Bergdahl Release - Right thing to do?

The swap shouldn't have happened. Bergdahl walked off the base without permission and without his gear. Obama didn't have the authority to make the swap of prisoners.

This action will endanger all Americans abroad. America just told the world that we will bargain with kidnappers... SHIT!

Eric wrote:

The swap shouldn't have happened.  Bergdahl walked off the base without permission and without his gear.  Obama didn't have the authority to make the swap of prisoners.

This action will endanger all Americans abroad.  America just told the world that we will bargain with kidnappers... SHIT!

 
     Agree.... This was a horrible decision and now it appears that Bergdahl is going to be given a 'heroes' welcome back to his hometown while there still are many questions that need to be answered.  We gave up some heavy hitters for the return of this individual with one having a direct link to obl...Megyn Kelly had interviews with two soldiers that served with Bergdahl and their comments weren't flattering towards him at all...
 
      National Security Advisor Susan Rice (of the Benghazi LIE fame) in an interview stated that Sgt Bergdahl served with 'honor and distinction' and that we would leave no one  behind...Now it appears that Army Personnel Records do not indicate what Ms Rice had to say...Again this administration rushing into something without checking their facts and now there's more danger (if possible) to Americans...Adding to this the outing of the CIA Station Chief....
 
      Finally.....six military members gave their lives looking for Bergdahl....and no one is disputing the anti-American....anti-Army remarks that he made or that he deserted his post....Incompetence has been the theme of this administration from the beginning but somehow this will be twisted into being the fault of someone else....

The ragheads will now do everything they can to capture Americans since BHO caved in to their demands (like the spineless President he consistently has proven to be). He ignores laws in order to appear to be doing "something" of substance. Bergdahl's release should have been negotiated or forced in some other way so we could get his deserting @#$ back to the states, do a quick trial and then execute his cowardly carcass. 6 dead and more injured looking for this POS. Too many........

nochain wrote:

The ragheads will now do everything they can to capture Americans since BHO caved in to their demands (like the spineless President he consistently has proven to be). He ignores laws in order to appear to be doing "something" of substance. Bergdahl's release should have been negotiated or forced in some other way so we could get his deserting @#$ back to the states, do a quick trial and then execute his cowardly carcass. 6 dead and more injured looking for this POS. Too many........

Stories are all over the internet and it's not good at all..... The cowh in his first comments now admits that those released are RISKY towards Americans.....BRILLIANT!!!!!.... Now get everyone left in Afghanistan out of there because obviously missions to stop terrorists are no longer important and if captured they'll be returned... \

Someone with some STONES in DC should start talking impeachment...

The deserters location was known on several occasions but the potential cost (in lives) of a rescue (apprehension?) was considered too high by military Commanders - I agree. With the number of troops already killed chasing around after this clown there was no incentive to risk more special operators on a dangerous extraction attempt.

nochain wrote:

The deserters location was known on several occasions but the potential cost (in lives) of a rescue (apprehension?) was considered too high by military Commanders - I agree. With the number of troops already killed chasing around after this clown there was no incentive to risk more special operators on a dangerous extraction attempt.

 
     Watched a video on FOX News from a mother who's son was killed looking for this deserter.....very sad and making her question his death all over again....So if all of this information wasn't a secret.....WHAT or WHY would the cowh decide to give up some high up assets in exchange for someone that made a choice...

Bob Bergdhal (father) tweeted on 6-2-2014 @ 0810: I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners. God will repay for the death of every Afghan child, amen..... Is it the whole family?

Strange - that father learned the dialect of that particular Taliban group... and the father even grew a beard that would earn a close inspection at any TSA counter.  Ostensibly, it was all done to put the Taliban at ease.  

What in HELL was Obama thinking?  

My heart goes out to the families of the real heroes of this fiasco... the six young men that died while searching for Bergdahl... who appears to me to be a Taliban sympathizer.

If he were my son I would not have cared if Obama had traded every terrorist at Gitmo to get him home. I'd have grown a beard and learned to speak any language they spoke no matter how difficult. I'd have gone on their TV and begged for the life of my son. BECAUSE HE WAS MY SON, not necessarily because he deserved it. That's what parents do.  By the way, the "ragheads" respect the power of the Israelis, and the Israelis once traded 1000 Arab POW's for only 100 of their own. It's not about respect. It's about the life of an American fighting man. The only people I've heard whining about any loss of American respect are the commentators on Fox News and the people who watch that garbage dump of propaganda.

This is just more foolishness from those for whom Obama can do nothing right.

The young man is an American soldier. If he deserted, our military has every right to prosecute him for doing so. No point in that if they didn't have him in custody, is there?

