Bowe Bergdahl release: US parties clash on Afghan deal

[simple1]

Soldiers getting high? That's never happened before. Next thing you know, they will be consorting with loose women.

Whilst apparently few, soldiers getting 'high' on drugs that assist in funding Afghan Taliban activities, good move eh?

[ClutchClark]

since some are making comments on drug use, might be interested in the article below that also talks to heroin use by some Western forces in Afghanistan

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/20/afghan-military-recruits-found-dealing-drugs-to-us-soldiers-army-documents-show/

Wasn't it just a couple months back when those two ex-SEALS turned private contractors onboard the maersk alabama died of heroin overdose onboard the vessel?

Maybe I am just too old but I don't understand the fascination with drugs.

[chuckd]

Bergdahl Wasn't Only Soldier to 'Walk Off' Afghan Outposts

http://news.yahoo.com/bergdahl-wasnt-only-soldier-walk-off-afghan-outposts-161259328--abc-news-topstories.html

Yeah, but those other dozen or more soldiers who walked off their post and were never charged with desertion have one very significant difference from Bergdahl.

Not one of them had the wrath of the rabid obama haters brought down upon them.

And not one of them actively sought a Taliban unit to, allegedly, enlist in.

[pmarlin]

Bergdahl Could Receive $300K in Retroactive Pay

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/06/04/bergdahl-could-receive-300k-in-retroactive-pay.html

[pmarlin]

Confirmed by Wikileaks: Bowe Bergdahl deserted and tried to contact the Taliban

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/06/6_9_2014_5_43.html

[Ulysses G.]

Confirmed by Wikileaks: Bowe Bergdahl deserted and tried to contact the Taliban

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/06/6_9_2014_5_43.html

Thanks for that link. It answers a lot of questions.

The Army has known all along that Bowe Bergdahl was not only a deserter, but a probable traitor. And since Bergdahl's desertion and effort to make contact with the Taliban occurred before any alleged torture or mistreatment, there will be no Stockholm Syndrome defense for him. The Wikileaks intercepts are a smoking gun. The administration can try to smear the men in Bergdahl's unit all they want, it won't make a difference.

[Credo]

You have the Taliban saying he was there of his own will. That doesn't make it true.

[Chicog]

Whatever happened the bloke has something wrong in his head by the sound of it.

PTSD perhaps? Maybe seen more than that with which his subconscious can cope?

I'm not even sure the old man is the full shilling tbh.

[chuckd]

Guess who has been thrown under the Obama Blame Bus for the Bergdahl swap???

The next thing we will hear is Obama found out about the swap from the newspapers the next morning.

You couldn't imagine this stuff in your wildest dreams.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Obama Administration: Bergdahl Was Chuck Hagel's Call

...But Hagel says Obama "made the ultimate decision."

9:22 PM, JUN 9, 2014 • BY MICHAEL WARREN

The last question asked at Monday night's closed-door briefing of members of the House of Representatives was a simple one: Who made the decision to transfer five top Taliban officials held at Guantanamo Bay to Qatar in exchange for the return of the Taliban's lone American POW, Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl?

According to Buck McKeon, the chairman of the House Armed Services committee, the Obama administration's briefers told he gathered House members that the person responsible for the decision to make the deal was not President Obama but Chuck Hagel, the secretary of defense.

"Now wait a minute, are you saying it was Secretary Hagel that made this decision, or was this the president of the United States?" McKeon, a California Republican, said to reporters. "It was the president of the United States that came out with the Bergdahls and took all the credit. And now that there's been a little pushback, he's moving away from it?"

The administration's claim that Hagel, not Obama, made the decision is at odds with what Hagel himself said on Meet the Press on June 1. "I signed off on the decision," Hagel said. "The president made the ultimate decision."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-putting-unpopular-bergdahl-trade-hagel_794543.html

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[PiPiFFS]

You have the Taliban saying he was there of his own will. That doesn't make it true.

I suppose him sending all his gear back home just before he " Was captured " telling his mates he was leaving and had had enough, leaving a note saying he was off, the NSA intercepting radio chatter from the locals saying some American had wandered into their village asking to contact the Taliban just after he " was captured " Also doesn't make it true either ?

Just what is it going to take before you stop defending this guy as some sort of missing hero ?

If the Army and especially that lover of good PR and spin Obama thought for one minute he was a prisoner of war he would have launched a rescue mission to bring him home and then sit back and bask in the glory of just what a great president he was for saving this poor man.

The fact they knew where he was for most of the time and just left him there speaks volumes to me.

Don't get me wrong here. The guy should never have been there in the first place as being there has obviously unbalanced the man but you can't take away what has happened and it all should have been handled differently by all sides but it wasn't.

