Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer (Ret.) and Col. David Hunt (Ret.) make it clear that Bergdahl is a deserter. He voluntarily left his post and joined up with the Taliban. He was not captured. He betrayed his fellow soldiers, and good men died trying to get him back.
Bergdahl should be court-martialed. He won't be, because the President, i.e., Bergdahl's Commander in Chief, doesn't want him to be. Obama has sympathy for traitors and tyrants.
The expectation of Shaffer and Hunt, based on their sources, is that Bergdahl will get a less-than-honorable discharge and will be allowed to keep his $300,000 in back pay. Bradley Manning, who made classified documents available to Julian Assange in the Wikileaks scandal, sits in Leavenworth. Edward Snowden, who exposed the NSA, is a hunted man. I don't think Snowden is the criminal in that case. Manning is a traitor but not as so directly as Bergdahl, and no one died, as far as I know, as a result of Manning's actions.
Five Islamic terrorist leaders were released in exchange for a deserter so Obama could get some positive press coverage. A court martial would be a public relations disaster for Obama. I do not know when or where people like Obama and Bergdahl will get what's coming to them. Maybe not in this life. Still, the record is kept, and whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. (Romans 12:19, ESV)
When I think about soldiers on active duty in WWI who were shell shocked, mentally damaged, then subsequently shot for desertion, and then compare that with Obama's embrace of Bergdahl, or should that be Sargent Bergdahl, it's hard to form any kind of moral equivelance.
ReplyDeleteThat's very true. Back then the threat of desertion was considered serious.
ReplyDeleteI understand that with the Rules of Engagement being what they are and all the stress, it's a tough job. But a lot of good people stuck it out even when they didn't like all of it.