Posted on 06/04/2014 12:48:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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The buzz isn’t just because Bergdahl had been held in captivity since going missing in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. It’s because it is widely believed that he walked off his base in a war zone with no plans to return. Doing so would be desertion, a crime in the military in which individuals leave their unit with no plans to return, or quit to avoid hazardous duty or “important service.”
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What makes Bergdahl’s case so unusual in modern times is that he disappeared while in a war zone. There are remarkably few known cases in recent years in which service members have been accused of fleeing their units while deployed.
Perhaps the most famous case is that of Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, who disappeared June 19, 2004, from his base in Fallujah, Iraq. Several media reports suggested the following month that he had been killed after being held captive , but he later resurfaced at the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon, where he had family. That reportedly came after members of his family traded gunfire in northern Lebanon with another family who had taunted him and his relatives for their ties to the U.S. In December 2004, Hassoun was charged with desertion. He denied the accusations, but then disappeared again the following month after visiting family in Utah.
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(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The Norks eventually "gave" him a Japanese girl they had kidnapped. During a rare period of detente they allowed the wife, then mother of two, a visit to Japan and later allowed her to stay. Jenkins was reunited with them in 2004 and lives in Japan today.
He claimed he thought the Norks would send him to Russia and he eventually would be exchanged. I suppose figuring the pathetic figure had suffered enough he was sentenced to 30 days and released.
Interesting postscript: The Norks tried to use Jenkins to teach English to spies in training, but his North Carolina accent was so thick it didn't work.
At a minimum Bergdahl should face a long prison term. If his desertion lead to an attack he should be EXECUTED.
A very long term; he's could be a "Manchurian Candidate."
Don’t forget The US Marine Garwood.
garwood was court-martialed and stripped of ALL benefits.
And that should happen in this case too.
During the Korean war after the truce was declared 25 American POW’s refused to return to the US.
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