Bergdahl says Returning to U.S. was as Tough as Captivity

[WTF2008]

So the guy volunteers to serve his country, fully believing that he is physically and mentally capable. The Army agrees and sends him over, despite the dramatic issue he had before which should have prevented him. Goes to Afghanistan, has some crazy and lunatic idea to wonder off into the desert....spends 5years as a prisoner of the Taliban...and you guys still want him to be severely punished.

Jesus, you guys need to grow up. If you want really want to blame someone, blame the Army. Should of had better protocols for weeding people like Bergdahl out of enlistment. The guy did 5 years with the Taliban.....move on.

 

[Orgasmo]

Six soldiers died searching for Bergdahl.

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

Stop spreading false information. There was an increase in Taliban activity all across Afghanistan during that time. CNN attributed the combat deaths in the province he disappeared in to him.

That second claim is hardening into a news media narrative. CNN has reported in scrolling headlines that six soldiers died looking for Sergeant Bergdahl after senior American military officials say he wandered off his base. The Daily Beast published an essay by a former member of Sergeant Bergdahl’s battalion, Nathan Bradley Bethea, who linked the search to the deaths of eight soldiers whom he named. “He has finally returned,” Mr. Bethea wrote. “Those men will never have the opportunity.”

But a review of casualty reports and contemporaneous military logs from the Afghanistan war shows that the facts surrounding the eight deaths are far murkier than definitive — even as critics of Sergeant Bergdahl contend that every American combat death in Paktika Province in the months after he disappeared, from July to September 2009, was his fault.

All across Afghanistan, that period was a time of ferocious fighting. President Obama had decided to send a surge of additional troops to improve security, but they had not yet arrived. In Paktika, the eight deaths during that period were up from five in the same three months the previous year. Across Afghanistan, 122 Americans died in that period, up from 58 in 2008.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/04/world/middleeast/can-gi-be-tied-to-6-lost-lives-facts-are-murky.html\\

In a Thursday post on the podcast’s website, producer and host Sarah Koenig writes that her staff examined newly available copies of the Army’s internal investigations into the deaths of six soldiers in Bergdahl’s unit in August and September 2009. Claims spread online and in the media that the six — Morris Walker, Clayton Bowen, Kurt Curtiss, Matthew Martinek, Darryn Andrews and Michael Murphrey — died while searching for Bergdahl, and might have lived had Bergdahl not left his post.

That’s apparently not the case, Koenig writes. She says the investigation reports for all six make no mention of Bergdahl nor of the shorthand code for a missing soldier (”DUSTWUN”).

http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/military/bowe-bergdahl/article106476977.html#storylink=cpy

 

[WTF2008]

Sorry, thought this was about Boyle and not Bergdahl.

 

[WTF2008]

I

 

[Phr3121]

Stop spreading false information. There was an increase in Taliban activity all across Afghanistan during that time. CNN attributed the combat deaths in the province he disappeared in to him.

False information? What makes your information true? You missed my earlier post. There are stories pro-and-con the deaths. The verdict is still out.

 

[ToochMcCrotch]

Oh, there is way more to this story than you probably know. Bergdahl, as a private, was already making negative statements about U.S. policy in Afghanistan and how fucked up the U.S. Army was. This while in uniform in front of other troops. While smoking his pipe, he would argue as to how he knew how to better run U.S. foreign policy and the U.S. Army. He was disenchanted with the war and ashamed to be an American. He planned to either join the Taliban or walk to Pakistan. His 5 year imprisonment is on him. He still needs to account for his service to the U.S.

Yeah, your idea is brilliant. Let's let privates in the U.S. Army say and do as they please. Why follow orders or the UCMJ? What kind of example would that set? As a soldier you just don't quit because you don't like your job or chain-of-command. He is not working for a company where he can just walk away when he pleases because he is unhappy with his job. Indeed, blame the U.S. Army, maybe Obama, Clinton, or Trump. God forbid anything should be Bergdahl's fault.

