Patterico's Pontifications

6/3/2014

From the “Don’t Do Stupid Shit” Files: NYT Story Paints Bergdahl as Deserter

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:27 am

If the details of this story are true, Obama’s decision to trade five dangerous Taliban terrorists for Bergdahl is inexplicable:

Sometime after midnight on June 30, 2009, Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl left behind a note in his tent saying he had become disillusioned with the Army, did not support the American mission in Afghanistan and was leaving to start a new life. He slipped off the remote military outpost in Paktika Province on the border with Pakistan and took with him a soft backpack, water, knives, a notebook and writing materials, but left behind his body armor and weapons — startling, given the hostile environment around his outpost.

That account, provided by a former senior military officer briefed on the investigation into the private’s disappearance, is part of a more complicated picture emerging of the capture of a soldier whose five years as a Taliban prisoner influenced high-level diplomatic negotiations, brought in foreign governments, and ended with him whisked away on a helicopter by American commandos.

Allahpundit asks: “Does the Army have the note Bergdahl left before leaving?” My question: did Obama know about that note before making the trade? And did he know about this?

Mr. [Cody] Full, then a specialist in the platoon, said he and other platoon members grew increasingly bitter at the time they were spending looking for Sergeant Bergdahl. “He had sent all his belongings home — his computer, personal items,” said Mr. Full, now 25.

The platoon members had good reason to be bitter. Indeed, questions have been raised about whether the search for Bergdahl led to the deaths of soldiers:

The furious search for Sergeant Bergdahl, his critics say, led to the deaths of at least two soldiers and possibly six others in the area. Pentagon officials say those charges are unsubstantiated and are not supported by a review of a database of casualties in the Afghan war.

“Yes, I’m angry,” Joshua Cornelison, a former medic in Sergeant Bergdahl’s platoon, said in an interview on Monday arranged by Republican strategists. “Everything that we did in those days was to advance the search for Bergdahl. If we were doing some mission and there was a reliable report that Bergdahl was somewhere, our orders were that we were to quit that mission and follow that report.”

Oh — let’s not forget that Susan Rice said Bergdahl “served the United States with honor and distinction.”

She also said he was “American prisoner of war captured on the battlefield.”

Contacted by patterico.com for a comment about Rice’s statement, Tommy Vietor replied: “Dude, that was like, two days ago.”

How’s that “Don’t Do Stupid Shit” principle looking these days, Mr. Obama?

UPDATE: Wow. The Army knew where Bergdahl was, according to this story — but the decision was made not to risk special forces to save him, because he was a deserter.

UPDATE x2: As a reminder, here is the price we paid:

Comments (169)

169 Responses to “From the “Don’t Do Stupid Shit” Files: NYT Story Paints Bergdahl as Deserter”

Oh — and as far as the desire of the platoon members to see Bergdahl court-martialed for desertion, you can forget that. There’s applying military principles, and then there’s optics. And the optics will win out. Guaranteed.
Patterico (9c670f) — 6/3/2014 @ 7:28 am
It appears that Berghdal served his country with an even lower level honor and distinction than Susan Rice has served the people of hers.
ropelight (334856) — 6/3/2014 @ 7:42 am
It’ll be interesting to see what comes out of his debriefing. I’m sure he’s being “checked” in a nice guarded hospital room in Germany right now.
Xmas (f65ded) — 6/3/2014 @ 7:45 am
How’s that “Don’t Do Stupid Shit” principle looking these days, Mr. Obama?

He knows just how truly “stupid” and sh—y this particular matter is, which illustrates how grotesquely diabolical he is. I’d not have phrased things that way in the past, and originally thought people who characterized Obama in such harsh terms tended to be fringe rightwingers. But as things turn out, I was the one who was rather naive.
Mark (99b8fd) — 6/3/2014 @ 7:49 am
Xmas,

You seriously think he will be court-martialed after Susan Rice said he served with honor and distinction?
Patterico (9c670f) — 6/3/2014 @ 7:53 am
And on the ubiquitous theme of schtoopid but evil:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/03/us-gm-recall-idUSKBN0EE01920140603

Fix what is irreparably broken and pour more billions into a black hole. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

WTFU Amerikkka, burn it down.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 7:59 am
Taking your logic to its conclusion, Patterico, Bergdahl should get a medal to back Rice’s story. But I think to most an honorable discharge would be a travesty.
Kevin M (b357ee) — 6/3/2014 @ 8:09 am
Pat @4, this is why I say the developments over the next few months will be interesting. Because we’re talking irreconcilable differences. If the rumors are true, there must be a court martial. The troops (God love them) are sick and tired of being told to shut up.

So the brass has to decide who to break faith with. The troops, or Obama.

I realize it may sound like some sort of big talk when I say I wouldn’t eve trade 5 taliban commanders for me, but consider. I never thought of myself as a potential hostage, for whom any trade was worth it. It is contradictory to consider me a defender of the country, and then for any administration to trade five extremely dangerous individuals for my life when I knew I was risking my life in the first place.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSob=c&GSlh=1&GRid=74715857&

…The Japanese pilot elected to crash his plane into the carrier and inflict as much damage as possible. Although the anti aircraft fire at the enemy plane was intense the plane continued it’s descent towards the carrier. It was then that Gaido realized the imminent danger the ship was in and jumped into a Scout Bomber Dauntless dive-bomber parked on the flight deck, and manned the .30 caliber machine gun. Gaido’s relentless fire at the bomber eventually caused the plane to spin at a ninety degree angle, causing it’s wing to slice in half the Scout Bomber Dauntless Dive-Bomber Gaido was firing from. Gaido’s shipmates later said that it was Gaido’s fire that brought the plane down, thus potentially saving the Enterprise from serious damage. Several months later during the Battle of Midway Gaido was the gunner in Ensign O’Flaherty’s Dauntless. The Dauntless ran out of gas after the gas tanks were hit by enemy fire and O’Flaherty had to ditch the plane in the Ocean. Although O’Flaherty and Gaido were able to safely ditch the plane and get into a life raft, they were captured by the Japanese. While prisoners they were interrogated and tortured. After two weeks as prisoners they were bound with ropes, to which weighted fuel cans were tied and thrown from the destroyer into the ocean and drowned…

I’m a big boy. I knew what I was getting into.
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/3/2014 @ 8:15 am
Government and hand-in-glove MFM, your shepherds.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-02/destroyer-fake-recoveries-unintended-consequences

Well and truly hosed, ye are.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 8:16 am
We have a previous example to compare to the statement “Five years is enough.”

A United States Army judge on Wednesday accepted two guilty pleas by Charles Robert Jenkins, a 64-year-old United States sergeant who disappeared into the mists of the cold war almost 40 years ago.

Breaking a silence of decades, Sergeant Jenkins’s North Carolina drawl filled a military courtroom here as he pleaded guilty to charges of desertion to North Korea and of aiding the enemy. But he pleaded not guilty to encouraging American soldiers to desert and encouraging disloyalty. The judge accepted the pleas, and the latter two charges were dropped.

