The Truth About Bowe Bergdahl

 

306586629At the Daily Beast, a remarkable first-person account by Nathan Bradley Bethea. An excerpt:

[The] release from Taliban custody on May 31 [of Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl] marks the end of a nearly five-year-old story for the soldiers of his unit, the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment. I served in the same battalion in Afghanistan and participated in the attempts to retrieve him throughout the summer of 2009. After we redeployed, every member of my brigade combat team received an order that we were not allowed to discuss what happened to Bergdahl for fear of endangering him. He is safe, and now it is time to speak the truth.

And that the truth is: Bergdahl was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down.

The President of the United States has some explaining to do — a lot of explaining. In the meantime, I’d give it not more than another 24 hours before Democrats in tight Senate races — Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Sen. David Pryor of Arkansas — start demanding that explanation almost as forcefully as those of us right here at Ricochet.

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  1. Butters Inactive
    Butters
    @CommodoreBTC

    here’s another fascinating first hand account (although anonymous):

    …I left the encounter with the PMT mentor, returned to my AO and walked into my Colonel’s office.

    “I will make you a bet I can locate this kid in a week.” He looked at me and said nothing. He knew how I worked and I walked out.

    I began by walking into the office of an Afghan Intelligence Officer I knew. He greeted me as always; welcomed me in and offered me Chai. We had not seen each other for well over a month. We shared stories, we discussed insurgent tactics, new TTPs, his family, my travels. Then I asked him the question I had come for, “Colonel…where’s our boy?” He looked at me and just stared back. Then he said, “You don’t want to know.”…

    • #1
  2. flownover Inactive
    flownover
    @flownover

    And now the Taliban corroborates the collaboration angle . Is this the worst deal ever ? If it wasn’t so dunderheaded, I could imagine it was deliberate .

    • #2
  3. J Flei Inactive
    J Flei
    @Solon

    Maybe the administration thought people would be overjoyed at the recovery of an American hostage, and would see the return of the 5 Taliban guys as a step in the right direction of closing Guantanamo?  But even liberals probably won’t stick up for a deserter for whom 6 lives were lost, and even liberals must be at least a little afraid of setting dangerous men like these guys free.

    • #3
  4. Nick Stuart Inactive
    Nick Stuart
    @NickStuart

    Peter Robinson:

    The President of the United States has some explaining to do — a lot of explaining. In the meantime, I’d give it not more than another 24 hours before Democrats in tight Senate races — Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Sen. David Pryor of Arkansas — start demanding that explanation almost as forcefully as those of us right here at Ricochet.

    Peter, I’ll bet you a lunch at the finest restaurant I can afford next time you’re in Chicagoland if your prediction of Dems demanding an explanation comes to pass within the 24 hours starting as of the time of your post.

    Obama will never provide a truthful explanation and the MSM will never demand it of him.

    The Democrats you mention are going to take at least a week to figure out their play on this because, I suspect, at this moment they’re so frightened and confused they don’t know whether to spit or wind their watches.

    • #4
  5. Blondie Thatcher
    Blondie
    @Blondie

    Nick Stuart:

    Peter Robinson:

    The President of the United States has some explaining to do — a lot of explaining. In the meantime, I’d give it not more than another 24 hours before Democrats in tight Senate races — Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Sen. David Pryor of Arkansas — start demanding that explanation almost as forcefully as those of us right here at Ricochet.

    Peter, I’ll bet you a lunch at the finest restaurant I can afford next time you’re in Chicagoland if your prediction of Dems demanding an explanation comes to pass within the 24 hours starting as of the time of your post.

    Obama will never provide a truthful explanation and the MSM will never demand it of him.

    The Democrats you mention are going to take at least a week to figure out their play on this because, I suspect, at this moment they’re so frightened and confused they don’t know whether to spit or wind their watches.

     And the Republicans (sans Paul, Cruz) will do nothing. I wish you were right, Peter, but I’m with Nick on this one.

    • #5
  6. Vance Richards Inactive
    Vance Richards
    @VanceRichards

    [The] release from Taliban custody on May 31 [of Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl] marks the end of a nearly five-year-old story for the soldiers of his unit, the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment.

