Sgt Bowe Bergahl release from Taliban. Victory!

Bowe Bergdahl indicated before him allegedly leaving that he was thinking of deserting and felt "ashamed" to be an American. He left his weapon, his kit and all of his SI the day he asked his PL if taking his SI would be a problem.

Then, by most accounts from those on the ground, he walked off of the FOB looking for the Taliban (according to witnesses on the ground).

Now, just in time for the massive VA scandal, we traded the following 5 Afghan Taliban members in exchange for this guy.

1. Mohammad Fazl: Taliban's former deputy minister of defense. He was one of the Taliban’s founding members, rising through the ranks to become Taliban Chief of Army Staff.

2. Mohammad Nabi: Former chief of Taliban security in Qalat. Also worked in their radio office. Claims he was working for the CIA.

3. Abdul Haq Wasiq: The Taliban’s former deputy minister of intelligence. Accused of human rights abuses, such as torture.

4. Mullah Norullah Nori: Former senior Taliban commander in Mazar-i-Sharif when the war kicked off. Former Taliban governor for two north provinces.

5. Khairullah Khairkhwa: Former Taliban governor of Heart Province. Also served as a military commander and a minister of the interior. According to his lawyers, as of 2002, he had already distanced himself from the Taliban when he was captured.

Don't forget the men who died while looking for him from his unit in the immediate aftermath.

PFC Matthew Michael Martinek, Staff Sgt. Kurt Robert Curtiss, SSG Clayton Bowen, PFC Morris Walker, SSG Michael Murphrey and 2LT Darryn Andrews are all KIA from his unit while looking for him.

Also, for those that aren't aware, when he was captured he was a PFC. Unless he has been formally charged with desertion (he wasn't), or barred for some other reason (he wasn't), and you are a POW, then you continue to increase rank in the primary zone, without going to the board. Which is why he was promoted to E4 at his 2 years TIS and E5 at his 5 year TIS. This was a young PFC who abandoned his unit and may have actually sought out the Taliban on his own.

Glad he's home. Now he can face a court martial to determine what will happen.
Not glad with who we exchanged him for.

And what do we do if his "desertion" was the result of a toxic command climate? Are we retroactively going to strip his commanding officer and 1SG of all ranks and benefits received post desertion? There are a lot of what-ifs and very little hard facts. They have the option of a medical retirement and this dirty little problem goes away for a lot of people.

I think we should wait for the full investigation to be completed prior to rendering assumptions. Seems like there are a lot of missing details in the article.

Great to see him come home. I'm surprised nobody has called him Brody yet. It's a shame we'll never know the true story of what actually happen. Plus if the rumors are true about how he got captured, the Army will let this guy separate from the Army to avoid all backlash they would for court-martialing him.

It is my personal belief that our leadership should not negotiate with terrorists. We must pursue every avenue to rescue captured American service members, but we must not ransom or trade prisoners for captured American service members. Giving up these five high ranking Taliban prisoners leaves me feeling like our country has been betrayed.

The discussion about the service member possibly being a deserter does not factor into this. It does not matter if the service member is a traitor or a Medal of Honor winner; you do not trade.

You do not trade for service members because this increases the likelihood that American citizens will be targeted in the future for the specific purpose of trading them for imprisoned terrorists. In addition, how many innocents will now be killed because these terrorists have been released and will return to the fight? How many new terrorists will now be recruited because of this?

As a Soldier I was prepared to make that sacrifice. It is our duty. How could I enjoy my new found freedom knowing the terrible cost that my freedom would cost innocents? It is a total anathema to our culture.

I understand that my family would be overjoyed to see me returned, but this is not an ethical factor. My duty to my fellow service members and to innocent people must be observed. What our present administration has done should not be applauded; for it is nothing short of treason.

In my opinion, the breaking of the law and the gross disregard for the consequences of this action by the current President should lead to his impeachment.

The actions the president took regardless of who you are hurt other Americans in the long run. The administrations trade is going to inadvertently energize every terrorist cell in the eastern hemisphere. Westerners are a hot commodity if you can kidnap them in one piece and trade them back. Until now, Americans were generally considered too high risk. Because our government would unleash the CT task forces and never pay or trade for our people back. We just shattered that status quo for the sake of one leaf-eating, Islamic fundamentalist sympathizer. Also, lets not forget how many people died trying to find this "soldier" that made the choice to walk off the base that are not listed in the article.