Another Obama triumph, depending on your point of view. At least The DailyKos has shut up about him . That may be a bad sign for Obama.
Mike K (cd7278) — 6/3/2014 @ 8:17 am
At least The LA Times is still on board . That should make Obama feel better.
Mike K (cd7278) — 6/3/2014 @ 8:20 am
Obama’s actions make total sense if his desired end state can not be reached without overcoming existing executive branch, congressional and public resistance. We can scratch our heads wondering how in the world he can think this is a good idea or we can openly acknowledge he knows exactly what he’s doing. A President who returns command leadership to the enemy DURING combat is not on the side of the forces serving under his command.
crazy (d60cb0) — 6/3/2014 @ 8:22 am
well they will put up a good show, but the verdict is already predetermined;

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/06/obama-us-government-not-seeking-to-punish-bergdahl-as-a-deserter/
narciso (3fec35) — 6/3/2014 @ 8:23 am
7. The last time the Pentagon suffered an air attack it was Al Qaeda. The next time, friendly fire.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 8:28 am
narciso, I don’t see this going where the Obama administration wants it to go. The troops are not the court toadies they’ve been waiting for. In fact, I expect Valerie Jarrett to be downright disappointed.
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/3/2014 @ 8:30 am
You seriously think he will be court-martialed after Susan Rice said he served with honor and distinction?

Not while 0 remains President. “Honor and distinction” depends on your POV. You’re seeing this difference with the 0 and Rice vPOV s. the troops’ POV. I leave it to the reader to discover my POV.
htom (412a17) — 6/3/2014 @ 8:31 am
File this one under the heading, “Ripping the fabric of society.”
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/3/2014 @ 8:39 am
Wow, mike, did they bring Rutten back, did Abcarian write the editorial?
narciso (3fec35) — 6/3/2014 @ 8:43 am
“Pentagon officials say those charges are unsubstantiated and are not supported by a review of a database of casualties in the Afghan war.”

Does that happen to be the same database used by the Veterans Administration?
Another Anon (f43943) — 6/3/2014 @ 8:58 am
There is something seriously wrong here and even many of the Obots in the media see it. There is no way the Republicans can be blamed for this. The idiotic WH spin continues to make it worse not better. This president’s actions and lawlessness are starting to scare people who have stayed in his corner thus far–while reinforcing it for the folks who have been on to him for a while. Mary Jo Kopekne kept Teddy from being president. Obama’s already president but using flawed Bergdahl to facilitate the release of Taliban commanders (which clearly was his main goal) is having the effect of exposing the president’s lack of character and treachery in unexpected ways.
elissa (76d201) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:03 am
Of course Obama approves of Bergdahl’s conduct; of course Susan Rice calls it honorable and distinguished:

In just the last month, Obama’s West Point speech and now the Bergdahl swap have made it clear to ambitious, aggressive patriotic Americans that they probably don’t have much future in the US military, which after all damages the environment and wastes money better spent on social programs. All part of the fundamental transformation, folks.

The Bergdahl trade also helped further Obama’s foreign policy to reset America’s position in the world and fundamentally alter its relationship with Islam.
Peter B (cf08ad) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:05 am
Peoples seem to think they’ll get their money back:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-01/the-unstoppable-100-trillion-bond-market-renders-models-useless.html

Ph*ckwits the lot.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:21 am
20. I am not totally convinced but I certainly approve of your message.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:23 am
Some links (let’s see if they work here -FireFox, and Windows 7 I believe)

How Obama Convinced His Spies to Support the Taliban Prisoner Release

For fallen soldiers’ families, Bergdahl release stirs resentment

Taliban claim captured U.S. solider has converted to Islam and is teaching its fighters bomb-making skills

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1305184/Bowe-Bergdahl-Taliban-claim-captured-U-S-solider-teaching-fighters-bomb-making-skills.html#ixzz33auEsoHw
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:27 am
After Bengazhi, Rice must be considered damaged goods. The fact that HteWon must use her again, and in the same role, suggests that he may be scrapping the bottom of the barrel.
bobathome (5ccbd8) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:30 am
I’ve heard stuff about how Bergdhal and his father are speaking Arabic???
Bergdhal would have had no one to speak Arabic with in Afghanistan, unless it was someone pretty high up, it has been observed.
????
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:30 am
I realize it may sound like some sort of big talk when I say I wouldn’t eve trade 5 taliban commanders for me, but consider. I never thought of myself as a potential hostage, for whom any trade was worth it. It is contradictory to consider me a defender of the country, and then for any administration to trade five extremely dangerous individuals for my life when I knew I was risking my life in the first place.

After the Gilad fiasco, it was reported that Israeli soldiers going into the Gaza strip were told to kill themselves rather than be captured, because “we will not have a Gilad Shalit 2”.
Milhouse (b95258) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:33 am
yes, steyn pointed that out, Poppa Bergdahl had speeches from Awlaki, and another popular Salafi, who the T-boys were fans of,on his Youtube account,
narciso (3fec35) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:37 am
Milhouse @27, that’s a disgrace if true.
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:49 am
If the details of this story are true, Obama’s decision to trade five dangerous Taliban terrorists for Bergdahl is inexplicable:

No, there is nothing inexplicable about it. At least somebody in the administration had to have known about this guy’s tendencies, since he was being investigated before he disappeared. And how do you explain his father’s going full-Taliban at the White House?

Assuming the president is not kept completely in the dark over stuff like this, you can come up with only one conclusion: maybe the president is not the “good man” our host has portrayed him to be on a number of times. Maybe that whole “fundamentally transform the United States of America” thing really was true after all.
I Callahan (99f863) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:50 am
Can an observant Jew be ordered to kill himself?
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:50 am
bobathome (5ccbd8) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:30 am

After Bengazhi, Rice must be considered damaged goods. The fact that HteWon must use her again, and in the same role, suggests that he may be scrapping the bottom of the barrel.

No, he doesn’t understand that she is damaged goods.

Maybe not Jay Carney either. He was still giving a press briefing yesterday.

The New York Times story Saturday, as a matter of fact, had said it was announced then that he was being replaced then because his deputy was going to go with President Obama to Europe. It still sounds accelerated.

It was maybe Jay Carney who wanted more to quit.
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:52 am
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:50 am

Can an observant Jew be ordered to kill himself?

It’s a good question if this story is precisely true, and if the chief Rabbi of the army approved. There might be some half reasons.

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111839/jewish/The-Four-Captives.htm

…On sailed Ibn Rumahis to Spain. There was Rabbenu Moshe left now of his four great captives, with his wife and son Enoch.

Rabbenu Moshe had hardly recovered from his harrowing experience of falling into captivity, when another blow struck hard at him. He lost his dearly beloved wife. It happened like this. Rabbenu Moshe’s wife was a very fair woman, and her beauty was surpassed only by her great virtue and modesty. Now, the fierce pirate wanted to take her away. He offered her all his riches and spoils, and promised her that she should be the queen of the seas. Whilst Ibn Rumahis was describing to her the “glorious” future that awaited her, she asked her husband, in Hebrew, whether she would have a place in the world to come if she ended her life with her own hands in order to escape the brute. Rabbenu Moshe answered her unhesitatingly, quoting the words of the Psalmist (68:23), “G‑d said . . . I will bring back from the depths of the sea . . .” Immediately she jumped overboard and was drowned.