The "ragheads" don't need to have custody of him. And I think if it were a member of anyone's family they would feel much different about the situation. BTW, the 5 people Obama released have never been formally charged nor convicted of a single crime. They didn't belong in Gitmo anyway. We've been wrong for years in imprisoning them without trials.

Well. Said. Mr Otter. Spot on. Thanks

Otter wrote:

If he were my son I would not have cared if Obama had traded every terrorist at Gitmo to get him home. I'd have grown a beard and learned to speak any language they spoke no matter how difficult. I'd have gone on their TV and begged for the life of my son. BECAUSE HE WAS MY SON, not necessarily because he deserved it. That's what parents do.  By the way, the "ragheads" respect the power of the Israelis, and the Israelis once traded 1000 Arab POW's for only 100 of their own. It's not about respect. It's about the life of an American fighting man. The only people I've heard whining about any loss of American respect are the commentators on Fox News and the people who watch that garbage dump of propaganda.

This is just more foolishness from those for whom Obama can do nothing right.

The young man is an American soldier. If he deserted, our military has every right to prosecute him for doing so. No point in that if they didn't have him in custody, is there?

The "ragheads" don't need to have custody of him. And I think if it were a member of anyone's family they would feel much different about the situation. BTW, the 5 people Obama released have never been formally charged nor convicted of a single crime. They didn't belong in Gitmo anyway. We've been wrong for years in imprisoning them without trials.

Sen Feinstein (D-CA).....wasn't so happy with this move by the cowh/administration and there are other dems too...
Your comment about the five released...if so, then why did the cowh acknowledge that releasing them was 'risky' and dangerous to Americans in the future?...Instead of making them sound like victims why not just extend what they want to be....terrorists that want to harm and kill us...Maybe that's why they were welcomed as heroes on their return...

Some people just see one side of a coin or perhaps their world view or understanding of events is so narrowly focused they refuse to see the big picture. All news networks and members of both political parties have commented on the questionable legality of the swap - in fact it was blatantly illegal but it's done now and of course the Qatari's have already broken their end of the bargain. No surprise there. The only good result is Bergdahl is now available to answer for his actions. But progressives will consider that a witch hunt designed to make BHO look bad. HILARIOUS!!!!!!

nochain wrote:

Some people just see one side of a coin or perhaps their world view or understanding of events is so narrowly focused they refuse to see the big picture. All news networks and members of both political parties have commented on the questionable legality of the swap - in fact it was blatantly illegal but it's done now and of course the Qatari's have already broken their end of the bargain. No surprise there. The only good result is Bergdahl is now available to answer for his actions. But progressives will consider that a witch hunt designed to make BHO look bad. HILARIOUS!!!!!!

Sometimes....no matter the party affiliation...bad decisions are made and this is truly one of them...Illegal based on the standards that the cowh signed...so he's in conflict with himself on this matter... To have this deserter treated as some kind of hero is a slap in the face of everyone that's ever served/ or serving in the armed forces of this nation or any citizen of this nation that understands the sacrifices made by our military throughout history...For the National Security Advisor to say he "served with honor and distinction' is disgusting and this isn't the first time that Ms Rice has made a fool of herself...

Otter, I agree that Bergdahl's family would want the U.S. to do ANYTHING that might get their son back.

Did you consider the six families that WON'T be getting their sons back while they were looking for an apparent deserter? What about those families?

I don't know the whole story and haven't seen the unreleased video where Bergdahl was reported to be frail and emaciated. All I can do is sit here and make snap judgments based upon what has been presented to us... but there is a lot of evidence to suggest Bergdahl was not worth wasting those lives while searching for him. Hell, I read where he taught his Taliban "captors" badminton and played it with them. Not exactly adversarial, IMO.

War is not logical. How many died trying to take a small hill or a building? When the dead are counted it made very little difference.

Below are statistics for each DoD service for members who have been administratively categorized as deserters. This means military members who remained absent from their units (without authority) for longer than 30 days.

Note: "Rate per 1000" is approximate. The rates are based on active duty strength of 483,880 for the Army; 367,470 for the Air Force; 382,338 for the Navy; and 173,142 for the Marine Corps, and actual numbers may have fluctuated (slightly) from FY 1997 to FY 2004.



