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Thread: Sgt Bowe Bergdhal released after 5 years as a POW

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    Moderator puzzld's Avatar
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    Sgt Bowe Bergdhal released after 5 years as a POW

    Right wingers go nuts.
    It was another day in nearly five years of captivity for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, and he didn't know what the 18 Taliban fighters had in store for him Saturday.

    There, in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border, the heavily armed fighters turned Bergdahl over to U.S. military commandos.

    The soldier's plight had come to an end.

    Within minutes he was airborne. The helicopter's rotors whooped so loudly that Bergdahl couldn't communicate clearly with the men on board.

    So he grabbed a paper plate and wrote three characters: "SF?"

    The men understood: Special Forces?

    The U.S. commandos didn't bother to write back.

    "Yes!" shouted at least one over the roar of the flight. "We've been looking for you for a long time!"

    Captivity

    The long road to freedom began for Bergdahl with his capture on June 30, 2009, in Afghanistan's Paktika province, where he was deployed with the 25th Infantry Division.

    The soldier disappeared after finishing a guard shift at a combat outpost.

    It was about 4:30 a.m. when he was first reported missing, and by 7 a.m. his comrades began an all-out search to find him, according to secret military reports made public by WikiLeaks in 2010.

    But there was no sign of the soldier. According to the reports, radio conversations between suspected militants picked up by U.S. reconnaissance aircraft confirmed he had been captured.

    Conflicting details have since emerged about how the militants managed to capture Bergdahl. Published accounts have varied widely, from claims he walked off the post to another that he was grabbed from a latrine.

    U.S. officials believe he was captured by the Taliban, but may have been held by the Haqqani Network, a terror group that operates along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The group is aligned with the Taliban and al Qaeda.

    In the ensuing years, there were occasional video clips released by his captors. The so-called proof-of-life videos appeared to show the soldier gaunt and disheveled. Over time, he appeared with a beard

    The U.S. government acknowledged in May 2012 that it had been engaged in direct talks with the Taliban to free Bergdahl. The Taliban, according to officials, broke off those talks.

    For more than year, there was no word of the soldier.

    Road to freedom

    Then, in November 2013, the Taliban signaled it was prepared to talk, according to senior administration officials.

    In return, the United States asked for proof of life, they said.

    That proof came in December in the form of a video of Bergdahl, the first in three years. And it showed the effects years of captivity had on the soldier, who appeared haggard and unwell.

    With neither U.S. officials or the Taliban trusting each other, Qatari officials took on the role of intermediary.

    The negotiations began in earnest last week, with Qatar ferrying messages back and forth between U.S. officials and the Taliban.

    It culminated in Doha, with the agreement that called for the handover of Bergdahl in exchange for five detainees held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, the administration officials said.

    As Taliban fighters headed with Bergdahl toward an agreed upon meeting point in Afghanistan, on the other side of the world Qataris officials were waiting for the five detainees to be released.

    According to senior administration officials, the Qatari officials met the detainees on a runway at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

    How the Qataris signaled to the Taliban that the detainees were in the custody is unclear, and administration officials have not detailed the communications.

    Flight to freedom

    It was late afternoon Saturday in Afghanistan, about 10:30 a.m. ET, when Bergdahl surrounded by 18 Taliban fighters was led to a meeting point.

    There, waiting, were U.S. commandos, according to the officials. In the air above, helicopter gunships circled.

    Slowly, Bergdahl walked toward the commandos.

    It is believed the soldier was searched by the commandos, who as a matter of protocol would check to make sure the Taliban had not strapped explosives on him.

    Within a matter of minutes, Bergdahl was aboard a helicopter bound for Bagram Air Base.

    On the helicopter, with the knowledge he was in the hands of Special Forces, Bergdahl broke down and cried.

    He was free.
    http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/31/world/...rd-helicopter/
    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    lol at Nestle being some vicious smiter, she's the nicest person on this site besides probably puzzld. Or at least the last person to resort to smiting.
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    Why on earth would I smite you when I can ban you?

  2. #2
    Sana sana colita de rana beli's Avatar
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    Who are these 5 detainees?


    Glad is is finally home. I'm sure that was a terrifying ordeal.
    Quote Originally Posted by Gawna View Post
    Roses are red, violets are blue, seriously where is the fucking ring I gave Julie and ask her mom about the flowers
    Quote Originally Posted by Ron_NYC View Post
    In all fairness, we have no idea how big this dude's cock was.

