dale blanker wrote:The Annoyed Man wrote:
Dale, dude, turn up the gain on your sarcasm-radar. It seems to missing some things........
To your point #1, I did not say that Bergdahl served with honor and distinction. You're not picking up on my deliberately intended sarcasm above. The sarcasm was in mockingly quoting Susan Rice, White House National Security Advisor, who justified the prisoner swap for Bergdahl by saying that he had served with honor and distinction - a damned lie.
Sure, I was being sarcastic too. Or do you have exclusive rights to it???
You seem to have more insight about Bergdahl's experience, quality of service, problems, mental health, etc. and this is my point exactly! You may be right - it sure seems that way - but we don't have the full story yet. Maybe after the court martial we will enough information to make an informed conclusion. Meanwhile back to my point, we can fool ourselves into believing whatever we please, but don't do it without the facts and common sense. [Common sense in this case is just remembering that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Sound familiar?]
I hope if ever I get caught and have to stand trial that you are NOT on my jury.
Yes, I have exclusive right to sarcasm. Everybody here knows it, and don't you forget it.
Is there some possibility of Bergdahl's innocence? Sure. There's some small possibility. But for that standard to be met, it would
have to be some kind of (extremely hard to believe) wild tale of derring-do, CIA-like fieldcraft, etc., etc., etc., for his complete lack of guilt to be proven. I simply find it very hard to believe. No, I'm not the wisest man on the planet, but I do seek after wisdom and clarity daily, and the good Lord has allowed me to walk this planet for 63 years now. I have tried to use my time to become an observer of human nature......which rarely fails to reward my belief in its fundamental inability to seek anything beyond immediate self-gratification (which explains Obama's election). I am naturally
pessimistic, but remain
hopefully optimistic that I will occasionally meet men (and women) who will delightfully disappoint my expectations of crapulence, and when I meet such people, they become my friends for life. It's not a large circle, but it is a rich and deep one, and it even allows for much grace and forgiveness if a friend gets in trouble. If you are in my circle of friends and you get in trouble, I will stick by you, EVEN IF I know you to be guilty as hades. I have a close friend.....my very first friend in Texas.... who is at this very moment facing a significant probability of federal prison time in the near future for a crime related to an addiction of his, who completely confesses his guilt, accepts that he must walk through this fire, is cooperating 100% with both the prosecution and his defense, and has sincerely turned to Christ for help in walking this path he must walk. I am right there with him, alongside, encouraging him daily, praying with him, and committing (along with my wife) to support his wife and kids in any way they need support while he is in prison.....even as some in his extended family have completely abandoned him.
This is the filter through which I observe the actions of people like Bergdahl. If I think you're a lying fool who refuses to face up to your guilt and accept its consequences, God help you. You'll get no sympathy from me. If you are guilty, admit your guilt, and accept its consequences, you'll receive grace from me. Bergdahl's
own version of the story, which comes from HIS lips in recent interviews given to the media, is so improbable that I have very little difficulty rejecting it as anything but self-serving lies. So yeah, it's probably better for Bergdahl if I'm not on his jury.
By the way, there is a very good book that might interest you, in which the weeks-into-months long search for Bergdahl after his disappearance in Paktia province is mentioned peripheral to a story about the troubled COPs in the Nuristan province of Afghanistan on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, where Bergdahl disappeared. It is written by Jake Tapper, and it is called "
The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor", and it tells the history of COP Keating, as a microcosm of everything that was wrong with how the administration AND the pentagon mismanaged the war for the "hearts and minds" of the Afghani population, and just how valiantly the guys with boots on the ground struggled to fulfill a mission that was often poorly defined, badly prosecuted, and inadequately supplied. As one of the reviewers on Amazon.com wrote:
I was with 1st ID 6/4 Cav at COP Keating/OP Fritschie. Jake Tapper's book does great justice for my unit, for an amazing man--Captain Robert J. Yllescas, and for the rest of the officers who were in charge. I was very impressed with how in-depth Jake went into his coverage of our story, and with how well it was written. Like the title of the review reads, I spent a year at Keating/Fritschie, and even I was learning new details while reading the book--because Jake took his time and got the real stories. Smiles and cries, that about sums up my experience reading it. Anyone who wants to understand what true sacrifice is should read this book. Jake, thank you for telling our story to the world! I cannot thank you enough man. Thank you all, read our story, share it with your friends and family.
When Bergdahl disappeared, the limited in-country air assets were tied up in the search for him, . Soldiers from various units in the region were tasked with trying to find him. In that process, they took casualties..... casualties which arguably may not have happened if Bergdahl had not deserted his post - something which even HE admits that he did.
Jake Tapper writes that both the tactical and strategic considerations required that the Combat Outposts in Nuristan be closed because they were unsustainable. He says:
Other considerations would further impede the plan to close the outposts. On June 30, Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl angrily left his base in Paktika Province and was captured by insurgents, prompting a substantial push of planes, helicopters, and surveillance drones to the area in an effort to find him— which proved futile. Shortly thereafter came a major U.S. initiative up in northern Nuristan, at Barg-e-Matal. These two developments would effectively tie up the air assets that would be needed to shut down Combat Outpost Keating and the other remote camps.
Tapper, Jake (2012-11-13). The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor (p. 447). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.