Army
Fiscal Year Number of Deserters Rate Per 1000
1997 2,218 4.58
1998 2,520 5.20
1999 2,966 6.13
2000 3,949 8.16
2001 4,597 9.50
2002 4,483 9.26
2003 3,678 7.60
2004 2,376 4.91
Air Force
1997 26 0.07
1998 27 0.07
1999 45 0.12
2000 46 0.12
2001 62 0.17
2002 88 0.24
2003 56 0.15
2004 50 0.14
Navy
1997 1,858 4.86
1998 2,038 5.33
1999 2,485 6.50
2000 3,255 8.51
2001 1,619 4.23
2003 Not Available




2004 Not Available
Marine Corps
1997 1,375 7.94
1998 1,460 8.43
1999 1,689 9.75
2000 2,019 11.66
2001 1,310 7.57
2002 1,136 6.56
2003 1,236 7.14
2004 1,297 7.49
Discussion

hallmarkgrad wrote:

War is not logical.  How many died trying to take a small hill or a building?  When the dead are counted it made very little difference.  

These six soldiers might beg to differ but unfortunately they are dead now. To contrast, when I was in the Navy and we lost a man overboard or an aircraft crashed we would search for days even though it was usually hopeless - but everyone knew if they fell overboard or crashed the crew would make every effort to recover them. However if a crewmember deserted we made no effort to locate them. They are generally caught by police, located through a tip, or turned themselves in. Getting wounded or killed executing a mission is just a wee bit different than getting slicked looking for a deserter......

So when one of your men when missing Someone said "Hell he is a deserter. Screw him. No need to look for him"........... Glad I was in the Army.......

hallmarkgrad wrote:

So when one of your men when missing  Someone  said "Hell he is a deserter. Screw him.  No need to look for him"........... Glad I was in the Army.......

Twist it around all you want. I'm glad you were in the Army too. And no it wasn't quite that way. At what point after determining someone has deserted their Command of their own free will do you just let them go? We would talk to their known friends, call hospitals, police stations, family, etc. But once it was determined they had deserted there was no logical point in looking further. I suppose in your perfect world YOU PERSONALLY NEVER quit searching. Right?

No one ever deserted from the Army Security Agency...So I never had to look for anyone. I can not even remember anyone going awol. But if they had,you can bet your ass there would be many people would be looking for them. I spent most of my time is SE Asia in the 60s.. Things were different.

hallmarkgrad wrote:

No one ever deserted from the Army Security Agency...So I never had to look for anyone.   I can  not even remember anyone going awol.  But if they had,you can bet your ass there would be many people would be looking for them.   I spent most of my time is SE Asia in the 60s..  Things were different.

Well your Army knew where this character was on several occasions but decided an extraction mission was not worth the potential cost in lives. I happen to agree with that assessment. Guess your Army has changed but since you never experienced a desertion incident you really can't know how it would have played out or what you, or your command, would have done after expending the obvious efforts I previously described.

As a holders of Top secret crypto shit you could bet your ass there would have been an all out effort to find and extract someone. My Army gave a damn about me. For that I am glad. Dead or alive they would have come and got me...

hallmarkgrad wrote:

As a holders of Top secret crypto shit you could bet your ass there would have been  an all out effort to find and extract someone.  My Army gave a damn about me.  For that I am glad.  Dead or alive they would have come and got me...

Yawn. Yes, I had a TS/SCI too though probably not for the same reason as you since I was a sigint results user not a CT type. Apparently - as I said before - your Army has changed since THEY didn't want to risk lives going after this guy after the initial bloodbath because they determined he walked away. I guess if the dude was more important they would have tried harder, right?

I dont know why they did not go get him.  I guess the enemy was just too much for them to handle.   You would think that our military would have the resources to bring his ass back.  They should have went and got him and if was a deserter , tie his ass to pole and shoot him.  I can only guess our Army is short of nerve or either lacks the ability to fight.  Since your Yawning must mean I am boring you, I will let you have it.  Sorry to have wasted you time....

hallmarkgrad wrote:

I dont know why they did not go get him.  I guess the enemy was just too much for them to handle.   You would think that our military would have the resources to bring his ass back.  They should have went and got him and if was a deserter , tie his ass to pole and shoot him.  I can only guess our Army is short of nerve or either lacks the ability to fight.  Since your Yawning must mean I am boring you, I will let you have it.  Sorry to have wasted you time....

The "yawn" wasn't for that but go on ahead.

hallmarkgrad wrote:

I dont know why they did not go get him.  I guess the enemy was just too much for them to handle.   You would think that our military would have the resources to bring his ass back.  They should have went and got him and if was a deserter , tie his ass to pole and shoot him.  I can only guess our Army is short of nerve or either lacks the ability to fight.  Since your Yawning must mean I am boring you, I will let you have it.  Sorry to have wasted you time....

Just glad that his hometown heroes' celebration was cancelled!....The Army and the Pentagon were well aware of the actions of this individual...the only ones that seem surprised were the cowh and his administration...How many Rose Garden Ceremonies have there been for those that gave the ultimate sacrifice and actually served with HONOR AND DISTINCTION?...