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    Senior Member animosity's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by puzzld View Post
    can you explain the right wingers go nuts bit? i don't pay very much attention to these types of things, but wouldn't they be pleased that our guy got to come home?
    Quote Originally Posted by songbirdsong View Post
    "Say, you know who could handle this penis? MY MOTHER."

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    Moderator puzzld's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by animosity View Post
    can you explain the right wingers go nuts bit? i don't pay very much attention to these types of things, but wouldn't they be pleased that our guy got to come home?
    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/0...the-Right-Wing
    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    lol at Nestle being some vicious smiter, she's the nicest person on this site besides probably puzzld. Or at least the last person to resort to smiting.
    Quote Originally Posted by nestlequikie View Post
    Why on earth would I smite you when I can ban you?

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    Moderator bowieluva's Avatar
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    Probably they've all seen Homeland and know how this is going to end.

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    Senior Member animosity's Avatar
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    oh, gotcha thanks. i did see some of those comments when i was skimming.
    Quote Originally Posted by songbirdsong View Post
    "Say, you know who could handle this penis? MY MOTHER."

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    Senior Member bermstalker's Avatar
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    His girlfriend has another boyfriend. She has since 2012. I wonder how all that is going to play out?
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...pect-wait.html


    Here is the ones exchanged for Bowe

    Taliban prisoners released in exchange for Bowe Bergdalh
    Abdul Haq Wasiq Taliban deputy minister of intelligence
    Mullah Norullah Nori Senior Taliban commander in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif who commanded insurgents fighting U.S. forces in late 2001
    Khairullah Khairkhwa Senior Taliban official believed to have ties to Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, the Taliban's founder
    Mohammed Nabi A regional Chief of Security for the Taliban and eventual radio operator
    Mohammed Fazl Believed to have overseen the mass extermination of Shiite Muslims during the 2000 - 2001 war that saw the Taliban rise to power in Afghanistan.


    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz33TSDVyNQ
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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    Senior Member bermstalker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by animosity View Post
    can you explain the right wingers go nuts bit? i don't pay very much attention to these types of things, but wouldn't they be pleased that our guy got to come home?
    I think this *may* be why. If not, IDK

    There is a lot more to this article, but I am just coping some

    The case of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, held by the Taliban since 2009, has arisen again as the U.S. and other countries engage in diplomatic efforts to free him.

    But if he is released, will America's only prisoner of the Afghan war be viewed as a hero or a deserter?

    While tattered yellow ribbons still adorn utility poles in his native Hailey, Idaho, others are expressing conflicting thoughts about Bergdahl's plight as the war winds down, with President Barack Obama threatening to withdraw all U.S. troops by year's end unless the Afghan government signs a crucial security agreement.

    They are convinced that on June 30, 2009, just a few months after he arrived in Afghanistan, Bergdahl willingly walked away from his unit, which was deployed in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan, adjacent to the border with Pakistan. While they do want Bergdahl home, they think he should have to answer allegations that he deserted his unit.

    Bergdahl was last seen in a video the Taliban released in December.

    At this year's Grammys, celebrities were photographed wearing Bowe bracelets. In the past two years, billboards with Bergdahl's face have popped up in major cities. One shows a smiling Bergdahl, in an Army uniform, with the message: "He fought for us. ... Let's fight for him!"

    A transcript of radio intercepts, publicly released through Wikileaks, indicates that Bergdahl, then 23, was captured while sitting in a makeshift latrine.

    "We were attacking the post he was sitting," according to a radio intercept of a conversation among insurgents. "He had no gun with him. ... They have all (the) Americans, ANA (Afghan National Army), helicopters, the planes are looking for him. Can you guys make a video of him and announce it all over Afghanistan that we have one of the Americans?"

    Rolling Stone magazine quoted emails Bergdahl is said to have sent to his parents that suggest he was disillusioned with America's mission in Afghanistan, had lost faith in the U.S. Army's mission there and was considering desertion.

    Bergdahl told his parents he was "ashamed to even be American." Bergdahl, who mailed home boxes containing his uniform and books, also wrote: "The future is too good to waste on lies. And 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."

    The Associated Press could not independently authenticate the emails published by the magazine in 2012. Bergdahl's family has not commented on the allegations of desertion, according to Col. Tim Marsano, a spokesman for the Idaho National Guard. Marsano is in regular contact with Bergdahl's mother, Jani, and father, Bob, who has grown a long, thick beard and has worked to learn Pashto, the language spoken by his son's captors.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-sgt-b...or-a-deserter/

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    Moderator bowieluva's Avatar
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    Yeah, it' literally the plot of Homeland haha poor guy that show ruined everything.