Mm I was aware of that. Shocker, a US soldier not happy with US military policy. I mean that's crazy, I've never heard of a soldier badmouthing the military.
Your second paragraph is great example of a straw man.

 

[ocfightfan]

Then he can go the fuck back.

 

[DoomPatrol]

Because you keep hawking the same bullshit that Serial did. People absolutely died when operating in forwards areas to which they had pushed to for no other reason to be closer to an area they though Bergdahl might be.

Serials entire defense was that: 1) no one was ever killed while on an op or assignment who's express purpose or title was "rescue Bergdahl", 2) and they kept referring to one random E-7 who threw up the "war is hell" line suggesting that people die out there all the time and who's really to say what the cause was?

The bottom line is that you had units redeployed/positioned into areas expressly for Bergdahl, and people died there. You can't honestly give that cunt a pass then.

Where did you hear that they only pushed into those areas to look for Bergdahl? That's not what's I've gathered from research. I've seen nothing that says we only went in those areas for Bergdahl. By then, we already assumed he was in Pakistan.


Command Sgt. Maj. Ken Wolf, who was the highest enlisted of their
Brigade clearly stated it wasn't from looking from Bergdahl. He's not some random E-7. He's their unit's top enlisted soldier. He would know better than damn near anyone else what is the cause of those deaths. Those deaths occurred two months after the search for Bergdahl ended.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/...or-no-troops-died-searching-for-bergdahl.html

 

[cincymma79]

Pardon?

I posted an article from stripes

 

[cincymma79]

Oh, there is way more to this story than you probably know. Bergdahl, as a private, was already making negative statements about U.S. policy in Afghanistan and how fucked up the U.S. Army was. This while in uniform in front of other troops. While smoking his pipe, he would argue as to how he knew how to better run U.S. foreign policy and the U.S. Army. He was disenchanted with the war and ashamed to be an American. He planned to either join the Taliban or walk to Pakistan. His 5 year imprisonment is on him. He still needs to account for his service to the U.S.

Yeah, your idea is brilliant. Let's let privates in the U.S. Army say and do as they please. Why follow orders or the UCMJ? What kind of example would that set? As a soldier you just don't quit because you don't like your job or chain-of-command. He is not working for a company where he can just walk away when he pleases because he is unhappy with his job. Indeed, blame the U.S. Army, maybe Obama, Clinton, or Trump. God forbid anything should be Bergdahl's fault.

He was also kicked out of the coast guard for being nuts. He should never have been allowed to join

 

[DoomPatrol]

So the guy volunteers to serve his country, fully believing that he is physically and mentally capable. The Army agrees and sends him over, despite the dramatic issue he had before which should have prevented him. Goes to Afghanistan, has some crazy and lunatic idea to wonder off into the desert....spends 5years as a prisoner of the Taliban...and you guys still want him to be severely punished.

Jesus, you guys need to grow up. If you want really want to blame someone, blame the Army. Should of had better protocols for weeding people like Bergdahl out of enlistment. The guy did 5 years with the Taliban.....move on.

My issue with this is he had the opportunity to have his concerns addressed the proper way. If he thought something was fucked up, he should have requested mast. He should have written his congressman or senator. There's several means for him to have his concerns addressed.

I don't think he wanted to walk off and go to Pakistan or join the Taliban. I honestly believe him when he says that he wanted to walk off base and go to the main fob a few miles down the road to create a DUSTWUN and bring attention to his issues. I don't think he expected to be caught by the Taliban. That said, walking off base to create a DUSTWUN is highly reckless and put countless men in danger to go look for him. Then we had to turn over several terrorists to get him home. He should spend time in an American military prison for his actions. People need to know what he did was unacceptable behavior.

I would be happy for him to receive a 20 year sentence, but only have to do like 5 years with good behavior.

 

[Phr3121]

He was also kicked out of the coast guard for being nuts. He should never have been allowed to join.

