Of course he's a phacking deserter. He sent his belongings home in advance of his desertion. He spoke often of hiking to China. He left a note behind with his unit discussing his disillusionment with his deployment. 3 days before he deserted he received an email from his dad urging him to "OBEY YOUR CONSCIENCE". His unit were all required to sign non-disclosure agreements as long as he was being held. Meanwhile, the deserter was busy talking to the Taliban who then upped their attacks in his unit's area where the search for him was going on and SIX American soldiers were killed as a result. A Pentagon probe in 2010 concluded that evidence was “incontrovertible” that Bergahl walked away from his unit near the Pakistan border, according to a former Pentagon official who has read it. Nothing anti-American? Please. "The future is too good to waste on lies,” Bergdahl wrote his parents. “And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be American. And the title of U.S. soldier is just the life of fools. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting.” Seriously....you are going to invoke Reagan to somehow justify the outright breach of law that Obama himself signed to justify this? Reagan has been dead longer than Barack has been POTUS. In case you missed it, "The law requires the defense secretary to notify relevant congressional committees at least 30 days before making any transfers of prisoners, to explain the reason and to provide assurances that those released would not be in a position to reengage in activities that could threaten the United States or its interests. Before the current law was enacted at the end of last year, the conditions were even more stringent. However, the administration and some Democrats had pressed for them to be loosened, in part to give them more flexibility to negotiate for Bergdahl’s release. A senior administration official, agreeing to speak on the condition of anonymity to explain the timing of the congressional notification, acknowledged that the law was not followed. When he signed the law last year, Obama issued a signing statement contending that the notification requirement was an unconstitutional infringement on his powers as commander in chief and that he therefore could override it." So Obama signed the law under protest which apparently means to him that he doesn't have to obey the law. Got it. Terrorists don't fight conventional wars, or follow standard procedure, and would tell us to shove the Geneva Convention up our ass. And none of that has anything to do with what transpired over the weekend. Our government has known were and with whom Bergdahl was. Little Susie Rice told us yesterday that we had to move because his health was dire. Really. How did we know that? If the deal was that easy to do, why didn't we do it years ago? Why did Bergdahl's dad tweet this "I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners. God will repay for the death of every Afghan child Ameen!"? Why did the Taliban identify these 6 specifically? If the enemy wants them in particular, there is a reason and that should be enough for the US to worry. "According to a 2008 Pentagon dossier on Guantanamo Bay inmates, all five men released were considered to be a high risk to launch attacks against the United States and its allies if they were liberated....A senior U.S. defense official confirmed Saturday that the prisoners to be released include Mullah Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Noori, Abdul Haq Wasiq, Khairullah Khairkhwa and Mohammed Nabi Omari. While not as well known as Guantanamo inmates like 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Taliban 5 were some of the worst outlaws in the U.S. war on terror. And their release will end up replenishing the diminished leadership ranks of the Afghan Taliban at a moment when the United States is winding down the war there" No. They went to Qatar. Their sole land border is with Saudi Arabia and they are long time sympathizers with the Muslim Brotherhood. The majority population are Wahabbists. Getting the picture yet? This is hardly a "friendly state". You know, 6 Americans died looking for this asshole deserter. Glib humor is out of my reach at the moment.
Freudian slip? lol. No "could" about it. He did and the administration has already admitted it. I don't disagree. What is starting to smell is the message coming from the White House that this deserter has somehow "already suffered enough" and that charges shouldn't be pursued. This is a matter for CMJ, not the White House's interpretation. Our Taliban targets have always been the leadership, not the desert dwelling rats who plant IED's. These scum will be exactly that....mid-level leaders hailed as heroes by the Taliban. Was bin laden an old out of touch dude? Hell yes. Yet for years he was target #1. Well yes, because the soldiers were actually there and the politicians regularly lie and break the law.
This just did it for me, bro. I was on the fence about retiring, not anymore. And those guys in his unit have every right to be as pissed as they are. Absolutely sickening.
Evidence is building that Bergdahl deserted. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rmy-general-says-faces-desertion-charges.html It will be interesting how the President handles this and if any investigation is allowed or charges are quashed. Looks like they hung Susan Rice out again with her defense of the actions and calling Bergdahl a POW and implying he served well & honorably. Unfortunately I fear the president and his administration will resort to their prior behavior and try to stuff the message with so much BS...I bet he says no on old him about Bergdahl's actions before he deserted.
What the fuck else could he have done. Look, rule numero uno in any combat zone is you don't go anywhere alone. Hell we couldn't even get on the road without a 3 vehicle convoy that is a minimum of 9 pax. This fuck nugget is a disgrace to the uniform and the country and I would not have traded the after birth of a bastard rat for a strand of his hair.