This tragedy was a dreadful blow to the now widowed rabbi and his orphaned son, but they were proud of her, and it gave them courage to endure their troubles with real Jewish courage and faith.

He probably didn’t expect her to do this.
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 6/3/2014 @ 9:57 am
Stupid is as Stupid does.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:02 am
if Chuck Hagel was really so eager to get this guy back, and all reports indicate that he was, then we have to at least consider the possibility that Bowe is actually a woman trapped in a man’s body

Leave no tranny behind, that’s our DoD.
happyfeet (8ce051) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:02 am
Between Light and Dark, Truth and Falsehood, Health and Illness, there is no room for compromise.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:04 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WF6irnzAiI

Because, white privilege.
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:04 am
“maybe the president is not the “good man” our host has portrayed him to be on a number of times.”

I Callahan – Yaaaaawn. Do you mean when our host was explaining differences of political opinion to his children and dishonest commenters and bloggers privileged his intent and wildly distorted his words?

Is that what you mean?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:08 am
The USS Gonzalez, flat out, with a bone in her teeth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYtL2c8Ykag

Apprapos of nothing.
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:09 am
i for one, think we need to empty out Gitmo, and send all the prisoners there home.

via air, and let them out ~10K’ AGL.

because i’m a giver.
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:13 am
good point Mr. red with all the terror attacks food stamp is inviting we’re gonna need more room
happyfeet (8ce051) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:15 am
Stupid, it burns, or not.

http://www.jammiewf.com/2014/obama-seeks-death-blow-to-economy-with-absurd-carbon-proposal/

Things are coming to a head, presto.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:17 am
Gotta back daley here. What do you want? To win the last war?
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:18 am
even worse Mr feets, i figure Ear Leader will need the space for people who insult islime…

we need to meet for tacos before i disappear. 😉
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:18 am
Bergdhal would have had no one to speak Arabic with in Afghanistan, unless it was someone pretty high up, it has been observed.
????

Some knowledge of Arabic is required in Islam, for the fundamental prayers, and learning to read the entire Koran in Arabic* is highly recommended. It would depend on the quality of students from the madrassas the Taliban recruited is my guess.

I would not put too much weight into Bergdahl going out of his way to learn Arabic, Pashto, Urdu, etc. The military has actively recruited speakers of those languages since the declaration of the GWOT. (And along with the language you often get the ethnicity and the religion, too.)

*I’ve read that people have suffered the fate of William Tyndale for translating the Koran into other languages.
nk (dbc370) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:21 am
yes yes Mr. red this is the summer

i might could be disappearing myself, but probably not til early next year or so, if then

i may take another job here and put some monies away so i can take another big road trip
happyfeet (8ce051) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:23 am
file under “road apples don’t fall far from the horse’s a55”
the Jawas have been busy…
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:25 am
but where does one find this legendary “j*b” thingies here in #Failifornia, that you can have two, or is that just you exerting your white privilege?

O:)
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:26 am
If I wrote a screenplay based on America’s first anti-American president and based it on all the true stories coming out of the Obama administration, it would be rejected as “too over the top.”
CrustyB (69f730) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:32 am
oh i quit my last one mostly and I’m gonna take the summer to think about what i want to do next

yeah it’s by no means certain i can get a job here, but i might give that a go come fall, mostly cause i don’t want to leave my orthodontist

then I’m a move to a no income tax state

i can’t keep shoveling monies into the sacramento furnaces for no reason
happyfeet (8ce051) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:34 am
Breaking News… Obama has just designated Idaho as the 58th state.
Colonel Haiku (5f5b8b) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:36 am
Bergdahl’s home-town has cancelled the Welcome Home celebration, according to Mark Steyn (filling in for Rush).
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:39 am
#52: that’s gonna leave a mark…

/pun intended.
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:42 am
Even though his home-town and vicinity has been described as an enclave of Leftists, perhaps there were just too many correct-thinking people to tolerate such a display?
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:44 am
Do you mean when our host was explaining differences of political opinion to his children and dishonest commenters and bloggers privileged his intent and wildly distorted his words? Is that what you mean?

I guess on that bearded-spock planet you live on, maybe that’s true. But in reality, that’s not what I mean, and that’s not what happened. Nice try, though.
I Callahan (99f863) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:45 am
Can an observant Jew be ordered to kill himself?

Ordered? No, and as the story made clear, this wasn’t exactly an order. But Judaism accepts suicide as legitimate if it’s to save other people’s lives, to avoid capture by a savage enemy and the likelihood of torture, or to avoid being forced into apostacy. Saul’s suicide is regarded as having been proper, and an example to be taken by others. So is Samson’s.

In this case the soldiers had seen with their own eyes how their lives were being thrown away to rescue one prisoner, and, even worse, they knew the likelihood that hundreds or thousands of terrorists would be released to ransom him, and determined that they didn’t want to be the next one for whom hundreds would be killed.
Milhouse (b95258) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:45 am
Gotta back daley here. What do you want? To win the last war?

Nope, but a mea culpa (or at least a partial one) would be nice.
I Callahan (99f863) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:47 am
interesting, but damning,read
this has the ring of truth, and it came via sources that have been reputable in the past.
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:49 am
“Nope, but a mea culpa (or at least a partial one) would be nice.”

I Callahan – Please go ahead. Nobody’s been stopping you, but I’m sure our host has not been holding his breath.

BTW, love the new nick. Not as ghey.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:57 am
More of BO’s fundamental transformation.http://www.wnd.com/2014/06/why-obama-traded-terrorists-for-deserter/
Judy Eaton (213f13) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:59 am
Mr Pink be back?
elissa (76d201) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:59 am
30. “our host has portrayed”

What am I, swiss cheese? Second to Sam the Sham I’d been hijacking threads to beat the antichrist drum for five years now.

Don’t you know who I am?
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 10:59 am
No, nor do we care.(Heh)
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:10 am
They knew a man Bo Bergdahl and he flew teh coup
He left a note
With soft backpack, some water, knives and baggy pants
He left his gun
He had to be high, musta been high
Then teh Taliban caught him
Colonel Haiku (7ce80a) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:10 am
SGT Bergdahl won’t be prosecuted. If he has any sense at all — and if he is now a Muslim, or supports the Taliban, he doesn’t — he’ll get out of the Army ASAP. If he tried to stay in, I suspect that the other soldiers would not make his continued tour of duty very pleasant.

Of course, the more probable result will be that he will be diagnosed with PTSD, receive some whopping settlement, and get his VA appointments promptly.

If he is truly the person being depicted here, life in a town in Idaho might not be particularly pleasant, either. Were I a shop owner in his hometown, and he came inside, I would tell him to take his business elsewhere.
The Army-daddy Dana (3e4784) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:12 am
Another ‘Breaking Bad’ episode:

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/06/obama-administration-we-support-new-hamas-government/

Republicans or no, a stop will be put to this horsesh*t.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:22 am
You seriously think he will be court-martialed after Susan Rice said he served with honor and distinction?