    So desertion gets you promotions from Private to Sergeant? Talk about a do-nothing job.

    • #6
  7. user_250947 Inactive
    user_250947
    @lakelylane

    I realize that this is a shocking thing to say…but our President is our enemy!

    • #7
  8. Crow's Nest Inactive
    Crow's Nest
    @CrowsNest

    Peter Robinson:

    The President of the United States has some explaining to do — a lot of explaining.  

    As Machiavelli continually reminds his patient students: the explanation is in the deed (offensive though this may be to speechwriters).

    • #8
  9. Goddess of Discord Member
    Goddess of Discord
    @GoddessofDiscord

    Driving home from work tonight, all my music stations were playing commercials. I thought, what the heck, let’s see what is not being covered on NPR?  On comes the story of the prisoners let out of Gitmo.  There was much hand wringing about whether these guys might not be a force for good, complete with quotes from our president ( well maybe they won’t behave, but what can you do?). NOT ONE WORD about Bergdahl. Nothing.  I was so disgusted. Unbelievable.

    • #9
  10. Black Prince Inactive
    Black Prince
    @BlackPrince

    lakelylane:

    I realize that this is a shocking thing to say…but our President is our enemy!

    Did you just realize this now? If so, that is even more shocking. Obama isn’t stupid nor misguided nor uninformedhe has intentionally and systematically destroyed the United States from within. By the way, I don’t blame Obama…I blame the American people…we’ve sown the wind and now it’s time for us to reap the whirlwind. It’s over.

    • #10
  11. user_199279 Coolidge
    user_199279
    @ChrisCampion

    Barry’s actions leave me wondering:  What does he get out of this?  Because that seems to be his primary motivator in life.  Does he gain a little cred with the far left for it?  Does he get a little extra sauce on it because the guy was a deserter, and finally, finally, Barry’s taking steps to ship prisoners out of Gitmo?

    Byron York takes this apart a bit more today, but this quote from Barry I found appalling:

    Obama continued: “But let me just make a very simple point here, and that is, regardless of the circumstances, whatever those circumstances may turn out to be, we still get an American soldier back if he’s held in captivity. Period. Full stop. We don’t condition that.”

    Really?  How about this one?

    • #11
  12. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    Chris Campion:

    Barry’s actions leave me wondering: What does he get out of this? Because that seems to be his primary motivator in life. Does he gain a little cred with the far left for it? Does he get a little extra sauce on it because the guy was a deserter, and finally, finally, Barry’s taking steps to ship prisoners out of Gitmo?

    Byron York takes this apart a bit more today, but this quote from Barry I found appalling:

    Obama continued: “But let me just make a very simple point here, and that is, regardless of the circumstances, whatever those circumstances may turn out to be, we still get an American soldier back if he’s held in captivity. Period. Full stop. We don’t condition that.”

    Really? How about this one?

    So when is Barry going to open up negotiations with North Korea to get the American Deserters they still hold back?

    • #12
  13. user_199279 Coolidge
    user_199279
    @ChrisCampion

    Instugator:

    Chris Campion:

    Barry’s actions leave me wondering: What does he get out of this? Because that seems to be his primary motivator in life. Does he gain a little cred with the far left for it? Does he get a little extra sauce on it because the guy was a deserter, and finally, finally, Barry’s taking steps to ship prisoners out of Gitmo?

    Byron York takes this apart a bit more today, but this quote from Barry I found appalling:

    Obama continued: “But let me just make a very simple point here, and that is, regardless of the circumstances, whatever those circumstances may turn out to be, we still get an American soldier back if he’s held in captivity. Period. Full stop. We don’t condition that.”

    Really? How about this one?

    So when is Barry going to open up negotiations with North Korea to get the American Deserters they still hold back?

     As soon as another scandal comes up, so the “Squirrel!” card can get played one more time?

    • #13
  14. user_656019 Coolidge
    user_656019
    @RayKujawa

    Instugator:

    So when is Barry going to open up negotiations with North Korea to get the American Deserters they still hold back?

    Being realistic, he doesn’t.  The play for support by the MSM would be too embarrassing to make. With Bergdahl, they did manage to keep that angle under wraps. And I agree that letting the word get out would have compromised his safety.

    • #14
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