US soldier freed from captivity in Afghanistan

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Israel engages in prisoner exchanges all the time, and this was not a kidnapping victim but a battlefield captured soldier. Very different things and not just a semantic distinction.

A deserter is not a battlefield soldier

[Jacque67 7,328]

I don't think deserters should be shot. Some people aren't cut out to be soldiers and they should be weeded out if possible during training.

I think if I had been there I would have done a runner...

[OriZ 3,157]

Israel engages in prisoner exchanges all the time, and this was not a kidnapping victim but a battlefield captured soldier. Very different things and not just a semantic distinction.

That is exactly my point. Israel engages in prisoner exchanges all the time - BAD practice. Every time the price rises. What do you think will happen the next time they get an American soldier, or even civilian? Do you think they will settle for 5 prisoners? They won't. Israel is now actually trying to get rid of that decades long bad practice and put it in law that some prisoners can not be released while the US is going in the exact opposite course. Kidnapping, battlefield capture - same thing. Whether they get captured in the battle field, while taking a stroll, while going AWOL, or in their homes - there is no distinction when you know you can get something in return.

[UncleBeer 244]

Afghan officials openly admitting that the five freed Gitma prisoners will most certainly return to fight:

“They will definitely go back to fight, if health-wise they are able to go,” said a top official at Afghanistan’s spy agency, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the topic.

“They will be very dangerous people, because they have connections with regional and international terror organizations around the world.”

[GandD 5,966]

Yeah "HOPE" is pretty worthless these days huh? Glad I didnt for for it.

Angry comment.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

He went AWOL, after sending his belongings home to the US. He was not captured on the battlefield.

Really? I don't recall a military tribunal conviction for your allegation. I guess you're not big on due process?

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Fellow soldiers call Bowe Bergdahl a deserter, not a hero

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/01/us/bergdahl-deserter-or-hero/index.html