I think the military has to act like it’s considering a court-martial, or it risks being viewed as another government bureaucracy willing to sacrifice its principles in a partisan effort to bolster Obama’s reputation.
Michael (8c79bc) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:25 am
Barack Obama has finally found an American soldier he likes—one who deserted his post, and who gives public praise to the Taliban.
Elephant Stone (6a6f37) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:29 am
The real reason to do this was to ensure the Taliban 5 would be free from prosecution. No military tribunal; no War Crimes Tribunal @ the Hague; no Afghani justice by the Karzai gov’t or its successor. Bergdahl is the distraction. If this really were an exchange of prisoners at or near war’s end we’d have returned the Taliban 5 to the Afghans – we didn’t, did we.
crazy (d60cb0) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:32 am
If this really were an exchange of prisoners at or near war’s end we’d have returned the Taliban 5 to the Afghans – we didn’t, did we.

Why would we do that? The Afghans didn’t have Bergdahl.
Milhouse (b95258) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:34 am
This was intended to knock the VA scandal from the headlines, as well as act as a preemptive strike against the forthcoming Benghazi hearings where the Obama Administration will be accused of leaving our men behind.
Elephant Stone (6a6f37) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:38 am
OT: this must be why Moo-chelle never flies commercial
or was this Obama’s eldest daughter? 😎
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:55 am
i gotta admit Mr. red

I’m kinda on Team Lashonda there
happyfeet (8ce051) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:57 am
@70 The point I was trying to make is we chopped the legs of legitimacy out from under the Afghan gov’t by cutting a deal with the Mullah Omar’s gov’t in exile and returning the Taliban 5 in a way that basically amnesties them from prosecution by US, the ICC or the Afghans while allowing them to communicate freely with their comrades and allies. Not to mention all the aid they’ll be able to provide to those remaining at GITMO (like KSM). Bergdahl’s a pawn. Time will tell how willing he was to be used as one.
crazy (d60cb0) — 6/3/2014 @ 12:02 pm
Chelsea Bergdahl has a nice ring to it.
That's the Fact Jack Klompus (1ba192) — 6/3/2014 @ 12:16 pm
It is interesting that when he went ‘walk-about’, he was a PFC (E-3), and he received two promotions while in ‘captivity’ to SGT (E-5).
If they have a letter, in his own hand, written before he left that expressed his desire to leave, they’ve pretty much got him for desertion. They (the Army) did prosecute a soldier, Sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins, who defected to North Korea in 1965 from his posting on the DMZ. They tried him (in 2004) for being AWOL, stripped him of all rank and pay, and gave him a Dishonorable Discharge. He spent less than a month in the brig while being tried. IIR the court considered his time in NorKor as ‘time-served’.
This is how Bergdahl should be handled: Charge and convict him of AWOL, strip him of all rank and privileges (back pay), with a DD (which carries the stigma of a FELONY conviction).
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 12:19 pm
Well, if Susan Rice claimed he was captured on the battlefield and served with distinction it must be true. After all, everything she’s ever testified about has been true. Funny thing is the moment I saw Rice on TV talking about Bergahal I knew every word that came out of her mouth was going to be a lie. What I love about this maladministration is every time they’re caught screwing the pooch they just rev it up and double down knowing full well the media will give them a pass. I’ve come to the conclusion the media hates America, Christianity and capitalism more than they hate anything else on earth. Must be white privilege.
Hoagie (4dfb34) — 6/3/2014 @ 12:29 pm
I love how President Skittles always pronounces the Taliban as “Tall-lee-bon,” rather than the American pronounciation of “Tal-la-ban.”
He’s like so continental or international or something.
Elephant Stone (6a6f37) — 6/3/2014 @ 12:31 pm
I just read in the newspaper that Bergdahl is believed to be a traitor. I wonder if Barack read the same story.
Elephant Stone (6a6f37) — 6/3/2014 @ 12:36 pm
Sorry about that;

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/06/03/wh-to-senate-intel-chair-sorry-that-you-couldnt-be-trusted-with-bergdahl-swap-info-or-something/
narciso (3fec35) — 6/3/2014 @ 1:01 pm
#78: He saw it misspelled in a comic book when he was a kid, been mispronouncing it ever since.
CrustyB (69f730) — 6/3/2014 @ 1:02 pm
#78: mostly he’s Incontinent, which explains the endless stream of BS he spews…

😎
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 6/3/2014 @ 1:04 pm
He saw it misspelled in a comic book when he was first ran for President, been mispronouncing it ever since.

FTFY!
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 6/3/2014 @ 1:05 pm
78. I vote for ‘or something’. Like dumbsh*t azzlapper. Fixing dumbazz is so futile, the recidivism approaches 100%.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 1:06 pm
President Skittles also likes to pronounce Pakistan, as “Pah-kee-stahn.”
It’s so obnoxious when he insists on being so formal about it.

Meanwhile, he’s always really informal when publicly addressing American government office holders. Last week, he called General Shinsecki “Rick,” and he’s referred to VP Biden publicly as merely “Joe,” and in the famous 2010 health care summit with the Senate, he kept referring to Senator McCain as merely, “John.”
Elephant Stone (6a6f37) — 6/3/2014 @ 1:09 pm
Mr Bo Berdahl… Mr Bo Bergdahl… Mr Bo Bergdahl
Hang
Colonel Haiku (abcba6) — 6/3/2014 @ 1:10 pm
From today’s New York Daily News:

Obama Administration officials are set to brief members of the Senate Armed Services Committee next Tuesday on the prisoner swap to free Bergdahl, lawmakes said.

But Republicans said they want a hearing. “I don’t believe a thing this President says now,” said Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), the top Republican on te Senate Intelligence Committee.

I can’t find this online The article says his team leader said he abandoned his post because he wanted to talk to the Taliban.

The Wall Street Journal has something from Chambliss:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/boehner-faults-administration-for-skipping-congress-on-bergdahls-exchange-1401819673?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303789904579602330640139544.html

Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he wasn’t contacted until Monday night, when a “high-level White House official” called him to apologize for not notifying him earlier.

Mr. Chambliss said he was happy that Sgt. Bergdahl would be reunited with his family but said the administration had established a “very dangerous precedent.” He planned to send a letter to Mr. Obama on Tuesday afternoon calling on him to declassify the files of the five Guantanamo prisoners released in the swap, saying they aren’t “low-level, run of the mill” terrorists, but dangerous individuals.

Mr. Chambliss said the administration hasn’t kept lawmakers in the loop about its plans, saying he hadn’t discussed the situation with White House officials in at least a year and a half. “If that’s keeping in the loop, this administration is more arrogant than I thought, ” he said.