    Not to mention being tortured and kind of getting an insight into the value America applies to people (none) it's not hard to see why he would be justified in thinking his country sucks dick. A lot of prisoners of war echo a similar sentiment, partially because of stockholm syndrome and partially because basically america sucks fucking dick.

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    Senior Member bermstalker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    Yeah, it' literally the plot of Homeland haha poor guy that show ruined everything.

    Not to mention being tortured and kind of getting an insight into the value America applies to people (none) it's not hard to see why he would be justified in thinking his country sucks dick. A lot of prisoners of war echo a similar sentiment, partially because of stockholm syndrome and partially because basically america sucks fucking dick.

    Now that you mention it, it really is the whole plot of "Homeland" playing out.

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    They basically stopped all operations in Afghanistan for 2 months looking for this guy. Quite a few soldiers got killed in the search. He went AWOL. Soldiers that were there say he should be court-martialed.
    Read they comments after this article, they speak out.
    Afghans say Taliban prisoners freed by U.S. will rejoin battle http://news.yahoo.com/afghans-taliba...145123619.html

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    Senior Member Chompin's Avatar
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    Trade five high-level detainees for a deserter. Yeah, that makes sense! A friend of mine served over there and lets just say he might have been better off with the Taliban than around veterans.

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    Senior Member bermstalker's Avatar
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    Two former comrades of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl have confirmed to MailOnline that their former platoon-mate walked away from his post in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009 with the intention of reneging on his military oath. 'I'm positive that he's a deserter, and that it was all premeditated,' said Gerald Sutton, bottom right, a 31-year-old Michigan college student who left the military in September 2012 and said he was 'a good friend' of Bergdahl when they were deployed to the Middle East. He wasn't out on some patrol one day and got captured by the Taliban, and nobody smuggled him off of the base,' explained Cody Full, bottom left, a 25-year-old former infantryman who spoke with MailOnline from Houston, Texas.

    Specialist Cody Full, 25, says Bowe Bergdahl is 'a deserter at best, and a traitor at worst'
    Specialist Gerald Sutton, 31, calls the newly rescued infantryman's decision to desert his unit 'premeditated'
    Both men, who served with Bergdahl in Afghanistan, say he should be hauled into a military court to face the music
    'He's not a hero. He's not a good example,' Full told MailOnline
    'This might be kinda severe,' Sutton said, 'but for desertion in time of war, the penalty can be up to death'
    Bergdahl's life has been under a microscope, with most accounts describing a soft-hearted infantryman who cared more for the Afghani people than he did for his Army mission
    But Full says his odd demeanor also had a more worrisome side: Bergdahl asked one Army squad leader if he would be allowed to wear the face of his first Taliban 'kill' as a mask
    Other platoon-mates of Bergdahl have told how they were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements by the army after he was captured


    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz33ZweO3Yr
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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    Senior Member debk589's Avatar
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    Hmmmm, I'm not quite sure where I stand on this. If what his fellow platoon-mates say is true, that shit's not cool.

    Reading more about it, I'm trying REALLY hard not to drink the purple Kool-Aid and get my tinfoil hat out, but something's amiss here. This guys dad is WAAAY deep into Islam (not that there's anything wrong with that), but he has since deleted this tweet from his twitter:



    Regardless, I don't think we should ever, ever negotiate with terrorists, which is exactly what just happened. I have a feeling a lot more soldiers will come up missing in the near future.
    Last edited by debk589; 06-03-2014 at 07:48 AM.

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    Senior Member bermstalker's Avatar
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    What you said DEB about terrorists is also what I fear.


    Sorry I can't link, but the army general said in the news that they may still bring charges against bowe for being a deserter.

    ETA: here's the link
    http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...603-story.html
    Last edited by bermstalker; 06-03-2014 at 01:58 PM.

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    Certified Grumple Bottoms Ron_NYC's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    Ron was the best part, hands down.

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    Senior Member *crickets*'s Avatar
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    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/op...ance.html?_r=0
    Following a long firefight that May, Sergeant Bergdahl's anger worsened. On June 27, he wrote a final email to his family, according to Mr. Hastings. It included these words: "I am sorry for everything. The horror that is america is disgusting." Three days later, he left his rifle and night-vision goggles and walked off his base. The decision was so reckless as to verge on suicidal. Not surprisingly, the Taliban captured him in less than two days.