If he's deserter then he gets a hearing, a court-martial, and can join Chelsea Manning in Leavenworth for a long vacation. So you are objecting to getting him back at all? Obama can justify himself. I'm pointing out that this has precedents. Reagan broke the law, too . . . an arms ban on Iran. Save the feigned outrage. This stuff happens. So we stoop to their level? Sorry, but the United States does honor the rules of war . . . failing to do so puts all of our soldiers at greater risk. Because of Bush policies, American prisoners are now completely subject to torture and we can't say much about it. It was like he thought that we would never have another prisoner taken. Because we had been in negotiations via Qatar ever since he was captured and the Taliban told us. One official briefed on the intelligence said the Taliban also may have been worried about Bergdahl's health, having been warned that the U.S. would react fiercely if he died in captivity. The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, which is caring for Bergdahl, said he was suffering from nutritional issues. Of course it does, you just don't want to address it. Seriously? Because they are the ones they could get. Everybody left at Gitmo is a hard-liner. The marginal ones were released long ago. But it's not like they got KSM or Abu Zubaydah. None of these guys were among the Top 10 Most Dangerous Guantanamo Detainees cited by John Boehners Office. You are misinformed. We have a lot of muslim allies, better get used to it. They are the Arab state that fought most effectively beside us in the Gulf War, rescuing our cut-off Marines in Khafji. American and Qatari bilateral relations are strong, both countries are coordinating diplomatically and cooperating on regional security, and have a defense pact. Qatar hosts CENTCOM Forward Headquarters and supports NATO and U.S. regional military operations. Qatar is also an active participant in the U.S. – led efforts to set up an integrated missile defense network in the Gulf region. Moreover, it hosts the U.S. Combined Air Operations Center and three big American military bases which are manned by approximately 5,000 U.S. forces. Six American universities have campuses there. So is perspective.
No objection. I am hoping for a court martial so we can attempt to get to the truth. Yes Reagan screwed up with the iran/contra deal. So? That has nothing to do with Obama signing a law just 6 months ago and then turning around and breaking it. Either sign it or don't but if he's just going to claim executive privilege whenever he wants, where is our system of checks and balances? No, it doesn't just happen. We didn't handle the negotiation.....according to Obama. Qatar did. We don't currently have any soldiers being held, do we? Most that I can recall were murdered in captivity. Well no, according to the White House, the actual negotiations didn't start until a week ago, lol. And he was being held by the Haqqani network. The Taliban didn't have him in their control. His health has been shit for a long time. It didn't get bad over the weekend. And the point is, if the arrangement was so easy, why did it take 5 years? The final determination of all gitmo prisoners has nothing to do with the US exchanging for a deserter unless Obama broke the law to intentionally get his way to shut gitmo down. The Taliban are celebrating a great victory....and it was indeed for them. They got what they wanted and we got a prayer for Allah in the Rose Garden. Obama has already said he believes these 5 detainees could likely become active in anti-American activity. I am misinformed? Brother, you thought they were released to Oman! Facts are facts and Qatar shares a border with Saudi Arabia. They support the Muslim brotherhood and are predominantly Wahabbists. It's a major terrorist hotspot and a ton of money available. I don't give a rat's ass about bases and schools. Qatar can no more promise to keep an eye on these 5 who are free to roam about than they can promise a conversion to Christianity. "look back in history a little ways — to when leading members of Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family were concealing Saudi terrorists who helped with preparations for the November 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States that killed thousands of civilians. And if we go back a few years further, we find that Qatar was on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. It was only taken off the list because it offered to host a US naval base — the largest one in the region — which was used as a command post during the 2003 operation by forces of the United States and its allies to occupy Iraq. Huge amounts of money from natural gas sales enabled the Qataris get the “leader” of the global antiterrorist coalition to turn a blind eye on all of Doha’s transgressions in the sacred cause of assisting the “brothers” in sharing the Salafi faith everywhere — from Africa to Kashmir. If we can trust documents on the WikiLeaks site, in 2008 the former US ambassador to Doha, Joseph LeBaron, cabled the State Department that Qatar was still financing international terrorism. Leaks of his cables published by the Qatari newspaper Peninsula in 2010 generated an exchange of remarks between LeBaron and its chief editor. But the US ambassador left, and Washington simply hushed the matter up. In the 1990s, Doha was among the most active “financiers” behind the separatist rebellion in Chechnya. It sent money to local militants and trained Arab terrorists who participated in attacks on the Russian Army in the North Caucasus. When the rebellion was put down and peace began returning to Chechnya and the Arab “mujahedin” were almost completely destroyed, Qatar’s Emir provided a refuge for Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, “president” of the self-proclaimed Republic of Ichkeria and his many supporters, providing them with benefits and even government jobs.....Sometimes, the money is simply handed over directly — for example, to Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal when he visits Doha, where he is received as a head of state. Palestinian sources say that the Emir personally gives him cash that then makes its way to its intended recipients through Arab countries neighboring on the Gaza Strip. Then homemade rockets that kill innocent civilians are sent flying towards Israel. However, it is obvious that large amounts of money go for other purposes, including undermining the Palestinian National Authority and for the personal “needs” of Hamas leaders. The Qataris make no bones about the fact that since the Arab Revolutions began they have been directly funding militants and weapons for those fighting the ruling regimes in Arab countries. They did it in Libya, and they are doing it now in Syria. And after the recent Arab League summit in Doha, where Qatar’s political weight overcame even Egypt and Algeria to push through a decision allowing weapons to be delivered to Syrian opposition fighters, Doha no longer needs to hide its activities along those lines. But if we apply the international legal norms to Qatar’s activities, we find that they actually meet the legal definition of sponsoring international terrorism as spelled out in several UN Security Council resolutions and other international community documents. Doha’s provision of money and weapons to terrorist groups like Jabhat al-Nusra qualifies as financing international terrorism…" That sound like an ally you want to have?