Notice here, by the way, how well the Democats succeeded very much in altering the meaning of “in the loop” (22-25 years ago) to accuse Bush I of lying, although we see here it’s the reporter using that phrase that way.
Sammy Finkelman (8423d6) — 6/3/2014 @ 1:16 pm
Does the Army still hang deserters from the battlefield?
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 1:18 pm
88- …more….
and would that standard hold for the media, as they’ve deserted the battlefield of truth for 6+ years now.
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 1:19 pm
Bergdahl ! Marked with a coward’s shame.
What do you do when you’re Bergdahl, will you fight for your name?
He was innocent . . . in Obama’s eyes . . . but the world would never know.
Bergdahl ! Scorned as the one who ran.
What do you do when you’re Bergdahl, and you know you’re a wuss?
Wherever you go for the rest of your life you must prove … you’re not a Taliban
Colonel Haiku (a08a41) — 6/3/2014 @ 1:19 pm
Katie Couric is trying to make cutesy and gravitas cohabit one more time.

Make it stop.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 1:20 pm
Ok, now we’ll never hear the end of this;

http://time.com/2818827/taliban-bergdahl-pow-release-objections-white-house/
narciso (3fec35) — 6/3/2014 @ 1:46 pm
President Obama just learned in the newspaper that he negotiated with terrorists for the release of Bergdahl, and failed to inform Congress.
Elephant Stone (6a6f37) — 6/3/2014 @ 1:47 pm
Hang ‘im, hang ‘im, hang ‘im
Hang ‘im, hang ‘im, hang ‘im
Hang ‘im, hang ‘im, hang ‘im
Hang ‘im, hang ‘im, hang ‘im
Hang ‘im

Hang ‘im, hang ‘im, hang ‘im
Though the Prez awards ‘im
Keep that traitor hangin’
Hang ‘im
His mom n’ dad are fukt up
Both Obama suck-ups
I’m wishin’ Mitt Romney was our Prez
Next time we’ll get the old Lez
“What difference” is what she sez
And that will be the end of our ride

{Refrain}
Find a rope, hang ‘im high
Shoot ‘im dead, if he cries
Find a rope, hang ‘im high
Hang ‘im
Count ‘im out, hang ‘im dead
Hang ‘im dead, count ‘im out
Count ‘im out, shoot ‘im dead
Hang ‘im!!!
Colonel Haiku (4a878d) — 6/3/2014 @ 1:59 pm
How inexplicable is it to reward your friends and punish your enemies? Obama knows whose his friends are and whose side he is on.
ErisGuy (76f8a7) — 6/3/2014 @ 2:06 pm
Rawhide!!!
Colonel Haiku (007fd1) — 6/3/2014 @ 2:12 pm
How did Bergdahl become a Sergeant? When he deserted he was Pfc.

Did they promote him after he went AWOL?
DejectedHead (a094a6) — 6/3/2014 @ 2:16 pm
I keep asking the same question, to no avail.
Gazzer (0e6aeb) — 6/3/2014 @ 2:17 pm
We need to expose Obama’s latest straw man. No one wanted this guy to stay in Afghanistan. No one wanted him to be left behind, regardless of his potential desertion. That’s why considerable effort was made to try to find him. And that doesn’t mean that the way Obama went about getting him released is beyond question.

As usual the problem is in the timing and the methods. Did we need to release five high value prisoners in exchange? If so, why wasn’t this done years ago? This doesn’t make any sense. And why did Susan Rice make the absurd assertion that he served with honor and distinction? Do they even know what those words mean?
Amphipolis (d3e04f) — 6/3/2014 @ 2:25 pm
I think they just lie about everything. Seems to be working for them and it also seems like half the US population actively enjoys being lied to.
DejectedHead (a094a6) — 6/3/2014 @ 2:31 pm
Is the “he needed killin'” defense allowable in Idaho?
The Texan Dana (3e4784) — 6/3/2014 @ 2:34 pm
How did Bergdahl become a Sergeant? When he deserted he was Pfc.

Did they promote him after he went AWOL?

Correct.

Captured U.S. soldier receives second promotion in two years
By the CNN Wire Staff
carlitos (e7c734) — 6/3/2014 @ 2:35 pm
Thanks carlitos

Sounds like the U.S. Military has been unionized.
DejectedHead (a094a6) — 6/3/2014 @ 2:39 pm
According to voices I hear from my car’s dashboard, the White House has apologized to Congress for not informing it of the swap.
nk (dbc370) — 6/3/2014 @ 2:45 pm
As for Bergdahl’s disposition, I’ll bet general discharge with a wrist-slap for going AWOL maybe. Too much of a specter of undue command influence (HE MADE OBAMA LOOK BAD!) for anything more serious.
nk (dbc370) — 6/3/2014 @ 2:49 pm
‘Good news, everybody’

http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2014/06/they_can_move_around_freely_gu.php
narciso (3fec35) — 6/3/2014 @ 2:54 pm
DejectedHead (a094a6) — 6/3/2014 @ 2:16 pm

How did Bergdahl make Sgt?
According to The Patriot Post’s Daily Digest for 3 June 2014, Bergdahl was promoted to Sgt. at the direction of the President on 17 June 2011, in preparation for an earlier iteration of this swap.
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 3:14 pm
Curious isn’t it that Army CoS Dempsey is saying that they Army ‘may’ pursue desertion charges against Bergdahl.
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 3:22 pm
Oops, that’s Chairman of the JCS General Martin Dempsey.
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 3:23 pm
Congressional opposition to this swap goes back several years….
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 3:25 pm
“May”. That’s what I was talking about “command influence”. Under the UCMJ, soldiers are entitled to due process. Charges have to come from a JAG prosecutor and the military equivalent of a grand jury, not just because some superior up the line says so. As a matter of fact, superior officers have to keep pretty mum about the whole thing or they’ll kibosh the prosecution and the soldiers will be let loose because of denial of his due process.
nk (dbc370) — 6/3/2014 @ 3:26 pm
87. Correction I see that Saxby Chambliss also used “in the loop” in the Orwellian way that was used to hurt GHWB.
Sammy Finkelman (8423d6) — 6/3/2014 @ 3:28 pm
Amphipolis (d3e04f) — 6/3/2014 @ 2:25 pm

Did we need to release five high value prisoners in exchange? If so, why wasn’t this done years ago? This doesn’t make any sense.

It makes sense this way. Obama wanted to release tese five men (and others) anyway (although it would have worked differently.

He wants to be able to say before he leaves the Presidency, that the war is over. He can’t say that a long as the Taliban/Haqqani Group etc hold any prisoners captured in Afghanistan. He also can’t say that as long as we are holding any prisoners of war.

And why did Susan Rice make the absurd assertion that he served with honor and distinction? Do they even know what those words mean?