    Sergeant Bergdahl may have broken any number of military laws. Under Article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a soldier commits desertion if he "quits his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to avoid hazardous duty or shirk important service." Desertion during wartime is punishable "by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct."

    Of course, no military court has found him guilty of any crime. But there's no doubt that Sergeant Bergdahl's disappearance caused terrible trouble. American forces across eastern Afghanistan suspended other operations and spent weeks searching for him.
    And at least 6 soldiers died in those searches.

    His unit commander was just on CNN with Jake Tapper. He (and others) think that Bergdahl not only deserted, but fed info to the Taliban that lead to more targeted attacks on American troops and increased American deaths in the period after his capture.

    These guys are angry that the Obama administration is trying to pass this guy off as a rescued hero when he is quite the opposite, and that his fellow soldiers died as a result of his actions.


    ETA: here's more on the CNN interview:

    http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/03/politi...t=hp_inthenews
    According to firsthand accounts from soldiers in his platoon, Bergdahl -- sometime before he was set to go on guard duty -- shed his weapons and walked off an observation post with nothing more than a compass, a knife, water, a digital camera and a diary.

    The team leader, Evan Buetow, recalled to CNN's Jake Tapper that Bergdahl "did not agree with the war effort in Afghanistan" and had said various things that, in retrospect, led him to believe the soldier had "walked away."

    "It was a gut feeling I had," Buetow said Tuesday. "... When he comes up missing and all of his sensitive items are left behind, it just kind of hit us in the head."

    At least six soldiers were killed in subsequent searches for Bergdahl, according to soldiers involved in operations to find him. The Pentagon was not able to provide details on specific operations in which any soldiers killed during that time were involved.

    Also, many soldiers in Bergdahl's platoon said attacks seemed to increase against the United States in Paktika province in the days and weeks following his disappearance.

    Buetow conceded that he and others may never know if this violence was coincidental or if Bergdahl had given his captors -- voluntarily or after being tortured -- information. Yet he found it "incredibly suspicious" that attacks after Bergdahl disappeared seemed to become "far more directed."

    As to those U.S. soldiers who died, Buetow said, "Those soldiers would not be on those patrols, in those specific areas when they were killed, unless Bergdahl left. And that's a fact to me."
    and BTW, I am not a "right-winger."
    Last edited by *crickets*; 06-03-2014 at 02:27 PM.

  18. #18
    Moderator puzzld's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by *crickets* View Post

    and BTW, I am not a "right-winger."
    Sure you are at least you've been listening to them.

    No one knows for sure what happened. Bergdahl hasn't had a chance to tell his story. Maybe he did desert, maybe he just got plastered and wandered into harms way. If they had any specific information that he deserted he wouldn't have received two promotions during the years he was gone.

    http://www.stonekettle.com/2014/06/n...errorists.html

    Are we really going to do this?

    Is this what it?s finally come down to, is it really?

    Look at yourselves, you silly selfish bastards.

    Look. At. Yourselves.

    Go on, do it, find a mirror and look into your own dead zombie eyes and see the empty void looking back.

    This revolting, disgusting display of hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy, is this what we?ve finally become?

    Are we now so filled with foul bilious hatred, are we now so consumed with soul-destroying fear, do we now despise our own selves so much that we would actually protest the return of one of our own? Is that it?

    Is that what we?ve become?

    If so, then the sooner America collapses of its own maggot-ridden gangrenous rot, the better.



    Is this who we are?

    Because the utter unmitigated, unhinged, unbounded yellow-eyed hypocrisy that defines this sick twisted morally bankrupt philosophy has finally, today, reached its zenith. There is nowhere left to go.

    I didn?t think these people could dishonor the spirit of this country any more than they already had, but I was wrong.

    Oh, I get it. I understand that frightened people become more and more irrational, especially when they are allowed, encouraged, to feed incestuously on each other?s fear. And I get that they are afraid. I can see it in their faces, I can hear it in their voices. I get that they?re afraid of change. I get that they?re afraid of the future. I get that they?re afraid of the past. And I get that they?re afraid of the present. I get that they?re afraid of losing power and privilege and prestige. I get that they?re afraid of their capricious and childishly vengeful god. I get that they?re afraid of different races and different cultures and different accents and different religions and different sexual orientations and different viewpoints and different politics. I get it, they?ve screamed their small fears over and over and only a dead man could possibly miss it.