"Victory"? For the Taliban and radical Islam, absolutely.

Wow. After reading the comments, I have to say most of my fellow veterans are idiots.

The Kid Deserted. All he should come home to is a court martial. We lost good men in the month following his desertion chasing down leads to where he was. And yet, the media doesn't bring up any of the dirty secrets.

When us Afghan Vets, who were there in 09, say, HE WAS A DESERTER AND A TRAITOR, its not for attention. Why do you think the search was called off after 30 days? Hell, the prisoners from Jessica Lynch's unit were never put on the back burner until they were rescued. Had he actually been a prisoner and not just a figure for the media to latch on to, he would have been freed years ago, regardless of where he was.

I am happy for his family, but things just aren't adding up...

This was a comment on a story on facebook...I do not support this statement, but I feel it should be shared.


"""Forwarded from Michael Newton from Awesome Shit my Drill Sergeant Said page - Forwarded from Jeff Howard. "We were at OP Mest, Paktika Province, Afghanistan. It was a small outpost where B Co 1-501st INF (Airbone) ran operations out of, just an Infantry platoon and ANA counterparts there. The place was an Afghan graveyard. Bergdahl had been acting a little strange, telling people he wanted to "walk the earth" and kept a little journal talking about how he was meant for better things. No one thought anything about it. He was a little “out there”. Next morning he's gone. We search everywhere, and can't find him. He left his weapon, his kit, and other sensitive items. He only took some water, a compass and a knife. We find some afghan kids shortly after who saw an american walking north asking about where the taliban are. We get hits on our voice intercepter that Taliban has him, and we were close. We come to realize the kid deserted his post, snuck out of camp and sought out Taliban… to join them. We were in a defensive position at OP Mest, where your focus is to keep people out. He knew where the blind spots were to slip out and that's what he did. It was supposed to be a 4-day mission but turned into several months of active searching. Everyone was spun up to find this guy. News outlets all over the country were putting out false information. It was hard to see, especially when we knew the truth about what happened and we lost good men trying to find him. PFC Matthew Michael Martinek, Staff Sgt. Kurt Robert Curtiss, SSG Clayton Bowen, PFC Morris Walker, SSG Michael Murphrey, 2LT Darryn Andrews, were all KIA from our unit who died looking for Bergdahl. Many others from various units were wounded or killed while actively looking for Bergdahl. Fighting Increased. IEDs and enemy ambushes increased. The Taliban knew that we were looking for him in high numbers and our movements were predictable. Because of Bergdahl, more men were out in danger, and more attacks on friendly camps and positions were conducted while we were out looking for him. His actions impacted the region more than anyone wants to admit. There is also no way to know what he told the Taliban: Our movements, locations, tactics, weak points on vehicles and other things for the enemy to exploit are just a few possibilities. The Government knows full well that he deserted. It looks bad and is a good propaganda piece for the Taliban. They refuse to acknowledge it. Hell they even promoted him to Sergeant which makes me sick. I feel for his family who only want their son/brother back. They don’t know the truth, or refuse to acknowledge it as well. What he did affected his family and his whole town back home, who don’t know the truth. Either way what matters is that good men died because of him. He has been lying on all those Taliban videos about everything since his “capture”. If he ever returns, he should be tried under the UCMJ for being a deserter and judged for what he did. Bergdahl is not a hero, he is not a soldier or an Infantryman. He failed his brothers. Now, sons and daughters are growing up without their fathers who died for him and he will have to face that truth someday."
My take is he deserted his post in combat. Court Martial and Leavenworth. And since when do we negotiate with terrorists?"""

The following pretty much sums up my feelings on the Bergdahl issue. “President Obama did this to himself (and to Bergdahl). This beautifully educated man, who never tires of letting us know how much smarter he is than the rest of us, never stopped to consider that our and their families might have been offended by their commander-in-chief staging a love-fest at the White House to celebrate trading five top terrorists for one deserter and featuring not the families of those soldiers (at least six of them) who died in the efforts to find and free Bergdahl, but, instead, giving a starring role on the international stage to Pa Taliban, parent of a deserter and a creature of dubious sympathies (that beard on pops ain’t a tribute to ZZ Top). How do you say “outrageous insult to our vets” in Pashto?”