CNN) -- The sense of pride expressed by officials of the Obama administration at the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is not shared by many of those who served with him, veterans and soldiers who call him a deserter whose "selfish act" ended up costing the lives of better men.
"I was pissed off then, and I am even more so now with everything going on," said former Sgt. Matt Vierkant, a member of Bergdahl's platoon when he went missing on June 30, 2009. "Bowe Bergdahl deserted during a time of war, and his fellow Americans lost their lives searching for him."
Vierkant said Bergdahl needs to not only acknowledge his actions publicly but face a military trial for desertion under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
A reporter asked Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Sunday whether Bergdahl had left his post without permission or deserted -- and, if so, whether he would be punished. Hagel didn't answer directly. "Our first priority is assuring his well-being and his health and getting him reunited with his family," he said. "Other circumstances that may develop and questions, those will be dealt with later."
Photos: Americans detained abroad Photos: Americans detained abroad
Photos: Released Guantanamo Taliban detainees arrive in Qatar Photos: Released Guantanamo Taliban detainees arrive in Qatar
Guantanamo detainees swapped Guantanamo detainees swapped
Bergdahl swap was only seconds long
After 5 years, what's next for Bergdahl?
Following his release from five years of captivity in Afghanistan on Saturday, Bergdahl was transferred to a military hospital in Germany.
A senior Defense official said Bergdahl's "reintegration process" will include "time for him to tell his story, decompress, and to reconnect with his family through telephone calls and video conferences."
Said Bergdahl's former squad leader, Greg Leatherman: "I'm pleased to see him returned safely. From experience, I hope that he receives adequate reintegration counseling. I believe that an investigation should take place as soon as health care professionals deem him fit to endure one."
Another senior Defense official said Bergdahl will not likely face any punishment. "Five years is enough," he told CNN on condition of anonymity.
Questions surround the circumstances of Bergdahl's disappearance. Conflicting details have since emerged about how the militants managed to capture Bergdahl. Published accounts have varied widely, from claims that he walked off the post to that he was grabbed from a latrine.
According to firsthand accounts from soldiers in his platoon, Bergdahl, while on guard duty, shed his weapons and walked off the observation post with nothing more than a compass, a knife, water, a digital camera and a diary.
At least six soldiers were killed in subsequent searches for Bergdahl, and many soldiers in his platoon said attacks seemed to increase against the United States in Paktika province in the days and weeks following his disappearance.
Many of Bergdahl's fellow troops -- from the seven or so who knew him best in his squad to the larger group that made up the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division -- told CNN that they signed nondisclosure agreements agreeing to never share any information about Bergdahl's disappearance and the efforts to recapture him. Some were willing to dismiss that document in hopes that the truth would come out about a soldier who they now fear is being hailed as a hero, while the men who lost their lives looking for him are ignored.
Idaho hometown prepares for homecoming
Many are flocking to social media, such as the Facebook page "Bowe Bergdahl is NOT a hero," where they share stories detailing their resentment. A number of comments on his battalion's Facebook page prompted the moderator to ask for more respect to be shown.
Bergdahl's parents emotional address Exchanged prisoners' Taliban ties Lawmaker on Bergdahl: Obama violated law Who did U.S. swap Bergdahl for?
"I challenge any one of you who label him a traitor to spend 5 years in captivity with the Taliban or Haqqani, then come back and accuse him again. Whatever his intent when he walked away or was captured, he has more than paid for it."
E-mails reported by the late Michael Hastings in Rolling Stone in 2012 reveal what Bergdahl's fellow infantrymen learned within days of his disappearance: He told people that he no longer supported the U.S. effort in Afghanistan.
"The future is too good to waste on lies," he wrote to his parents. "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. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be American. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting."
Bergdahl wrote to them, "I am sorry for everything. The horror that is America is disgusting."
CNN has not independently verified the authenticity of the e-mails.
A former member of Bergdahl's squad who has yet to identify his last name publicly but goes by "Cody" tweeted this weekend that before he disappeared, Bergdahl once told him, "If deployment is lame, I'm going to get lost in the Mountains and make my way to China."
Leatherman told CNN that Bergdahl "always looked at the mountains in the distance and talked of 'seeing what's on the other side.' "
Cody noted in his Twitter recollections a story that others from Blackfoot Company relay. While soldiers were searching for Bergdahl, a platoon "came upon some children, they asked him have they seen an American. The children said 'yes, he was crawling on his belly through weeds and acting funny a while ago,' " according to Cody.
Bergdahl's parents: 'It isn't over'
The platoon went to the village where the children said the American had gone. "Villagers said an American did come through the area and was wanting water and someone who spoke English," Cody shared.
Former Pfc. Jose Baggett, 27, of Chicago, was also in Blackfoot Company and said he was close to two men "killed because of his (Bergdahl's) actions."
"He walked off," Baggett told CNN. "He left his guard post. Nobody knows if he defected or he's a traitor or he was kidnapped. What I do know is, he was there to protect us, and instead he decided to defer from America and go and do his own thing. I don't know why he decided to do that, but we spend so much of our resources, and some of those resources were soldiers' lives."
Many soldiers on the ground at the time said insurgents were able to take advantage of the intense search for Bergdahl.
"A huge thing in-country is not building patterns. Well when you are looking for a person everyday that creates a pattern. While searching for him, ambushes and IEDs picked up tremendously. Enemy knew we would be coming. IEDs started being placed more effectively in the coming weeks. Ambushes were more calculated, cover and concealment was used," Cody tweeted.
On August 18, 2009, Staff Sgt. Clayton Bowen and Pfc. Morris Walker were killed by an IED in the search for Bergdahl. Staff Sgt. Kurt Curtiss was killed on August 26; 2nd Lt. Darryn Andrews and Pfc. Matthew Michael Martinek were killed after being attacked in Yahya Khail District on September 4; Staff Sgt. Michael Murphrey was killed September 5 by an IED at the Forward Operating Base, Sharana.
Moreover, other operations were put on hold while the search for Bergdahl was made a top priority, according to officers who served in Afghanistan in that time. Manpower and assets -- such as scarce surveillance drones and helicopters -- were redirected to the hunt. The lack of assets is one reason the closure of a dangerous combat outpost, COP Keating, was delayed. Eight soldiers were killed at COP Keating before it was ultimately closed.
One soldier with the 509th Regiment, a sister unit of the 501st, told CNN that after Bergdahl disappeared, the U.S. Army essentially was told to lock down the entire province of Paktika. He described sitting in the middle of a field with his platoon, vulnerable, with capabilities and personnel mismanaged throughout the region. Different platoons ran out of water, food and ammunition.
Two mortarmen -- Pvt. Aaron Fairbairn and Pfc. Justin Casillas -- were killed in a July 4, 2009, attack.
"It was unbelievable," the soldier said. "All because of the selfish act of one person. The amount of animosity (toward him) is nothing like you've ever seen before."
That Bergdahl was freed in an exchange for five detainees at Guantanamo Bay is a further source of consternation.
"I don't understand why we're trading prisoners at Gitmo for somebody who deserted during a time of war, which is an act of treason," Vierkant said.
Who are the Gitmo detainees?

