Bowe Bergdahl

I've been reading the comments on this topic. Some don't make sense to me. ...stuff like the "evil" and "weapons of mass destruction." I think old Bowe had a compass and a diary or some such; I don't think he was carrying any nuclear weapons or other potential weapons that could massively destruct things?

There's holes in his story. For example, one angle Bowe/defense attorney are working is that he left his unit to report the sub-standard behavior of his superiors. I've read some of what he wrote. It's bullcrap; it's the typical complaining that a lower rank person makes regarding his superiors. Most E-1/E-3's don't do stupid things like write it down. In every walk of life, if you're a worker-bee you may end up working for someone with whom you disagree. I think this is especially likely when you work for a government entity. Frequently, the cream doesn't rise to the top. But his claim that he was heading out to report his incompetent superiors makes no sense. As a prior Navy person, all I can equate it to is that, if I disagreed with my superiors, I could dive off the side of the boat and swim to shore to report. (and hope I didn't drown.)

I don't know if he committed treason. From my understanding of the law; I don't think so. But.... I do find it curious that he lived so long in captivity. Those people don't like Americans (been there/saw that). ...perhaps he was valuable as a military captive and they were hoping to get what they could?

I don't know if anyone lost their life searching for him. From my limited experience; when somebody is missing, the military does try to find them. I've only observed 2 such incidents, in somewhat peace-time; i.e., we were in the Gulf but war was never declared. One was a girl that fell off the flight deck at night. She was wearing a float coat, had a locator beacon, and was wearing a "flashing" light. It took about 6 hours to turn the boat around and then another 6 hours or so to fish her out of the water. The other incident was a suicide. We spent about a week on that one (which may sound trivial, but running an aircraft carrier is probably a tad more expensive than taking your Prius out for a spin.) We never found him, but it was a big deal; all activities were put on hold during the search. So I believe that searching for Bergdahl was initially a priority and then later on a sideline to any mission. I could be wrong, but I sure can envision it.

The bottom line is he signed the contract. [He may have received a bonus or a paygrade bump? We'll never know.] But , by no means should he receive benefits and back pay. He signed a contract and agreed to abide by certain terms. He didn't. So I don't care if he goes to Leavenworth or not. But it's one huge slap in the face to any veteran out there that is making do with a couple limbs missing, if he gets to keep his promotions (not earned) and back pay.

I think he was off in la-la land after abandoning Buddha and the French Foreign Legion. I understand that children/teens sometimes have to "find" themselves, but his parents did him no favors by not teaching him that sometimes when you sign the contract, the consequences are real.

Six did lose their lives while searching for him, here is an old article back when he was first released:

http://time.com/2809352/bowe-bergdahl-deserter-army-taliban/

I think the point Carriage was trying to make was that we shouldn't have been over there in the first place. Although this could of happened just about anywhere and our troops are often in places we don't even know about or know why. We only hear what the media wants us to hear...and the administration.

Sonya said:

Six did lose their lives while searching for him, here is an old article back when he was first released:

[...snip...]

I think the point Carriage was trying to make was that we shouldn't have been over there in the first place. [...more snips...]

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Allegations have been made that six soldiers died searching for him. There's no way to prove that; they're simply allegations which are especially hard to prove when there's other missions going on. I don't know what happened. I was simply trying to share my two experiences in peace-time (well, ok one wasn't entirely peace-time; it was non-war-declared combat) and trying to convey that when someone goes missing, it's a big deal to the military. At a minimum, my observation is that the military likes to at least send a body home.

Maybe we shouldn't be over there. We should probably also stop using petroleum products. But apparently Americans can be anti-combat while they're driving around in their gas guzzlers. If the market for oil were gone, the only thing those people over there would have to fight about is religion. They've been honing their skills on that battle-front for hundreds and hundreds of years. If we removed the oil income, it would probably reduce their effectiveness at fighting religious battles and doing things like running aircraft into tall buildings in America.

I do believe the accounts of the ones who were looking for him...what purpose would it serve for them to lie about it?

We could be energy independent but we aren't...we should be. I have no problem with folks driving gas guzzlers...I suppose everyone here needs one to cart their little horses around, work their farm or whatever.

As far as being over there...one way or another we would be over there...the real reasons why are never really told. " What difference does it make?" (Sarcasm).

Meanwhile, in America we have religious battles going on (as well as racial) that we should probably be more concerned about. The constitution gets pooped on daily, it's very sad. We are not what we once were and are so far gone, I'm not sure we can get back.

I am no longer sure either Miss Sonya, To my way of thinking, the only way back is regularly and roundly refused.

Thank you for your thoughts,

Bb

Sonya said:

I do believe the accounts of the ones who were looking for him...what purpose would it serve for them to lie about it?

We could be energy independent but we aren't...we should be. I have no problem with folks driving gas guzzlers...I suppose everyone here needs one to cart their little horses around...

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What purpose to lie? heck, I don't know. I recollect an incident in Japan where some sailors beat up a homo-sexual shipmate. (That would be a case where service members might want to tell a fib.) That said, I can well believe that someone may have lost their life on the Bowe Bergdahl search. But my point was that there is simply no way to know for sure.

I do have a problem with me/my husband/the rest of us driving gas guzzlers if we're going to bitch about it. Doesn't that fall under the cast the first stone category?

I just went back and read a previous post that you mentioned folks being "ant-combat". I don't think anyone used those words. I think everyone would love for there to be no combat (including me), that's just not realistic these days....and I'm a realist. I don't think anyone is "b!tching" about anything on this post. Many folks believe we shouldn't be over in the Middle East anywhere, I don't believe that, I do believe we need to be involved...the initial reasons (weapons of mass destruction) leaves a lot to debate though. I am not an expert on foreign policy, only know what I research. I leave it up to my elected officials to make those decisions, who are suppose to be well educated on it...I hope they know what they're doing and pray for our men and women who serve.

As far as Bergdahl, I am sure there is evidence of wrong doing on his part or the charges wouldn't of been filed based on eyewitness accounts alone. We will have to wait and see what that evidence is (if they tell us) and hope the system gets things right. I think it took so long because they were making sure they had all their ducks in a row. I haven't heard anything since he was charged, it's likely to take months, even years before anything happens.

Nearly 16 months after his release... things are finally rolling along.

I took a peek at some of the news stories and REALLY didn't have the stomach to figure out which media sources were flat-out lying, which ones were slanting the truth, and which ones were providing some semblance of the truth.

This is America, so it wouldn't surprise me if they give him full back-pay, a couple more promotions and a free sex change to boot. (...sorry, no offense intended towards any LBGT's out there.)

I heard he had mental health issues that the army overlooked. His people are doing what they can to get him off, hope there is an end to this and he is charged with something before I'm too senile to care.

lucky seven said:

I heard he had mental health issues that the army overlooked. His people are doing what they can to get him off, hope there is an end to this and he is charged with something before I'm too senile to care.

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Not too sure about mental health issues.... rather, I think he was raised and home-schooled by a couple whack-jobs in Idaho who filled his head with unrealistic expectations. That would have been ok, had he stayed in the US, but then he went overseas where -- those people don't like us!!! -- hugely don't like us!!!! ...Although our laws/Congress don't call it war, to the people over there it looks like war. And he was just naïve enough or nutty enough or whatever to decide he could take a little walk out in the sandbox, like he did back in Idaho.

Did he suffer over that decision? Yeah, sure. And I kind of feel for him. But, if you're going to raise your hand and enlist and spend the paycheck, then you ought to pull your fuzzy brain out of your butt and deal with the consequences.