What I find so wrong is Obama and his PR machine trying to brush this off as nothing to see here crap and getting away with it for the most part.

Oh and for the record I also was sent to war to fight for my country by politicians for mainly political reasons. I went there keen and ready to fight but I can tell you i came back a very different man to the one that left to go fight.

Luckily I had a good family and was a strong person but I watched many of my friends suffer very badly.

Politicians are far too eager to send men to fight and die and have no idea of just what they are asking of the men they send. NOTHING !

[Ulysses G.]

The last question asked at Monday night's closed-door briefing of members of the House of Representatives was a simple one: Who made the decision to transfer five top Taliban officials held at Guantanamo Bay to Qatar in exchange for the return of the Taliban's lone American POW, Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl?

It would be great to get rid of Hagel, but, better than that, would be the guy who actually made the decision.

[Chicog]

Secretary of State John F. Kerry, in his first remarks on the controversial prisoner swap involving American soldier Bowe Bergdahl, said if the five released Taliban leaders reenter the fight, they would risk being killed by the U.S.

Probably would have been a good idea to just do that in the first place, eh?

[ClutchClark]

You have the Taliban saying he was there of his own will. That doesn't make it true.

Just what is it going to take before you stop defending this guy as some sort of missing hero ?

Oh and for the record I also was sent to war to fight for my country by politicians for mainly political reasons. I went there keen and ready to fight but I can tell you i came back a very different man to the one that left to go fight.

Luckily I had a good family and was a strong person but I watched many of my friends suffer very badly.

Politicians are far too eager to send men to fight and die and have no idea of just what they are asking of the men they send. NOTHING !

I have not read even one post suggesting that Bergdahl is a "hero".

I have only heard people say he is a US service member and that rather than he be tried by the media, that the facts be discovered in a Court-Martial.

[PiPiFFS]

I'm sorry but if it walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck most people don't need a court to tell them otherwise. I suppose you were as upset when they just executed Bin Laden as after all all the evidence like this man was hearsay and yet Obama had no problem sending in the seals to execute him without a fair trial you are saying this man deserves ?

The same goes for the American citizen and I think his son who were executed by executive order by Obama by drone again without a trial.

Where is your outrage over these deaths ?

[PiPiFFS]

Also where is this man ? If he was a rescued prisoner of war e would be getting the ticker tape welcome home the NASA astronauts used to get. The fact he is being kept in isolation also tells me it all stinks and the powers that be are running round trying to catch the crap that hit the fan

[ClutchClark]

I'm sorry but if it walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck most people don't need a court to tell them otherwise. I suppose you were as upset when they just executed Bin Laden as after all all the evidence like this man was hearsay and yet Obama had no problem sending in the seals to execute him without a fair trial you are saying this man deserves ?

The same goes for the American citizen and I think his son who were executed by executive order by Obama by drone again without a trial.

Where is your outrage over these deaths ?

The connections your brain makes between Osama bin Laden and US citizen and soldier, Bergdahl and drone strikes are, perhaps, best left in your own head.

As for there being no need for an american to be given the opportunity to defend himself in a court of law, well, most Americans I know happen to hold such protections dear to our hearts.

[Ulysses G.]

Bergdahl will get his day in court, before he is imprisoned or shot as a deserter, but as OJ Simpson proved so effectively , winning a court case does not make someone innocent. It is obvious that he deserted, no matter what happens during his court martial (which I do not think will ever happen due to politics).

[PiPiFFS]

I'm sorry but if it walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck most people don't need a court to tell them otherwise. I suppose you were as upset when they just executed Bin Laden as after all all the evidence like this man was hearsay and yet Obama had no problem sending in the seals to execute him without a fair trial you are saying this man deserves ?

The same goes for the American citizen and I think his son who were executed by executive order by Obama by drone again without a trial.

Where is your outrage over these deaths ?

The connections your brain makes between Osama bin Laden and US citizen and soldier, Bergdahl and drone strikes are, perhaps, best left in your own head.

As for there being no need for an american to be given the opportunity to defend himself in a court of law, well, most Americans I know happen to hold such protections dear to our hearts.

So in your head killing an American citizen by drone attack that also killed his son just because he was a Muslim is fine and there was no need for a trial to decide guilt or not just because Obama said he was guilty and deserved to die ?

They all deserve to have had a trial bin laden as well as this deserter. Calling the man what he is doesn't mean I don't want to see the man in court and sentenced for what he did.

Can you answer me why Obama didn't launch a rescue attempt to get this " Innocent " man back then ?

[ClutchClark]

I'm sorry but if it walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck most people don't need a court to tell them otherwise. I suppose you were as upset when they just executed Bin Laden as after all all the evidence like this man was hearsay and yet Obama had no problem sending in the seals to execute him without a fair trial you are saying this man deserves ?