Well, she doesn’t.
Sammy Finkelman (8423d6) — 6/3/2014 @ 3:31 pm
nk, with all the reversals the JAG has seen lately over ‘Command Influence’, perhaps Dempsey only said this because the paperwork for the filing of charges has already crossed the desk of at least the Army CoS? A Sealed Indictment so-to-speak.
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 3:32 pm
Bergdahl’s father went into full dhimmi mode at the White House. They probably didn’t bother to vet any statements.
David (099e1f) — 6/3/2014 @ 3:33 pm
I’ll bet general discharge with a wrist-slap for going AWOL maybe. Too much of a specter of undue command influence (HE MADE OBAMA LOOK BAD!) for anything more serious.

actually, given the public statements and spectacle on this 5hitbag’s return, ANYTHING other than a full hearing, trial and max sentence (assuming conviction) would be the result of “undue command influence”…

by preemptively proclaiming him a hero, the First Taliban pretty much forced the Army’s hand. if they don’t prosecute this guy, they’re going to have a hard time going after anyone else who ever goes AEOL, let alone deserts:

“you want to give my client a Art.15 and take stripes & pay because he was gone a week? Bergdhal went over to the enemy, stayed with them five years, and you promoted him while he was giving them information used to kill and injure Americans. My guy was in a hotel drinking and screwing his girlfriend, not bothering anyone…”
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 6/3/2014 @ 3:33 pm
They’d have a pretty hard time ignoring that argument.
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 3:36 pm
well, iirc, someone at the top ran their mouth not too long ago about wanting convictions in sexual assault cases…

and all the defense reps for GI’s with pending cases went right out and filed motions citing “command influence” and at least got plea deals out of it…

Bam-Bam’s biggest problem is that he believes that he’s as smart as people say he is. in reality, i have a Persian cat that’s brighter than him.
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 6/3/2014 @ 3:48 pm
That Time article is pretty damning. They circumvented all prior opposition.
JD (3bc90e) — 6/3/2014 @ 3:57 pm
116, 118. Karma is Shiva’s bitch and the latter is an infidel.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 4:00 pm
How did Bergdahl make Sgt?
According to The Patriot Post’s Daily Digest for 3 June 2014, Bergdahl was promoted to Sgt. at the direction of the President on 17 June 2011, in preparation for an earlier iteration of this swap.

Oh great, so he was promoted in a piece of Kabuki theater solely for the benefit of TFG’s hoped for photo-op. I just heard on Hannity that the mother of one of the soldiers killed looking for Bergdahl received a photo stat condolences from JEF, yet a hand written note from Dubya, who you may recall, is no longer on office.
Gazzer (0e6aeb) — 6/3/2014 @ 4:02 pm
Some Presidents have class: Before, during, and after, their term of office.
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 4:06 pm
Bam-Bam is a world class 5hithead…

always has been, always will be.

was that what you had in mind askeptic?
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 6/3/2014 @ 4:22 pm
Via National Review, here’s an interesting perspective from retired Army officer and Fox analyst Ralph Peters on the cluelessness of Obama and company:

“Both President Obama and Ms. Rice seem to think that the crime of desertion in wartime is kind of like skipping class. They have no idea of how great a sin desertion in the face of the enemy is to those in our military. The only worse sin is to side actively with the enemy and kill your brothers in arms.”

Read the whole thing here:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/379481/why-team-obama-was-blindsided-bergdahl-backlash-ralph-peters
Whitey Nisson (253e9e) — 6/3/2014 @ 4:26 pm
I think they just lie about everything. Seems to be working for them and it also seems like half the US population actively enjoys being lied to.

Basically, it’s just that this administration with the help of the make believe media has demonized anyone who disagrees with zippy, and anything that pisses off the people deemed “evil” is evidently cool. I honestly think they believe that the Republicans can no longer win a presidential election.
Hadoop (f7d5ba) — 6/3/2014 @ 4:29 pm
124. Remarkably sober assessment. Wonder why Peters didn’t make general?
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 4:51 pm
By Susan Rice’s standards, Bergdahl DID serve with honor & distinction.

Either that, or he served as a convenient distraction from the VA scandal.

Tomato, tomotto . . .
Icy (cbceee) — 6/3/2014 @ 5:01 pm
The CBS Evening News reported:

Sen Int committee knew of negotiations in late 2011 and early 2012. Almost every member opposed. Negotiations broke down anyway. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a letter sayinbg that of neg resumed they would be informed. They weren’t.

They were told – leaders of committee were – before the Osama bin Laden raid.

Possible way soldiers got killed because of Bergdahl: They weer blocking roads to prevent him from being taken to Pakistan. This might not have happened if he was not a prisoner. It chnged tactics.
Sammy Finkelman (8423d6) — 6/3/2014 @ 5:06 pm
Protein Wisdom:

So it’s fair to ask, as I did the other day, if this man has ever really been on “our” side — and now, further, if this whole swap wasn’t some manufactured excuse to release high-ranking Taliban captured and held in Gitmo. Which should further fuel conspiracy theories over Benghazi, where some have speculated the intent, botched, naturally, was to have Ambassador Stevens kidnapped and then traded back for high-level Taliban terrorists and terrorist liaisons.

Treason, an act of which is but one of very many committed by Soft Bottom.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 5:12 pm
“Guilty as sin. Free as a bird.”

We know about the six American soldiers who apparently were killed while looking for Bowe. How many more died in the military operations to capture –for naught–the 5 POS jihadi commanders Obama just set free?
elissa (76d201) — 6/3/2014 @ 5:17 pm
Sorry, but this bears repeating,

I just heard on Hannity that the mother of one of the soldiers killed looking for Bergdahl received a photo stat condolences from JEF, yet a hand written note from Dubya, who you may recall, is no longer on office.
Gazzer (0e6aeb) — 6/3/2014 @ 5:22 pm
123- I would rank him a bit lower….
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 5:37 pm
I guess another chapter omitted from her bio, such senseless murder of trees;

http://therightscoop.com/mark-levin-rips-hillary-clinton-over-lackluster-response-to-bergdahl-transfer/
narciso (3fec35) — 6/3/2014 @ 5:38 pm
I know that it is unorthodox to suggest there might be political realists of a sort on the Left:

http://thefederalist.com/2014/06/03/the-left-is-terrified-right-now-about-the-bowe-bergdahl-story/

I think they are appalled at how thoroughly f*cked up there side really is.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 5:38 pm
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 4:51 pm

Probably for the same reason Ollie North never made “Bird” –
They pissed someone off, big time, being right too many times.
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 5:39 pm
126 – gary – because he is always over the target.
mg (31009b) — 6/3/2014 @ 5:41 pm
elissa (76d201) — 6/3/2014 @ 5:17 pm

That is the exact question asked by the mother of one of the six searchers killed, 2nd Lieutenant Darryn Andrews.
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 5:42 pm
Every day a disgrace.

Searchlight is missing its idiot.
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 5:54 pm
http://americanthinker.com/2014/06/did_bowe_bergdahl_purposefully_offer_himself_as_a_bargaining_chip.html
mg (31009b) — 6/3/2014 @ 6:08 pm
I wonder if Bowe will keep his name after he becomes a she…
mg (31009b) — 6/3/2014 @ 6:12 pm
#130… “…How many more died in the military operations to capture –for naught–the 5 POS jihadi commanders Obama just set free?

elissa (76d201) — 6/3/2014 @ 5:17 pm

Yep… and thatwas an excellent point Ted Cruz has made, Elissa.
Colonel Haiku (a08a41) — 6/3/2014 @ 6:21 pm
“At this point, just what difference does it make?”
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 6:24 pm
teh Taliban’s Fool
His own private Idaho
I’m talkin’ Prez here
Colonel Haiku (e6799b) — 6/3/2014 @ 6:25 pm
Teh Taliban Five
set free by Barack Obama
Terrorists’s best friend
Colonel Haiku (e6799b) — 6/3/2014 @ 6:34 pm
Obama says “we never leave ours behind”… tell it to Ambassador Stevens and the heroes who died in Benghazi.
Colonel Haiku (4a878d) — 6/3/2014 @ 6:44 pm
RCP founder Bevan:

In the end, the administration’s carefully crafted story of Bergdahl’s homecoming has crumbled, leaving more questions than answers. What the White House surely viewed as a public relations coup and chance to generate positive news coverage amid the VA scandal has turned into another fiasco and yet another example of the disturbing trend in Obama’s tenure for putting public relations triumphs ahead of sound public policy concerns.