    I get that they are so consumed with rage and so filled with naked hate and so programmed with their diseased ideology that it poisons their minds like a computer chip submerged in acid.

    I get that they are so utterly terrified of the world that they piss themselves in abject fear at the mere thought of going to the grocery store without a goddamned gun stuck in their pants like an extra oversized prick.

    More than anything, I get that they are afraid of Barack Obama, everything about him, every single thing about the president terrifies them. Obama stalks their feverish nightmares and he is the very symbol of their shameful impotence ? so much so that they?ve written him into their precious bible, in a starring role as the devil, the destroyer of worlds.

    I get it.

    And I get that it?s an uncontrollable mindless tic, a raging xenophobia, a political PTSD, and they know that it?s wrong but they can?t seem to do anything about it.

    It?s just how their crippled minds work.

    I know that I?m supposed to cut these people some slack. I know that an objective person would try to empathize. I know I should try and see the world through their eyes, to meet them halfway, to treat them as if their gibbering insanity is, if not okay, at least reasonable. Understandable. Sane. And I try, with varying and limited degrees of success, but I try because I understand they are afraid and they just can?t help themselves.

    But this? This, right here, this is the limit of my patience.

    With this, they can no longer claim that it?s a difference in political philosophy, or a clash of competing economic theories, or the debate between big government and small, or civil rights, or taxes or the national debt or jobs or gay marriage or abortion or any of the bullshit excuses they?ve used to justify their unhinged rage for the last five years.

    No, it?s hate pure and simple.

    It?s hate for hate?s sake, hate driven by unreasoned selfish fear and nothing more.

    When these capering lunatics stand in front of the nation, the world, and without a single shred of decency, without the tiniest modicum of self-conscious shame, without any apparent awareness of their own boundless hypocrisy, and loudly protest the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from the clutches of our sworn enemies, I have to say no more.

    I?ve reached the limit of what little tolerance I have for this insane hatred.

    They say it?s because Bergdahl is a deserter, that he could be a traitor.

    And maybe he is. Maybe he?s both.

    And maybe he isn?t.

    We don?t know. No one knows, except for Bergdahl himself.

    And Bergdahl has neither admitted his guilt nor proclaimed his innocence as yet. There?s been no Article 32 hearing, no trial, no court martial. The military and the intelligence agencies haven?t even begun his debriefing. All we know for certain is that an American soldier was taken captive by the enemy, held for years, and returned as part of a prisoner exchange. That?s it. That?s what we know. We don?t know what events led to his capture, not all of them, not yet. We don?t know the details of his captivity. We don?t know the particulars of his release beyond the broad details that have been published in the press.

    Nevertheless, Bergdahl has been condemned by the popular media, by social networks, by pundits and politicians, not because they know more about the situation than you or I do, but solely because they hate the president. If Obama was behind Bergdahl?s release, then Bergdahl is a traitor, Q.E.D. because the president must never, ever, be allowed even the slightest acknowledgement of patriotism.

    This condemnation isn?t about Bergdahl, it?s about Obama.

    Certainly, some of Bergdahl?s fellow soldiers say he deserted. That he was disillusioned with the war, with America, that he left his guard post and walked away into the desert in some foolish and quixotic attempt to reach China. They say that men, good men, real heroes, died searching for Bergdahl after he disappeared.

    And those soldiers, they?d probably know, wouldn?t they?

    And, yeah, if I was one of them I?d be damned resentful too and I have no doubt whatsoever that I?d use this blog to protest those who would attempt to paint Bergdahl as a hero ? if I knew for certain that he deserted, if I?d lost friends searching for him.

    I don?t begrudge those soldiers one iota of their resentment, they earned it with their own blood.

    And let?s say it?s true.

    Let?s say for the sake of argument that Bergdahl is indeed a deserter, that his capture by the Taliban was a result of his own cowardly actions.

    So?

    So what?

    Last time I checked, the punishment specified for violation of UCMJ Article 85 (or Article 86 depending on Bergdahl?s intentions) isn?t to throw him to our enemies!

    Ultimately, Bergdahl will have to face his accusers, and if the allegations of desertion are proven true then he will answer for the crime of desertion as specified under the Uniform Code of Military Justice ? which technically could include the death penalty since the desertion is alleged to have occurred during time of war and in the face of the enemy. Far more likely, of course, if Bergdahl is convicted of desertion he?ll probably get little more than a bad conduct discharge and forfeiture of any benefits. It?s unlikely that he?d see prison time ? and, really, how would that even be a punishment compared to what he?s already been through? Likely he won?t ever face a hearing and he?ll be administratively separated from the service at the Army?s earliest possible convenience.

