I'll try to be concise and wary of he-said, he-said. I have no quibble with your post. You brought a soldier's opinion to Bowe Dahlberg, I a civilian's.You have broad experience in the military. I have broad experience with military affairs, courts martial, PTSD, cowardice, and escaped a charge of treason under our old Official Secrets Act for a national TV documentary involving Canada's "secret" underwater listening technology to protect North America, common knowledge for readers of US technical magazines.
There's no question of Bergdahl leaving his Post. He deserted. Lower-rank opinion is that his punishment should be rotting with the Taliban or a "kinder punishment" of shooting him at dawn. Higher command indicates the opposite, perhaps reflecting US national interests and what was in Bergdahl's head having significant influence on punishment, if any. His bugging out precedes national bugging out from wars with little or no public support. There were 22,000 US desertions in the Second World War, only one execution since the Civil War. I said no rush to judgment, wait for the whole story.
That's enough of me, here's relevant background:
Newsweek--"Commentary about the prisoner-swap negotiated between the United States and the Taliban of Afghanistan has already devolved into the type of bumper-sticker debate that emerges in the era of 140-character analysis on Twitter. On one side, those who condemn the Obama administration for “negotiating with terrorists.” (28 characters.) On the other, those who praise it for making sure that “no soldier gets left behind on the battlefield.” (47 characters.)
"As usual, reality is more complex. There is some to praise, some to condemn and much to wrestle with in the exchange of five Taliban leaders detained at Guantanamo Bay for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier held by the Taliban for five years. The truth is, anyone who believes this is a simple decision open to immediate criticism or celebration is probably driven by politics, and not knowledge of international or military affairs.
"The prisoner swap entails many legal, military and diplomatic issues—what is the Taliban? Does the American military still back the “no soldier left behind” doctrine? Is this deal different from others in the past? Does this instance constitute “negotiating with terrorists” or something more complex? Should peace talks with the Taliban be considered? And finally, who are the prisoners in this instance and does it matter what they did?
Washington Post---"The question of whether the U.S. negotiated with terrorists begins, of course, with whether the Taliban is a terrorist organization. All five of the detainees in the exchange were members of the Afghan Taliban. And the Afghan Taliban is not on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.
"In fact, the U.S. government had been trying for years to include the Afghan Taliban as part of the political reconciliation plan for Afghanistan. So if members of the Afghan Taliban are terrorists, the U.S. government had been negotiating with them for years. Last year, the U.S. made a diplomatic push to include the Afghan Taliban in the reconciliation process by encouraging the opening of a Taliban office in Qatar, but the effort quickly unraveled. The Afghan Taliban suspended direct talks with the U.S. in 2012, and according to the State Department, direct communication has not resumed since."
Wall Street Journal---"We don't qualify who we try to recover: He's an American soldier," said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary. "It doesn't matter how he was taken captive. It doesn't matter under what circumstances he left. It doesn't matter what his persuasions were, political or otherwise. We have an obligation to recover all of those who are missing in action."
Brian, the military and civilians often get it wrong. Rumsfield with his 123,000-man piece of cake in Iraq, Westmoreland and Co. in Vietnam. Bowe Dahlberg, promoted to sergeant and on active service with reported more than $350,000 in his jeans for time served, will not be shot or punished. Civilian leadership does worse to shame our countries all the time.