On October 10, 2009, General McCrystal ordered Major General Guy Swan III to write up a report on what had gone wrong at COP Keating....."wrong" being an attack by over 300 Taliban on the 50 or so men manning the COP, which resulted in 8 American KIA (and TWO Medals of Honor awarded to Staff Sergeants Ty Carter and Clint Romesha) and numerous WIA at the camp on October 3rd, 2009. Quoting from the book:
Swan volunteered a recommendation that the “obviously indefensible or high risk COPs and OPs” should be closed. Brown had briefed McChrystal on brigade plans to shut down Combat Outposts Keating and Lowell as well as Observation Post Fritsche, the report acknowledged, but a number of other pressing matters had interrupted those plans, including the Afghan elections, the siege at Barg-e-Matal, and the search for MIA soldier Bowe Bergdahl.
Tapper, Jake (2012-11-13). The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor (p. 594). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.
The above referenced wiki page says:
Due to resources being diverted to find Bergdahl, the closing of Combat Outpost Keating was delayed, which may have led to eight American soldiers being killed on October 3, 2009, after 300 Taliban insurgents overran the base.
This version of events is rejected by the high level officers who were supposed to be in oversight of the the planning, deployment, and execution of the counterinsurgency efforts in Nuristan; but if you read Jake Tapper's book, you'll see there is a whole of of CYA going on at the top levels over what was incontrovertibly a failure of leadership, both military and civilian. It doesn't matter to the dead men whether those air assets were unavailable because Bush/Obama did not want to commit the resources, or because the generals were afraid to ask for them.........the assets were not there in sufficient quantity to prosecute the war. That is a fact.
EVERYONE from the top down recognized fairly early on that the COP could not be adequately supported by air. It is a fact that 8 men were killed on 10/03/09 at COP Keating because (A) it was poorly located tactically, (B) relief in the form of a QRF and air-to-ground support was NOT available because much of those assets were tasked to looking for Bergdahl, the deserter.
MEN DIED directly because those air assets were unavailable; which would have arguably
been available if Bergdahl had not turned up missing. ........And this is
separate from the difficult-to-confirm claims by soldiers from his unit who say that six
other soldiers from his battalion were killed while searching for him.
Bergdahl himself wrote in an email to his father:
“Life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be American.… I am sorry for everything here. These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live.”
So the fact of his desertion is beyond dispute since he himself says he deserted. Not guilty by reason of insanity? Possibly. I even alluded to his being nuttier than a fruitcake in my previous post. I think I'm actually being charitable by being willing to admit that he might be crazy enough to not be responsible for his own behavior.
His wikipedia page says:
In 2006, Bergdahl entered basic training in the United States Coast Guard but was discharged after 26 days for psychological reasons and received an "uncharacterized discharge".[2] [My comment: Nobody is disputing this fact - TAM]
In 2008, Bergdahl enlisted in the United States Army and graduated from the infantry school at Fort Benning, Georgia.[1] He was then assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Richardson, Alaska.[19]
According to a fellow soldier, Specialist Jason Fry, Bergdahl was a quiet loner. "He wasn't one of the troublemakers – he was focused and well-behaved." Bergdahl was isolated by choice from his fellow soldiers; for instance, instead of socializing with his comrades during Thanksgiving, he studied maps of Afghanistan. Bergdahl told Fry before their deployment to Afghanistan, "If this deployment is lame, I'm just going to walk off into the mountains of Pakistan."[1]
Bergdahl's unit was deployed to Afghanistan in May 2009.[20] His unit was sent to an outpost named Mest-Malak in Afghanistan to conduct counterinsurgency operations. Bergdahl began learning to speak Pashto, and according to Fry, Bergdahl "began to gravitate away from his unit", spending "more time with the Afghans than he did with his platoon". Bergdahl's father described his son to military investigators as "psychologically isolated".[1] [My comment: Nobody is disputing this fact - TAM]
The above wikipedia article appears to me to be remarkably unbiased, reporting all sides of the story. Cast in it the most favorable light possible, Bergdahl was disillusioned and thought it was the moral thing to do to walk away from his unit and merge with the Afghan people. Cast in a neutral light, Bergdahl is nuttier than an outhouse rat, and he wandered off into the night. Cast in the worst possible light, he was a coward and deserted his unit. In ALL THREE VERSIONS, no matter
how you church it up, and no matter whether or not you actually sympathize with his actions, HE DESERTED HIS UNIT IN A COMBAT ZONE while, IN HIS OWN WRITTEN WORDS, making common cause with both the local people (understandable to anyone with a heart) AND the Taliban enemy (completely unforgivable). And now, maybe he regrets it.........kinda like Jane Fonda regrets the fact that Vietnam vets, and especially those who were POWs, almost universally despise her (except maybe for John Kerry) for making common cause with the nation's then enemy. You want me to view him favorably? Let him, like my friend mentioned above, confess without prevarication or any purpose of evasion that what he did was inexcusable. Let him accept his fate, like a real man, as a path that he must walk as a consequence of his actions, and seek to grow himself internally and spiritually, to come out the other end of that tunnel as a better man. Unless he can be proven in court to be crazy and therefore not responsible, and otherwise absent any evidence of confession and acceptance of accountability, I've got no use for the guy. We don't need people like that.
No, he hasn't had a trial yet. But I HAVE done my research.... From the get go. Nah.... you're right.....better for him not to have me on his jury.....