    But, and here?s the thing so pay attention, even if Bergdahl is tried and found guilty of desertion, even if he?s found guilty of treason as some would have it, he?ll go to prison ? we won?t give him back to the Taliban.

    There is no crime so great that leaving him in the hands of our enemies is the indicated punishment.

    He was, he is, one of ours. Period.

    For better or for worse, he?s one of ours, and we don?t leave our people behind ? not even the deserters.

    We Americans sent him into the meat grinder and it is our sacred obligation to get him home, no matter what.

    Even if he was dead.

    We?ve been digging through the jungles of Southeast Asia for the better part of four decades, trying to make good on that promise for the men we left there. We?ve spared no expense to return home little more than tiny moldering pieces of bone. Some of those dead men were heroes, some were hardened professionals, and some were just soldiers doing their duty, who came when called and who did their best to survive a horrible conflict they couldn?t understand and wanted no part of. Some were steadfast and some were cowards and some were fools. But they were, each and every one, ours. And we have done our best to bring them home.

    And what? We should do any less for Sgt. Bergdahl?

    The staggering hypocrisy of this becomes immediately apparent when you realize that the very same folks who would grant an unconditional pardon to the traitorous Edward Snowden, a man who provably and self-admittedly gave aid and comfort to our adversaries during time of war and who continues to do so to this very day, these same people would proclaim Snowden a hero and leave Bergdahl to die unlamented in a Taliban cave ? solely because they despise Barack Obama and for no other reason.
    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    lol at Nestle being some vicious smiter, she's the nicest person on this site besides probably puzzld. Or at least the last person to resort to smiting.
    Quote Originally Posted by nestlequikie View Post
    Why on earth would I smite you when I can ban you?

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    Moderator puzzld's Avatar
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    http://www.stonekettle.com/2014/06/n...errorists.html cont.
    For the last two years, these very same people have been screaming for Obama?s impeachment, because the President ordered the targeted killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American who publicly renounced his citizenship, declared his allegiance to our sworn enemies, and who then actively took up arms against the United States and loudly encouraged others to do so as well. These same people would sacrifice untold numbers of American soldiers to capture a self-declared terrorist and give him a trial because they simply cannot and will not acknowledge that the president did the right thing, but these very same people would condemn Bergdahl and leave him to rot in Afghanistan without so much as an Article 32 hearing, solely to further their blind hatred of Barack Obama.

    For the last eighteen months these very same people have been screaming for Obama?s impeachment. Impeachment? Hell, some of these silly sons of bitches, including sitting members of Congress and members of the military, have marched on the White House demanding the actual overthrow of the United States government and the imprisonment or death of the President, because four Americans died in Benghazi, Libya. They are outraged, outraged beyond logic, beyond prudence, beyond reason, because they believe Obama didn?t do absolutely everything possible up to and including an armed military invasion to save those men. But these same people, these very same people, would leave an American soldier to die at the hands of the Taliban and they refuse to cheer his safe return, solely because they hate Barack Obama beyond all rational bounds and they will not allow this administration any victory no matter how small ? even when they themselves have been condemning Obama for leaving an American serviceman in the hands of our enemies.

    For them, Bergdahl be he a captive or a free man, is nothing more just another way to attack the president and they can spin their hypocrisy in any fashion necessary.

    They are angered by Bowe Bergdahl?s release, because they say we don?t negotiate with terrorists.

    But what they conveniently fail to mention are those pictures of Cheney and Rumsfeld with Saddam Hussein, back when we were giving the murderous Iraqi despot money and guns in his war against Iran and which he later used to invade Kuwait. Or that part where we armed Osama bin Laden with Stinger missiles and all the guns he and the Mujahidin could carry into Afghanistan. Or that part where these people?s beloved patron saint, one Ronald Reagan, sold arms to our mortal enemies in Iran, a nation the US Congress and that very same President had publicly labeled a terrorist state, the very same terrorist rat bastards who took our entire embassy staff hostage and held them for over a year. Or that part where that very same administration took the profits from that arms deal with terrorists and used it to finance still more terrorists in the jungles of Central America. And the really, really amusing part is that the same people who are right now shouting ?we don?t negotiate with terrorists!? are some of the very same people, name for name, who were personally negotiating with terrorists in Iran, in Iraq, in Libya, in Afghanistan, in Colombia, in Nicaragua, in Somalia, and in Beirut.

