Bergdahl a Hero?

"The command can say 'This fellow has been living in terrible conditions. We don't approve of what he did but we're not going to prosecute him,'" he said. "Or, the military could prosecute him as a way of signaling to others that 'Look, you can't simply go over the hill.' ... It's quite an interesting set of issues that will have to be addressed as a matter of both policy and law."

Desertion can be difficult to prove, said Ret. Maj. Gen. John Altenburg Jr., a Washington attorney who served 28 years as a lawyer in the Army.

"There has to be some evidence that he intended never to come back - that he intended to remain away from his unit permanently," Altenburg said.

"I don't know if they'll charge him with anything. It will depend on the circumstances of his return and what he has to say."

Mary Schantag, chairman of the P.O.W. Network, an educational nonprofit group founded in 1989, said it's futile to speculate. "He is an American soldier in enemy hands. Period. Bring him home," she said.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and former Marine who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, agreed.

"It's hard to imagine any circumstance where his captivity won't be viewed as time served," said Hunter, R-Calif. "The first order of business is securing his release and I don't think it does an ounce of good to begin contemplating that far ahead when the focus is on getting him home."
—CBS News

ALL KILLED IN ACTION SEARCHING FOR BERGDAHL:

•PFC Matthew Michael Martinek,Died September 11, 2009 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom 20, of DeKalb, Ill.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska; died Sept. 11 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, of wounds sustained in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Sept. 4 when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised-explosive device followed by a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire.

•Staff Sgt. Kurt Robert Curtiss,Died August 26, 2009 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom 27, of Murray, Utah; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska; died Aug. 26 in Sar Howzeh, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he was shot while his unit was supporting Afghan security forces during an enemy attack.

•SSG Clayton Bowen,Died August 18, 2009 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom 29, of San Antonio; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska; died Aug. 18 in Dila, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Also killed was Pfc. Morris L. Walker.

•PFC Morris Walker,Died August 18, 2009 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom 23, of Chapel Hill, N.C.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska; died Aug. 18 in Dila, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Also killed was Staff Sgt. Clayton P. Bowen.

•SSG Michael Murphrey,Died September 6, 2009 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom 25, of Snyder, Texas; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska; died Sept. 6 in FOB Sharana, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. were ALL KIA FROM OUR UNIT WHO DIED LOOKING FOR Bergdahl .
•Many others from various units were wounded or killed while actively looking for Bergdahl.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/06/bergdahl-snuck-off-post-to-join-taliban-at-least-six-americans-were-killed-trying-to-find-him/

News Buzzard wrote:Former Bush official: "Bush would have done the same thing."

http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/06/03/3444366/former-bush-official-blasts-gop-bush-would-have-agreed-to-bergdahl-swap/

Bush released some 500 detainees from Gitmo.

The Obama administration condemned Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s release of 65 hardened Taliban fighters

four months ago, even though the White House on Saturday approved the exchange of five terrorists leaders for a soldier suspected of deserting his post.

News Buzzard wrote:Article 2 of the Constitution gives the president executive powers, and in this case Obama said he was discussing the swap with congress for a long time when the exigent circumstances arose to do the swap. What does all of this mean? Probably more useless hearings by the Republicans.  

President Obama used an Article 2 signing statement to deem unconstitutional a measure he had signed into law contained in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The law stated that he must advise Congress within 30 days about any plans to transfer detainees from GITMO. Obama basically stated that this was “unconstitutional” and that his unilateral action fell within his purview.

News Hawk wrote:He makes the law...then breaks the law.

WHL wrote:It doesn't make Bush right either.

News Buzzard wrote:

WHL wrote:It doesn't make Bush right either.

Who created Gitmo, WHL?

WHL wrote:You libs are just like little kids.  When Obama does something you scream "he did it too!"  Grow up will ya'?
So what if Bush did it too.  It doesn't make Bush right either.

Questions persisted, too, about the circumstances of Bergdahl’s 2009 capture. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel declined to comment on earlier reports that the sergeant had walked away from his unit, disillusioned with the war. Such matters “will be dealt with later,” Hagel said.