[JohnR! 5,495]

I say good for him and his family, happy for them, really...but bad for the future. The one thing that prevented many more kidnaps of Americans was that everyone knew the US does not negotiate, so there is no point to it. Now that that has changed, they will have more incentive to kidnap more people and expect the price to rise each time. It used to be the same with Israel - the first agreement decades ago was only a few for one. The last one was over 1,000 for one. And inbetween it kept rising and rising. And while in Israel they are actually moving in the direction now of putting it into law that certain inmates can never be released even if the politicians think it is a good idea - it's horrible to see the US move from what was actually a good policy that was revered in other places around the world towards one where blackmail is going to be rewarded.

There is a silver lining in all this. Instead of getting blown up to pieces by IEDs the other side may engage in more productive warfare in an attempt to capture American soldiers alive. I am sure if you were to ask the families of our men and women in uniform they would second the latter.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

There is a silver lining in all this. Instead of getting blown up to pieces by IEDs the other side may engage in more productive warfare in an attempt to capture American soldiers alive. I am sure if you were to ask the families of our men and women in uniform they would second the latter.

So you think encouraging our enemy to capture mo of our men and hold them hostage by releasing high value detainees is a good thing? And you think the families of our soldiers will agree.?

SMH

[GandD 5,966]

Doesn't hostage negotiation with terror groups give them a legitimacy status that they do not deserve?

[JohnR! 5,495]

Really? I don't recall a military tribunal conviction for your allegation. I guess you're not big on due process?

There wasn't one yet, so anything of the kind is pure speculation.

Doesn't hostage negotiation with terror groups give them a legitimacy status that they do not deserve?

It also gives us the opportunity to bring back alive one of our soldiers, in this case. I am not saying it is ideal to be sure, but again, he is alive.

[GandD 5,966]

It also gives us the opportunity to bring back alive one of our soldiers, in this case. I am not saying it is ideal to be sure, but again, he is alive.

Obviously this is not a bad thing. Not to sound inhumane here but he is a soldier, not a civilian. It unfortunately comes with the job I would think.

[JohnR! 5,495]

Obviously this is not a bad thing. Not to sound inhumane here but he is a soldier, not a civilian. It unfortunately comes with the job I would think.

I am ambivalent about this whole thing. You ought to know what you're getting yourself into, no doubt there, so I wonder - and that is all we can really do - as to why this was done now. It will be interesting to find out when this finally gets declassified.

[GandD 5,966]

I am ambivalent about this whole thing. You ought to know what you're getting yourself into, no doubt there, so I wonder - and that is all we can really do - as to why this was done now. It will be interesting to find out when this finally gets declassified.

Yeah and I'm not sure of the "risk" the released hostages posed/pose. I would hope the "high-profile" description was exaggerated.

[JohnR! 5,495]

Yeah and I'm not sure of the "risk" the released hostages posed/pose. I would hope the "high-profile" description was exaggerated.

Also consider that at this point we must have extracted all the information we could from them.