Former prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was arraigned today on charges of desertion related to his “disappearance” in Afghanistan, during which he was held by the Taliban for five years. He could face five years in prison on the desertion charge.
Sgt. Bergdahl was held by the Taliban from 2009 until 2014, when he was recovered in a prisoner swap. The swap proved extremely controversial, with hawks opposing both the release of Taliban in an exchange as well as recovering Bergdahl at all.
A preliminary hearing on Bergdahl ended with a recommendation of a special court-martial, which would’ve only resulted in misdemeanor-level charges, but the Army ultimately decided the more serious general court-martial.
A lot of the hawks’ narrative against Bergdahl centered around claims of troops killed searching for him, though the military subsequently admitted that was not the case, and that there wasn’t a single soldier killed in the failed attempts to recover him.
The usual scum are trying to politicize this.
When the military throws Bergdahl and other young guys into an intractable 10-year-old quagmire, some of them are going to break down. The military brass won't just give him a dishonorable discharge because that would tacitly admit that Afghanistan is a (now 14-year-old) quagmire.
Amazing the number of non-serving media hacks and political creatures that are willing to opine on the fate of a person who at least volunteered to serve.
They just never let go. Like rabid dogs they never let go of a bone once they have it. You’d do better to die in their eyes than ever offend them by being alive.