In this case, they may have gotten neither one.
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 6:53 pm
MM:

http://michellemalkin.com/2014/06/03/exclusive-the-story-you-havent-yet-heard-about-bowe-bergdahls-desertion/
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 6/3/2014 @ 7:07 pm
#146 Gary

I fear its not over and that the SCOAMF doesn’t really give a shit what anyone thinks cuz he/they ALWAYS GET AWAY WITH IT. Our system doesn’t allow for immediate/quick justice or resolution. And that gives high ranking malefactors plenty of time to do even more mischief. Later, when “doing justice”, there has been ample time for the powers that be to consider and then be merciful (“but by the grace of…..goes me”)

In short, nothing is gonna stick in the long run
Angelo (0cb7bb) — 6/3/2014 @ 7:13 pm
How come moderation?
Angelo (0cb7bb) — 6/3/2014 @ 7:32 pm
#146 Gary

I fear its not over and that the SCOAMF doesn’t really give a sh!K what anyone thinks cuz he/they ALWAYS GET AWAY WITH IT. Our system doesn’t allow for immediate/quick justice or resolution. And that gives high ranking malefactors plenty of time to do even more mischief. Later, when “doing justice”, there has been ample time for the powers that be to consider and then be merciful (“but by the grace of…..goes me”)

In short, nothing is gonna stick in the long run
Angelo (0cb7bb) — 6/3/2014 @ 7:40 pm
Some ultra-conservative activists have claimed through the years that Obama is an out-and-out Islamicist, nurtured during his youth in, among other places, Indonesia. They’ve said that his origins really do lie with the theology of Mohammed, including all his wives, mistresses, thievery, ruthlessness, vengefulness and victims of assassination.

The only reason why I didn’t totally buy into that assumption was my sense that Obama — as is typical of ass-backwards liberals — sympathized with Islamicism certainly not because he embraced its reactionary philosophy, but because he pitied all its non-Western (particularly non-WASP) adherents.

The Bergdahl fiasco, which has such a blatantly underhanded, diabolical quality about it — not to mention Obama’s coddling of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and similar Islamic extremists in Syria — now makes me think that, yes, Obama truly is a fifth column for Islam.

In general terms, I’m coming to the conclusion — and not wanting to sound melodramatic but merely descriptive — that we really do have a dangerous person occupying this nation’s top political office, occupying the White House.
Mark (99b8fd) — 6/3/2014 @ 8:09 pm
http://talesofseasia.com/doug.html

“THE INCREDIBLY STUPID ONE”

Once again, I bring up Doug Hegdahl, lest anyone be led to believe my ‘tude toward Bowe Bergdahl reflects some sort of Latin coastal animosity toward fly-over country Scandi types.

…Because they thought him stupid they would let him go out in the cell block courtyard during the siesta to sweep up the grounds period monitored by only one sleepy peasant guard. I thought that was great since it kept him from skipping and I could get some rest. However, curiosity got the better of me and I started to watch him through a peep hole we had bored in the cell door. He’d go sweeping and humming until the guard was lulled to sleep. Then Doug would back up to a truck, spin the gas cap off the standpipe, stoop down and put a small amount [Small, because it’s goin’ to be a long war, sir.] of dirt in the gas tank and replace the cap. I watched him over a period of time do this to five trucks.

Now, I’m a liberal arts major who shot himself down, so all I can do is report what I saw. There were five trucks working in the prison; I saw Doug work on five trucks; I saw five trucks towed disabled out of the prison camp. Doug Hegdahl, a high school graduate from the mess decks fell off a ship and has five enemy trucks to his credit. I am a World Famous Golden Dragon [VA 192] with two college degrees, 2000 jet hours, 300 carrier landings and 22 combat missions. How many enemy trucks do I have to my credit? Zero. Zip. Nada. De Rien. 0. Who’s the better man? Douglas Brent Hegdahl, one of two men I know of who destroyed enemy military equipment while a prisoner of war…

It does not. Quite the opposite.

…”The Incredibly Stupid One,” my personal hero, is the archetype of the innovative, resourceful and courageous American Sailor. These sailors are the products of the neighborhoods, churches, schools and families working together to produce individuals blessed with a sense of humor and the gift of freedom who can overcome any kind of odds. These sailors are tremendously loyal and devoted to their units and their leaders in their own private and personal ways. As long as we have The Doug’s of this world, our country will retain its freedoms.

The infantrymen in Bergdahl’s platoon, the most basic military life form, may just force this issue. This may not be the gimme Obama thought it would be. He wasn’t counting on them. But we can.

…Speaking publicly for the first time about the case, Dempsey said he does not want to prejudge the outcome of any investigation or say anything that might influence a commander’s decision.

But he said U.S. military leaders “have been accused of looking away from misconduct, and it’s premature” to assume they would do so in Bergdahl’s case, despite the soldier’s five years as a Taliban prisoner…
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:13 pm
I don’t mean to imply that this is about politics. Again, quite the opposite. Some things are beyond politics. Hillary! may find this out in the Benghazi hearings. It wouldn’t have occurred to me or anyone else to inquire about Doherty or Woods politics if we received the distress signal; they were white hats. I don’t know or care about Bergdahl’s platoon mates’ politics. If Bergdahl violated their trust, then it’s not going away.

You can’t do that.

It will be interesting to see if Obama thinks he can interfere in this.
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:25 pm
Game, and now serving for the Set, and Match.
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:27 pm
And the Swift-Boat vets were just all cranks, until people started to believe them.
askeptic (8ecc78) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:28 pm
we’re left with the question though

why be a filthy foodstamp american

when being canadian is actually respectable

i mean

what do you say if one of the kids ask you?
happyfeet (8ce051) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:30 pm
Yeah, askeptic, the commentariat and inside the beltway crowd didn’t know what to make of the Swift boat vets, either. They had never come across anyone who didn’t have a political angle.
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:38 pm
Swift boat vets were an extremely mixed bag

was my takeaway

you had for reals fighters

and then you had imperial heifer Teresa Heinz’s boy toy John Kerry

word is though she’s gone a bit clotty in the head like the hillary

i heard maybe a daily aspirin can maybe help

maybe
happyfeet (8ce051) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:54 pm
The for reals fighters didn’t appreciate the mixed baggedness of having to put up with John F’n Kerry, was my takeaway.

I recall a a surgeon recounting how he had to treat one of Kerry’s Purple Heart “wounds.” It was a piece of shrapnel that had barely pierced the skin. The doc figured Kerry must have put a piece of tape over it or otherwise had preserved it just so it wouldn’t fall off before Kerry could have gotten a record of treatment, and write himself up for a medal.

