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Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was released after being held by the Afghan Taliban for 5 years - in exchange for 5 terrorists who had been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay prison.
Instead of being happy for the successful release of an American soldier, a few Republican politicians are upset - but then again they are upset by everything that this President does.
Even John McCain, who knows first hand what it was like to be tortured as a prisoner, was complaining.
I believe there are several reasons people are upset. One being that Congress should have been made aware of the situation and AGAIN Obama took it upon himself to make a decision. Second reason is that the US makes a point of not negotiating the release of prisoners, as that only increases the chance that other Americans and/or soldiers will be kidnapped and held for ransom. It basically sets a precedent and puts tourists abroad and our military at risk.
I'm a veteran who spent over 2 years in deployment in Iraq and I would spit in this guy's face if I could.
He walked off, walked out on his unit and as a result, at least six soldiers died and many more were wounded just out looking for him. Not a single person that served with him has stood up for him, they all said the same thing, that he was a headcase that simply walked out on everyone, left his weapon and equipment behind and snuck out of the base. According to a journal entry that he left behind, he was going to the mountains to "find himself." He's either a traitor or just an absolute moron. Eitherway I can tell you that judging by the reactions of veterans in general, this guy isn't getting any respect from most of them. There's no respect for a quitter who abandoned his unit and snuck out in the middle of the night, at worst looking to foolishly defect to the Taliban or at best out for a little side trip, completely unarmed in one of the world's most dangerous nations in a forward operating area.
You don't walk out on your people. You don't leave them high and dry, and when your stupidity ends up costing lives, you don't get respect for it. The families of those who died trying to save him due to his own idiocy don't get any closure, they don't have their sons coming back to them, they got flag draped coffins instead.
I doubt he'll get punished further because the military is likely to consider his time as a captive as time served, even if it was of his own doing, but at the very least the Army should strip him down to an E-1. He doesn't deserve the title of Sergeant. He's certainly not any NCO that I would ever have any respect for.
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But in the weeks before his capture, Bergdahl had made murky statements that suggested he was gravitating away from the soldiers in his unit and toward *desertion, a member of his platoon told Rolling Stone.
“He spent more time with the Afghans than he did with his platoon,” former Spc. Jason Fry told the magazine in 2012.
As a teen, the home-schooled son of Calvinists took up ballet — recruited to be a “lifter” by “a beautiful local girl,” Rolling Stone reported — “the guy who holds the girl aloft in a ballet sequence.” The strategy worked — Bergdahl, who also began dabbling in Budd*hism and tarot card reading — soon moved in with the woman.
Even as a teen, he could fire a .22-caliber rifle with precision.
At age 20, he traveled to Paris and started learning French in hopes of joining the French Foreign Legion.
His application was rejected, and he was devastated, the magazine reported.
Bergdahl would drift for years, working mainly at a coffee shop near home. He briefly considered moving to Uganda to help villagers being terrorized by militias before deciding on a different *adventure.
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“I’m thinking of joining the Army,” he told his folks after *already having signed up.
Bergdahl’s dream was to help Afghan villagers rebuild their lives and learn to defend themselves, his dad told the magazine.
Bergdahl also complained about fellow soldiers. The battalion commander was a “conceited old fool,” he said, and the only “decent” sergeants, planning to leave the platoon “as soon as they can,” told the privates — Bergdahl then among them — “to do the same.”
“I am ashamed to be an American. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools,” he concluded. “I am sorry for everything. The horror that is America is disgusting.”
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One night, after finishing a guard-duty shift Bowe Bergdahl asked his team leader whether there would be a problem if he left camp with his rifle and night-vision goggles — to which the team leader replied “yes.” Bergdahl then returned to his bunker, picked up a knife, water, his diary and a camera, and left camp, according to Rolling Stone.
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“Feel free to open them, and use them,” he wrote.
Later that night, Bowe Bergdahl’s father Bob Bergdahl, a UPS truck driver, sent his son an email from their home in Hailey, Idaho, with the subject line: OBEY YOUR CONSCIENCE!
The media can try to foist this "hero" crap upon the unsuspecting public but I have no reason whatsoever to look at Bergdahl as a hero, I regard him with the same sort of disdain as the idiots who ignore signs not to drive their cars into a wash when there has been heavy rain and then people have to come and bail them out as a result of their own actions.
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Personally, I am happy for Bob and Jani Bergdahl. Their son is alive. They get to wrap their arms around their son, but they do so knowing his actions are the reason the families of PFC Morris Walker, PFC Matthew Martinek, SSG Clayton Bowen, SSG Kurt Curtiss, SSG Michael Murphrey and 2LT Darryn Andrews welcomed home a flag-draped coffin.
I would like to know why Obama chose this guy to trade prisoners so that he could be freed. There have been many other Military members and civilians held captive that he did nothing about. Why this guy?
I would like to know why Obama chose this guy to trade prisoners so that he could be freed. There have been many other Military members and civilians held captive that he did nothing about. Why this guy?
The only POW of the Afghan War. He was the only one left. I don't know why this went through at this particular time, people have all sorts of conspiracy theories and "Wag the Dog" scenario's but I really don't care about the political aspect of this. I just know that this guy isn't deserving of respect. He walked out on his unit, only after he was captured, all alone and unarmed did he perhaps consider that this was a bad idea.
The people who died and were permanently injured trying to rescue him, those are true hero's who were put in the line of fire so the Army could retrieve their village idiot of a prodigal son.
Hopefully we micro chipped the released Talibanics.
The CDC may have provided some type of germ or illness to those being returned that will take months maybe a year or so before the effects take place. I doubt that they’ll live too long over there.
I would like to know why Obama chose this guy to trade prisoners so that he could be freed. There have been many other Military members and civilians held captive that he did nothing about. Why this guy?
Just a thought...Obama's current or should I say latest problem with the VA. All of a sudden he showed up in Afghanistan on Memorial Day, big show, trying to get his poll figures back up. The release of this deserter is another of his ploys, albeit a really dumb one, especially with the release of prisoners in exchange.
This guy is hated and quite frankly for very good reasons. This guy hates America, good! let him stay with his own kind.
What about the boys who lost their lives searching for this scum bag? this guy is flat out traitor, his dad is nuts and a cupcake too.
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