    We don?t negotiate with terrorists?

    Jesus Haploid Christ, we do business with terrorists on a daily basis and have all the way back to WWII when we contracted with the Mafia to run arms into occupied Sicily.

    We don?t negotiate with terrorists, what a fucking joke.

    Answer me a question, if we can sell arms to terrorists, to our own enemies, then you tell me why we can?t negotiate with those same terrorists for the return of our own people.

    If our people aren?t worth it, if they aren?t worth more than the value we place on arm sales and political maneuvering, then you go right on and tell me what all the shouting is about over Benghazi. Go on, I?ll wait.

    If our people aren?t worth four or five terrorists sitting in a Gitmo prison cell, then you tell me why we?ve spent the last twelve years in two wars, why we traded the lives of six thousand servicemen and why we killed hundreds of thousands Iraqis and Afghans to avenge three thousand Americans. Go on, tell me why it was okay for the previous administration take a hundred enemy lives for every one of ours, but it?s not acceptable for the current administration to trade five terrorists for the life of one American soldier ? especially when we gave six American lives as a down payment looking for him after his disappearance. Why were the Americans who died on 911 any more valuable than Bowe Bergdahl?

    And if Bergdahl is guilty of desertion, then don?t we owe it to those six dead soldiers to bring him home and make him account for his cowardice?

    These people are so eaten up with hatred, their souls are so corrupted by their poisonous worldview, that instead of satisfaction at the return of their fellow countryman they feel only loathing ? because they simply cannot stand to see Obama with a joyous Jani and Bob Bergdahl, announcing the safe repatriation of their son.

    The staggering hypocrisy of John McCain continues unabated, the man is a disgrace to the uniform he once wore and the honor he swore to uphold. McCain, more than any other living American, should know what it?s like when governments value politics over their own citizens. Navy Lieutenant John McCain, if he still exists inside that wretched bitter old man, that John McCain more than any other should remember what it?s like to come home as a POW under a cloud of doubt and suspicion. But Vietnam was a long, long time ago and John McCain is a rich man now and more than willing to condemn others for his own sins.

    Ted Cruz, a man who wants to be President of the United States, who wants to be the Commander in Chief, is the very epitome of these intractable sons of bitches. No other American embodies every horrible facet of the moral bankruptcy that is this corrupt selfish philosophy ? unless it?s his father, the turd-blossom didn?t fall far from the horse?s ass in the Cruz family.

    Cruz said, "What does this tell the terrorists? That if you capture a U.S. soldier, you can trade that soldier for five terrorists?"

    Cruz went on to say the prisoner swap was ?very disturbing.?

    Disturbing?

    What does it tell the terrorists?

    This, this right here, is where we as a nation, need to say no more.

    We need to stand up and say we?ve had enough. That not only are we sick and tired of being afraid of terrorists, but we?re even more tired of listening to the fearful cries of the other terrorists, the ones who practice being terrified as a political philosophy.

    This madness, this crippling unreasoning fear, must be dragged into the heat of the sun and cauterized, before it kills us all.

    What does it tell the terrorists?

    Fourteen years we?ve been killing these cockroaches, we?ve killed thousands of them, we?ve killed their families, we?ve destroyed their country, we rooted them out of their strongholds, we hunted down their leader and shot him in the head and dumped his body into the sea.

    And for what? So we can still be afraid?

    All of this, all of these lost lives, all of the terrible terrible cost, all is for naught because we were willing to trade prisoners, because we?re the kind of people who would care enough about our own to want him back? Is that it?

    What the hell have we been fighting for?

    What were all those lives traded for?

    If we can?t bring one American home alive.

    Why do we have the mightiest military in the world? In the history of the world, if we have to live in fear of what the goddamned terrorists think?

    If we have to live in terror all of the time.

    If we can?t even go to the goddamned grocery store without a gun?

    Here?s the really disturbing question:

    What does Ted Cruz?s statement tell the US Military?

    What does it tell the terrorists? Who cares. The real question is what does it tell America?

    That under a Tea Party administration if you?re captured by terrorists, well fuck you, Soldier. We don?t negotiate with terrorists. Our vaunted principles, our inflexible ideology, our unbending politics and our sound-bite simple-minded doctrine is worth more than your life. We don?t negotiate with terrorists (even though we really do, don?t we? Pretty much all of the time). Besides, you?re probably a traitor anyway.

    Think about that.

    Think about it real hard.