Nobody else would have thought to go to sick bay for it. A normal person would have just wiped his arm, and let it fall off.

The for real fighters, Mr. feets, didn’t really like Kerry writing himself up for medals for the kind of shiite they just normally blew off.
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/4/2014 @ 12:16 am
I didn’t actually know any Swift boat vets. I once screwed up a perfectly good Sunday for the crew of an Asheville class Gun Boat. It was tied to the pier at Treasure Island, and I wanted to go aboard and take a look. The skipper said OK.

She was just back from Vietnam and the last thing the crew wanted to do was entertain a kid like me.
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/4/2014 @ 12:32 am
One of my dad’s boats.

http://www.uscg.mil/history/uscghist/VietnamPhotoIndex_F.asp

Maybe this will be interesting to the Chicago contingent. After the Battle of Rennell Island in January of of 1943, the fleet tug Navajo took over the tow from Louisville of the heavy cruiser Chicago. Later they were caught out by Bettys from Rabaul. Navajo did what she could; she turned Chicago bow on into the threat (always go bow on). But Chicago was lost.

Navajo was the sister to my dad’s cutter, Cherokee. Which is no doubt racist. I denounce myself.
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/4/2014 @ 12:44 am
Actually I think the Swift Boats arose out of an earlier incident, a lesser known bio of Bob Kerrey, who was Hagel’s predecessor, and on balance a better bloke, where there were revelations of a very dodgy incident when he was a Seal, painted the whole Riverine force, and their commander, Commodore future Rear Admiral Hoffman, as some pirate band commanded by a Col, Kilgore type,it was the wretching
Douglas Brinkley profile, that forced them to say ‘No Mas’
narciso (3fec35) — 6/4/2014 @ 6:21 am
According to Ace the administration is already using the term “Swift boating” to describe what Bergdahl’s platoon mates are doing.

It’s typical of Democrats, who lie as a matter of course, to try and make telling the truth somehow sound kind of dirty.

I honestly don’t think it will work. As a matter of fact, I think these young Army guys will vindicate their elder Navy brethren. If the Army is forced to investigate and prosecute Bergdahl, it will be because of “Swift boating.” Refusing to keep silent about the truth.
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/4/2014 @ 1:49 pm
I know it was a very very minor booboo but I bet John Kerry still feels the sting of that shrapnel when it rains

he’ll gaze off into the distance sadly, arms tightly crossed as if to ward off the unwelcome memories and he’ll hold that pose until someone asks him if he’s okay

and it is then that US Secretary of State John F. Kerry will speak his Truth
happyfeet (8ce051) — 6/4/2014 @ 2:05 pm
“According to Ace the administration is already using the term “Swift boating” to describe what Bergdahl’s platoon mates are doing.”

Steve57 – What I saw elsewhere was sourced to Chuck Todd’s reporting.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 6/4/2014 @ 2:11 pm
J.F.Kerry has no Truth to speak.

J.F.K. still does:
The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.
We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
This much we pledge—and more.
…
htom (412a17) — 6/4/2014 @ 2:26 pm
Yes, Ace mentions Chuck Todd as well.

Today is the 72nd anniversary of the start of the Battle of Midway. 4-7 June 1942. By this time today, every single member of Torpedo 8 who attacked the carriers with John C. Waldron was dead. Except for George Gay. Not a torpedo hit the carriers. Yet, they made the Japanese CAP lose SA. A lot of times you’ll hear that Torpedo 8’s contribution was to pull the Zeros down low, so they couldn’t react when the dive bombers attacked. Not true. The Zero had a sufficient rate of climb to deal with the dive bombers. They were just so bore sighted on the Devastators they didn’t think of looking up. The Japanese had no effective means of fighter direction control. Once launched, the fighters were mostly on their own (a cruiser or destroy might fire off a salvo to get their attention, but that was about all the help they got).

For me memorial day doesn’t just roll around once a year. I don’t think that’s the case for anybody who served. For instance, if you’re in a squadron that dates back to WWII (or earlier) battles like Midway isn’t something you just read about in history books. The guys who fought them will drop by the locker room, so to speak, and tell you about it.

Which is kind of going the long way around the barn. Bergdahl’s squaddies aren’t going to wait for Memorial Day to commemorate the good men who were killed looking for a guy that they clearly think was at the very least was a no-load and a shaky dude.

For them, this isn’t political. This is personal. No doubt many of them feel like they may have let their buddies down once on the battlefield, while they were looking for Bergdahl. I am sure they are wrong. But no doubt they can’t help but wonder. And they aren’t going to let them down again.

That’s the sacred duty that Susan Rice has no clue about.
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/4/2014 @ 3:17 pm
Steve57 (61329d) — 6/3/2014 @ 11:38 pm

Yeah, askeptic, the commentariat and inside the beltway crowd didn’t know what to make of the Swift boat vets, either. They had never come across anyone who didn’t have a political angle.

The Swift Boat veterans were succesasfully diverted (by the Kerry campaign?) from what their original intent was to what was safer territory for Kerry.

Their original intent was to make an issue of Kerry’s lies about atrocities committed by American soldiers in the Vietnam War. His basically false testomony before Congress, which if it was not outright lying, since he mostly didn’t claim to have firsthand knowledge of anything, was absurd. Kerry had pretended to believe things he had heard. He did have enough firsthand knowledge to know this could not be true.

In the course of discussing him amongst themselves, the Swift Boat verterans discovered that his medals did not correctly desribe what had happened. This they knew because they were there.

They got all diverted into a discussion of the medals, which was almost a technical issue, and also had the defense available that many medals from the Vietnam War weer undeserved so there was nothing really special about Kerry there, and that Kerry had not been responsible for his commendations – at least he could say he had nothing to do with that.

One way maybe the Kerry campaign diverted theor attention was simply by responding a lot to these accusations, and accusing them of being political, or being liars, so they followed that squirrel, instead of the much more damaging propaganda testimony Kerry gave in 1971. I suspect taht Kerry also got somebody involved with the Swift Boat veterans to help divert them. They happened to have stronger proof there, of course, that Kerry was not a truth-teller.
Sammy Finkelman (8ab807) — 6/6/2014 @ 3:38 am
I read now thatthe New York Times did make a few exceptions to its never use the S word policy, with Bush II, in a transcript of something Roger Stone said in a call to Eliot Spitzer’s father as part of alonger phrase “piece-of-sh?t” (both in 2007) and this year in a profile of a homeless family. Always as quotes. There are many mre examples of avoiding it.

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=12720#more-12720

http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/06/04/obama_doctrine_don_t_do_stupid_s_t_new_york_times_replaces_with_stuff_in.html
Sammy Finkelman (2d4607) — 6/10/2014 @ 7:35 am

6/3/2014

From the “Don’t Do Stupid Shit” Files: NYT Story Paints Bergdahl as Deserter

169 Responses to “From the “Don’t Do Stupid Shit” Files: NYT Story Paints Bergdahl as Deserter”

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