Hagel, visiting troops in Afghanistan, was met with silence when he told a group of them in a Bagram Air Field hangar: “This is a happy day. We got one of our own back.” It was unclear whether the absence of cheers and applause came from a reluctance to display emotion in front of the Pentagon chief or from any doubts among the troops about Bergdahl.
—CBS

You know things are tough for President Obama when some his biggest fans start taking shots at their guy. Over at NBC News, usually a reliable cheerleader for the president, foreign correspondent Richard Engel has accused the administration of being less "forthcoming" than the Taliban in the Bowe Bergdahl fiasco. The Taliban! And just last week, Engel was unable to name a single nation with which our relations have improved under the Obama administration.

The New York Times editorial scribes recently described the president's big speech at West Point as "uninspiring," concluding it "did not match the hype." And that was before the Bowe Bergdahl controversy and the president's unilateral decision to swap five high-level Taliban jihadists for one alleged deserter. Law experts left and right questioned the legality of the move, and liberal law professor Jonathan Turley actually characterized Barack Obama as "the president Richard Nixon always wanted to be." To borrow from a certain bard, that has to be the unkindest cut of all.


It was simply stunning to see Susan Rice trotted out to declare that Bowe Bergdahl "served with honor and distinction." Everyone other than Bergdahl's father knew that was almost certainly not true. A lie. Shouldn't Ms. Rice have spoken with a bit of caution after her shameful misstatements about Benghazi? Apparently the Obama gang doesn't put much credence in the adage about experience being the best teacher. Then, to add insult to implausibility, the White House's shell-shocked spokesman Jay Carney tried mightily to defend Susan Rice's laughable claims.

Rice and Carney probably weren't tuned in five years ago when Fox News strategic analyst Lt. Col Ralph Peters said this: "The media has been turning this guy, a probable deserter and certainly AWOL in the combat zone, as some kind of hero." Now that Bergdahl has been released by the Taliban, his former platoon mates are finally free to talk about his service, which was apparently not so honorable. "He violated his oath when he deserted us," said one of them, while another accused Bergdahl of a "very big betrayal."

As for the thugs released from Gitmo, they are not soldiers. These five killers are now enjoying their freedom in Qatar, perhaps savoring a return to the battlefield. The president asserts that the war is winding down, and that prisoner exchanges are customary at the end of conflict. But the Taliban will never stop fighting. What else are they going to do, watch sitcoms and play Candy Crush in the Hindu Kush? Fighting against the West is their reason for living; they sit in the mountains, determined to usher in the return of a barbaric Islamic state to Afghanistan.

President Obama seems to be under the misguided impression that pretty much anyone can be reasoned with, with the possible exception of Congressional Republicans. That inability to recognize evil brings to mind Jimmy Carter, whose ambassador to the United Nations (the same position formerly held by Susan Rice) was the naive Andrew Young. How naive? He referred to the murderous Ayatollah Khomeini as a "saint." Carter also worried that we suffered from an "inordinate fear" of communism, an ideology that killed tens of millions of people. And now, three decades later, the Obama crew has praised the fanatical Muslim Brotherhood and believes we can work things out with the Taliban.

Once again, why are so many monumental mistakes being made inside the Oval Office? The VA scandal is still fresh and now we have this, in addition to the IRS, Benghazi, NSA, and on and on. Is it possible that any administration could simply be this incompetent? Not merely bumbling or wrong-headed, but breathtakingly bad at looking out for the American people.

One person very familiar with the inner workings of the Obama White House offers an explanation. He says the president is fully aware that the economy will remain stuck in neutral, that ObamaCare will be an unpopular mess for years, and that his job approval will stay under water. And therefore, President Obama will simply do what he wants. Full speed ahead, public opinion be damned.

That is a chilling analysis, but how else can anyone explain what's happening on Pennsylvania Avenue? To any sentient person, anyone other than an Obama zealot, the chaos in Washington is embarrassing and downright frightening. Things are so bad that people might be excused if they find themselves longing for a certain peanut farmer.
http://www.bernardgoldberg.com/carter-take-two-or-is-it-nixon/