    Think about it real hard, especially if you?re the parent of a soldier-age son or daughter.

    And then be glad, goddamned glad, that you have a president who was willing to do what it takes to get Bowe Bergdahl home.

    Dead or alive, we get our people home, whatever the cost, that?s the one promise that must never be broken.

    The day we forget that, the day the fear of ?what will the terrorists think? becomes more important to us than that sacred obligation, that?s the day America dies.

    Whether or not Bowe Bergdahl is a hero or a deserter or just a hapless fool who screwed up under the enormous pressures of war, he?s still an American.

    He?s one of ours and and there?s only one thing to say:

    Welcome home, Soldier.

    Welcome home.
    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    lol at Nestle being some vicious smiter, she's the nicest person on this site besides probably puzzld. Or at least the last person to resort to smiting.
    Quote Originally Posted by nestlequikie View Post
    Why on earth would I smite you when I can ban you?

  20. #20
    Scoopski Potatoes Nic B's Avatar
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    I'm confused. What did he expect to happen when he walked off the base? Did he expect and want to get kidnapped and held for 5 years?


    Quote Originally Posted by marakisses View Post
    yes i said i will leave it under you storage he said cuddle with me i said shut up it over??? what am i doing wrong??
    Quote Originally Posted by curiouscat View Post
    Happy Birthday! I hid a dead body in your backyard to celebrate. Good luck finding it under the cement. You can only use a stick to look for it.

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    Senior Member *crickets*'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by puzzld View Post
    Sure you are at least you've been listening to them.
    uh, no... the sources I quoted are the New York Times, CNN- and that notorious right-wing rag Rolling Stone! where the original desertion story came from. The author of which interviewed the soldiers in Bergdahl's unit as well as documenting his many emails while researching his piece. Which you would know if you had read it.

    Dismissing everyone who disagrees with your views as a right-winger is pretty lame.

  22. #22
    Moderator puzzld's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by *crickets* View Post
    uh, no... the sources I quoted are the New York Times, CNN- and that notorious right-wing rag Rolling Stone! where the original desertion story came from. The author of which interviewed the soldiers in Bergdahl's unit as well as documenting his many emails while researching his piece. Which you would know if you had read it.

    Dismissing everyone who disagrees with your views as a right-winger is pretty lame.
    I read them. I just dismissed them.

    But I admit freely to being a flaming left wing liberal. Most of the old school media = right wing to me.

    Hell most main stream media makes Barry Goldwater look like a lefty.
    You're right Michael Hastings (the reporter who contributed most of the Rolling stone piece) wasn't known to be a right winger, but rather he was a conspiracy theorist who was diggng for the story of a life time when he hung a bunch of his sources out to dry, then freaked out and decided the FBI was after him before killing himself in a high speed crash. http://spectator.org/articles/55354/...chael-hastings
    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    lol at Nestle being some vicious smiter, she's the nicest person on this site besides probably puzzld. Or at least the last person to resort to smiting.
    Quote Originally Posted by nestlequikie View Post
    Why on earth would I smite you when I can ban you?

  23. #23
    Senior Member *crickets*'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by puzzld View Post
    You're right Michael Hastings (the reporter who contributed most of the Rolling stone piece) wasn't known to be a right winger, but rather he was a conspiracy theorist who was diggng for the story of a life time when he hung a bunch of his sources out to dry, then freaked out and decided the FBI was after him before killing himself in a high speed crash. http://spectator.org/articles/55354/...chael-hastings
    nevertheless, from the NYT article quoted above, the accuracy of the RS story has not been questioned...

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/op...f=opinion&_r=0
    Michael Hastings, an investigative reporter who died last year, examined Sergeant Bergdahl's disappearance in a lengthy 2012 Rolling Stone piece whose accuracy has not been questioned. Drawing on emails that Sergeant Bergdahl sent to his family and interviews with his fellow soldiers, (snipped..)
    also lol @Rolling Stone being dismissed along with CNN as "right-wing sources."
    Last edited by *crickets*; 06-03-2014 at 04:39 PM.

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    Senior Member Chompin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by *crickets* View Post

    also lol @Rolling Stone being dismissed along with CNN as "right-wing sources."
    That is pretty hilarious.

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    Certified Grumple Bottoms Ron_NYC's Avatar
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    The closest we've had to a left wing news site was Air America. And they shut that shit down quick.

    There's moderate right wing news, news, and outright Fox News insanity.

    The Liberal media is a myth.
    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    Ron was the best part, hands down.

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