not generous to the other POWs who serve to this day with honor
Who said anything about typical. Yes i do find your lack of charity appalling. I generally see a lack of charity exhibited by people with limited life experience. That’s probably not you though.
Again, for the record, when one says being a pow WILL mess up ones mind, the implication, of course, is that anyone who has been a pow is messed up
But that is not true
The fact is that their are many six year Hanoi Hilton survivors who have led healthy productive lives and are not pointing on bergdahl in public
So your original statement the only one we’re talking about is not generous to these men
That’s all
You make too many assumptions. Your just trying to pick a fight. Problem is, my opinion is mine and mine alone. I am not trying to change your opinion. It is what it is.
it is not generous to say that being a POW will mess up ones mind
That’s all
Ok. So being a POW has never ever EVER messed up anybody’s mind ever? Ok.
Butler’s article is very confusing, as is the man. A brave combat flier who was tortured and held in pretty bad conditions, along with most of the other American fliers who were captured. Probably did his best to resist the No. Vietnamese and for this he should be admired and respected.
However, he rambles in his stories and this shows that he failed to study history.
There weren’t “30 million No. Vietnamese” at the time of the war. Demographic numbers ranged from about 16-18 Million NVN in the mid 1960’s, outnumbering the SVN by about 2-3 Million (whence came their overwhelming manpower pool for their PAVN forces).
ALso, Bergdahl was not a traditional POW, captured on the battlefield, but was a mixed up AWOL, if not deliberate deserter.
While we can commisserate with his reportedly bad treatement by the Haqqani Network (not the Taliban per se), to release 5 top Taliban leaders was insane and will lead to the deaths of more Afghanis, Americans, and coalition soldiers. They live to kill and be killed. In other words, they are pathologically insane, and pose both an imminent and long-range danger to civilized people everywhere.
We were not allowed to “win” in Vietnam (a point about which I agree with him) but he apparently supports the Democrats who destroyed our victory in Iraq by pulling out our troops in such a deliberately reckless fashion, as we are seeing today.
I have friends who are/were (deceased) POWS, most of whom underwent not only torture for long periods of time, but who also saw their co-prisoners (both military and civilian), die in front of them (by execution or medical maltreatment or torture).
They have not turned against their country. If nothing else, they have renewed their devotion to protecting America, even as illness and age work against them. One last fight to wage, till their dying days. No whining, no crying, no quitting.
Just once more into the breach, and proud of being able to do it!
I am not supporting Bergdahl or Butler, and neither is DariusBane.
DarisBane could have been clearer by saying “it could mess you up” not “it will mess you up”, but I am at a loss as to why this brings two Freepers to virtual blows. I don’t think the discussion warrants it, but that is just my opinion.
The context I brought McCain into it was specifically as an example of someone not being as critical as they had every right to be on the basis of baggage the person had, such a serving his country in a time of war and being a POW. That context was applied to Phil Butler, not Bergdahl, and certainly not Kerry.
That, in a nutshell, explains why I don't feel the need to exercise forbearance towards Mr. Butler.
He has chosen a side, and it is a side that wishes to destroy this country.
No. He did not use the word could
He said will. I’ve cut and pasted it
Wow
Phil - Veterans for Peace & Justice, California 2009
“You, my web site visitor, are encouraged to understand this as a personal case study of my original socialization and subsequent decision making and personal growth. It is my life transition from warrior to peace and justice activist and to becoming a humanist.”
Phil Butler
Oooh. You got me! Do you debate on the highschool debate team?
I think I opined in my post that he SHOULD have used the word “could”.
In any case, I don’t think it is worth the angst, just my opinion.
Any due respect to our fine former POWs makes pointing out that they’re all not mind- scrambled is worth whatever dopey insults I have to endure
Anyone who wants to say they’re all mentally compromised is wrong
If you think that person shouldn’t suffer any angst for it ...whatever
All “Veterans Against War” organizations (Iraq, Vietnam, etc) make common cause with the radical Left.
While they fought for the right to join groups like those, I assume those that have joined have repudiated their service at some level, and did so of their own free will.
They aren’t allies of mine anymore when they do. I have seen too many of them up close and personally to grant them ideological leeway. They have closed that door themselves and crossed the line.
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