Didn't 'crazy' boy 2LT Spenser Rapone just graduate from West Point and is now assigned as an Infantry officer with the 10th Mountain Division? He should have never been allowed into West Point.

 

[sub_thug]

He was also kicked out of the coast guard for being nuts. He should never have been allowed to join

This happened back when the military was giving waivers to virtually anyone with a pulse. Bergdahl was the product of a terrible series of policy decisions.

 

[sub_thug]

Didn't 'crazy' boy 2LT Spenser Rapone just graduate from West Point and is now assigned as an Infantry officer with the 10th Mountain Division? He should have never been allowed into West Point.

He totally got in because he had a Ranger Scroll. If he didn't, he would have never been accepted.

 

[cincymma79]

Didn't 'crazy' boy 2LT Spenser Rapone just graduate from West Point and is now assigned as an Infantry officer with the 10th Mountain Division? He should have never been allowed into West Point.

Can’t answer that. No idea

 

[Phr3121]

Mm I was aware of that. Shocker, a US soldier not happy with US military policy. I mean that's crazy, I've never heard of a soldier badmouthing the military. Your second paragraph is great example of a straw man.

No 'princess', you loose individual rights when you join the military. One of them is freedom of speech to the media. Sure, a lot of soldiers complain at one time or another. They are usually the ''whiny' little bitches who can't have it their way or find the military way of life too difficult. Remember Ranger school: 'Fair is for the weak, learn to control your inner bitch'. Bergdahl went a little beyond that. Just prior to his disappearance he was already a disciplinary problem within his unit. Just read the title of this thread. He is still a soldier in the U.S. Army. You don't make a statement like that to the media. Bergdahl is the exception to the rule and thankfully part of a minority. Most soldiers who join are patriotic and want to do the right thing. They want to be proud of their actions and they want others to be proud of them.

No 'straw man', just my 2 cents on your brilliant logic. Using 'straw man' as a response doesn't really address the issue now does it?

 

[lecter]

lol what a retard

 

[Phr3121]

He totally got in because he had a Ranger Scroll. If he didn't, he would have never been accepted.

He was not a Congressional appointment to West Point. He used the second option - prior military service. He was kicked out of the Ranger Battalion with an 'RFS' - Released for Standards. That alone, I would think, should have kept him out of West Point.

 

[Rod1]

Its standard procedure for traitors to claim being the victim.

Worked for the Confederates like a charm.

 

[sub_thug]

My issue with this is he had the opportunity to have his concerns addressed the proper way. If he thought something was fucked up, he should have requested mast. He should have written his congressman or senator. There's several means for him to have his concerns addressed.

I don't think he wanted to walk off and go to Pakistan or join the Taliban. I honestly believe him when he says that he wanted to walk off base and go to the main fob a few miles down the road to create a DUSTWUN and bring attention to his issues. I don't think he expected to be caught by the Taliban. That said, walking off base to create a DUSTWUN is highly reckless and put countless men in danger to go look for him. Then we had to turn over several terrorists to get him home. He should spend time in an American military prison for his actions. People need to know what he did was unacceptable behavior.

I would be happy for him to receive a 20 year sentence, but only have to do like 5 years with good behavior.

I absolutely think he went to join the Taliban. He left his weapon on his bunk, wasn't traveling on known roads or trails, or anything that would lead me to believe that he wanted to be found by Americans. I think he was a snot-nosed kid who thought that he knew everything, and he thought it would be "anti-establishment" and "cool" to join the enemy because he believed some stupid nonsense about their legitimacy, how they were misrepresented by the American media, or some other bullshit. And when he was captured and got his ass kicked by them a few times, he quickly realized, "Oh, I have just made the biggest mistake of my life." He was just an exceptionally stupid 19-year-old. And now, he'll spend potentially the rest of his life in prison. I think people are giving him far too much credit for why he was doing what he did.