Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl to be charged with desertion

[DemocratSinceBirth]

American soldier and former Taliban captive Bowe Bergdahl has been charged with desertion over his disappearance from an Afghan outpost in 2009, Bergdahl's attorney told ABC News today.

Bergdahl was freed after five years in Taliban captivity in a controversial deal last year in which the U.S. agreed to release five mid- to high-level Taliban figures from detention in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As part of the deal, the Taliban five were relocated to Qatar.

[lame54]

1. he'll get it worse than Petraeus

[Takket]

2. .

I hope he is found guilty. a fair punishment would be 5 years as a Taliban prisoner.

[NightWatcher]

20. Give him Time Served

[Lee-Lee]

3. Good

When he pulled his stunt he caused everything going on in Afghanistan to stop and every priority there became focused on him.

That kind of nonsense isn't tolerable in the name of good order and discipline.

I don't expect anyone who hasn't been in the military and in a leadership position to understand. But that's how I see it.

[TwilightGardener]

22. He's mentally fucked up. He wasn't supposed to be in the Army

and the Army gave him a waiver anyway and handed him a rifle and put him in the most dangerous place on earth. The Army bears the blame for taking an unfit soldier and putting him on the front lines. This guy went thru hell for five years. He'll get time served and processed out, and hopefully can find some peace in life.

[Rex]

4. If only he would have been a general that gave top secret documents to his girlfriend!

Instead he was a lowly sgt. Moral of the story, if you plan on committing a crime in uniform - do so only when working for another agency and make SURE you are a full bird or higher in rank!

[PassingFair]

9. Mistress*

Last edited Thu Mar 26, 2015, 11:17 AM - Edit history (1)

*You don't get to have "girlfriends" when you're married.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfeEcCLMtxk

[Rex]

12. True, sorry, his mistress.

He should have been charged under the UCMJ against adultery (yep, that is supposedly a serious offense). Amazing how military life mimics private sector life (CEOs get away with massive fraud, OTOH Joe Sixpack gets shot and killed by cops for breaking and entering at a gas station).

[Snow Leopard]

5. Strange we bothered to get him back

just to then try him for this. The RW didn't like exchanging prisoners (5!) for 1 deserter (which was in question), they are going to go nuts on this.

[Bonx]

15. Not strange. He's one of us. If he's going to be in prison, it should be ours.

[blm]

14. In fairness, the RWers were saying it before there was any proof, and even though

just months earlier they were claiming that Obama deserted Bergdahl.

I suppose every now and then ONE of their memes will prove correct. How often do you suppose that occurs?

BTW - how about the RW meme that Bergdahl was responsible for the deaths of 8 soldiers killed searching for him?

[Nye Bevan]

17. Fair point. I will delete (nt)

[stevenleser]

7. The trial is probably the right thing. And the right outcome is probably not guilty by reason of

insanity/mental defect, or guilty with extenuating circumstances and sentence completely satisfied by time served as a Taliban prisoner.

I don't know all the details that a trial will likely unearth but it seems to me he broke under pressure. To walk off in the middle of Afghanistan is all the evidence of insanity I need.

[jwirr]

8. PTSD.

[Rex]

10. Exactly.

Your last sentence says it all imo.

[Lee-Lee]

11. Don't bet on it

His jury will be either all military officers or, at his defense teams choosing, a mix of Army officers and enlisted.

Military juries tend to take the task very seriously compared to a civilian court. They also tend to be better educated than civilian juries. A former JAG attorney who practices military law as a civilian once told me "Military juries are great at smelling out bullshit and getting to the truth. If I was ever charged and was innocent, I would want a military trial. If I was guilty, I would want a civilian jury that we could try to confuse or appeal to sympathy and get them to not convict."

But they also won't have much sympathy for PTSD or mental defect unless they get clesr and compelling evidence of it being there and being ignored by his leadership. Because every one of them will have been there and faced those same challenges, some less some worse, that he did.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

16. "...or, at his defense teams choosing, a mix of Army officers and enlisted."

My husband is ex-Army and still keeps in contact with some of his friends. Granted, the sampling group is limited but Bergdahl is reviled is by the rank and file and if the evidence supports the charges the officers have no humor for this sort of thing.

[stevenleser]

19. I'm very familiar with all of that, am former USAF and observed what happened to folks

who found themselves on the wrong side of a courts martial.

At the same time, wandering off base by yourself in the middle of Afghanistan has to seem like a crazy act to anyone who was there. You're talking about a military that by now is very familiar with PTSD and has a fairly large percentage of its post deployment folks suffering from some degree of it. People have committed suicide and/or killed other people due to PTSD. So the military is very aware of this issue and how it affects different people in different ways.

Saying "everyone of them will have been there and faced those challenges" doesnt mean PTSD doesnt affect some folks in serious ways. And they all know that by now.

[Lee-Lee]

21. I get all that. So will they

They won't give him a pass on account of it, even if his defense does convince then it's the cause.

People try the PTSD defense at Courts Martial now for things like DUI and domestic violence and they don't get a pass because of it either. Because the attitude is "it sucks to have PTSD, but that doesn't excuse or allow you to put others at risk or harm others."

By doing what he did, Bergdahl put a whole lot of people at risk as the entire theather stopped everything to look for him or support looking for him, and a lot of people risked a lot trying to find him. The jury won't have any sympathy for him because of that, and their attitude will probably be the same- "Sucks to have PTSD, that doesn't excuse you for doing what you did."

[stevenleser]

23. This isn't a DUI. This is wandering off in Afghanistan, a completely nutty act that would

likely get someone from the US, who doesn't speak the language, killed within a few hours. He's incredibly lucky to be alive.

Now we're talking insanity rather than intent to desert.

[riderinthestorm]

13. I just read that he still won't see his parents.

i think this guy has some real mental health issues.

Pretty sad case all around.

I didn't see any info on whether they've started the press conference yet... Anyone have a link?

[hrmjustin]

18. Very sad but desertion is intolerable.

I hope they can make a merciful deal but he has to admit his crime.

That is if he is guilty.