Alfonse D'Amato

Sergeant Bergdahl is not a hero

Posted

In 2009, an American soldier, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, disappeared from his base in the Paktika province of Afghanistan and was captured by the Taliban.

Five years later, President Obama negotiated with the Taliban to have Bergdahl released in exchange for five hard-core terrorists who held powerful positions in the Taliban. They all had American blood on their hands, and have most likely returned to the Taliban and killed again.

How Bergdahl went missing and was captured has always been a subject of media scrutiny. He had written emails and letters to his parents that expressed disillusionment with the Army and a desire to start a new life. Many have labeled him a deserter. In my opinion, a soldier doesn’t have to pick up a weapon and fire it at U.S. Marines to be considered a traitor. Members of Bergdahl’s own unit feel strongly that he worked with the Taliban to plot against them. Soldiers were killed in an exchange that gave him his freedom — freedom that he may not even have wanted.

On Dec. 14 it was announced that he will face a general court-martial, the highest level of trial in the military justice system, and faces a possible sentence of life in prison for desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. There’s no doubt that this is a highly controversial case, but what Bergdahl did was completely un-American, and he deserves the proper punishment.

The most damning evidence in the case is that in the days following his disappearance, his unit claimed to hear radio chatter that there was an American looking for someone who could speak English so he could speak with the Taliban. Many soldiers in Bergdahl’s platoon said that attacks seemed to increase against U.S. forces in the Paktika province in the days and weeks after his disappearance, leading many of them to believe he provided the Taliban with intelligence that helped them successfully attack and kill U.S. Marines.

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