The same goes for the American citizen and I think his son who were executed by executive order by Obama by drone again without a trial.

Where is your outrage over these deaths ?

The connections your brain makes between Osama bin Laden and US citizen and soldier, Bergdahl and drone strikes are, perhaps, best left in your own head.

As for there being no need for an american to be given the opportunity to defend himself in a court of law, well, most Americans I know happen to hold such protections dear to our hearts.

So in your head killing an American citizen by drone attack that also killed his son just because he was a Muslim is fine and there was no need for a trial to decide guilt or not just because Obama said he was guilty and deserved to die ?

They all deserve to have had a trial bin laden as well as this deserter. Calling the man what he is doesn't mean I don't want to see the man in court and sentenced for what he did.

Can you answer me why Obama didn't launch a rescue attempt to get this " Innocent " man back then ?

I have no idea what it is you are talking about.

[ClutchClark]

Bergdahl will get his day in court, before he is imprisoned or shot as a deserter, but as OJ Simpson proved so effectively , winning a court case does not make someone innocent. It is obvious that he deserted, no matter what happens during his court martial (which I do not think will ever happen due to politics).

A court martial proceeding is a far cry from judge Ito's courtroom. It is not obvious and it will be far more difficult to prove desertion than AWOL since Bergdahl will be able to prove he was prevented from returning to his base or any military installation and the military will have great difficulty in proving otherwise when you look at what was necessary to gain his release from captivity.

As for whether the military decides to move forward with a court-martial, and this can be requested by the service member as well, is another story. It is quite possible the military does not want to shed light on why its officers did not make any attempt to restrain Bergdahl or atleast remove him from critical guard duties when it was apparently well known he had stated his disillusionment with the military and his intention of leaving his base on previous occasions as you and others claim. The military will also ask what is to be gained by a court martial since Bergdahls time in captivity by enemy forces will have to be considered into any sentencing.

As for your opinion that he could be shot. Please...your posts are extreme anti-obama but have not suggested you are that removed from reality.

But ask a real attorney, I just slept in a Holiday inn Express last night.

[Credo]

You have the Taliban saying he was there of his own will. That doesn't make it true.

Just what is it going to take before you stop defending this guy as some sort of missing hero ?

<snipped>

I am not defending him and I have never defended him. I haven't treated him as any kind of missing hero, either.

There is a judicial system in place that can and should be used to determine any crimes he may have committed.

[Ulysses G.]

As for your opinion that he could be shot.

It is not my opinion. It is a fact. It is one penalty for deserting during wartime. However, as I said, I am pretty sure that the Obama regime will prevent him from being tried at all.

[ClutchClark]

The last question asked at Monday night's closed-door briefing of members of the House of Representatives was a simple one: Who made the decision to transfer five top Taliban officials held at Guantanamo Bay to Qatar in exchange for the return of the Taliban's lone American POW, Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl?

It would be great to get rid of Hagel, but, better than that, would be the guy who actually made the decision.

Hagel? Why the hatred for Hagel? Wasn't he a recipient of Two Purple Hearts? He volunteered for Vietnam even though he was not likely to be drafted. He served as a Republican Congressman. He left his appointment to the VA under Reagan to protest budget cuts to the VA budget.

For the love of god, what is wrong with Hagel?

Oh wait, he accepted a position to serve his country and fellow soldiers under the Obama administration.

Something a real American would never do.

[Ulysses G.]

My distaste for Hagel has nothing to do with his accepting a job from Obama. It has to do with why Obama picked him in the first place.

[chuckd]

IMHO, Obama will pardon Bergdahl before it gets very serious.

Another Presidential way to sweep unpleasant memories under the rug.

[Credo]

Can a president pardon someone who hasn't been charged or convicted of a crime?

[Ulysses G.]

He is the commander in chief. I'm pretty sure that he can prevent a trial from ever happening somehow.

[Credo]

So you don't know the answer, UG?

[Ulysses G.]

I'm pretty sure that he can by using a preemptive pardon.. A preemptive pardon was issued by President Jimmy Carter, absolving any person during the Vietnam era that "violated the Military Selective Service Act by draft-evasion." A preemptive pardon was also issued to President Richard Nixon by President Gerald Ford. The pardon covered all the offenses Nixon "committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974."

[Credo]

Thanks. There is a good link about presidential pardons here: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2008/07/preemptive_presidential_pardons.html

It's a little off-topic, but interesting.

I doubt that this guy is a big enough fish to get a pardon, at least not until he is either tried or the President leaves office.

Politically, there is more to lose by granting a pardon than there is to gain.