Yep. The idea that going for a walk is sentenceable with life imprisonment is bizarre. If that's the case, then we'd need to roll out the death penalty for people engaging in actual crimes.

Dishonorably Discharged 10 Years in jail, we need to make an example of this guy. The Left champions him but we need to send a message, you can not desert and we have to give back 5 terrorists for you and Americans died trying to find you, you can’t just walk away scot free with a only a dishonorable discharge.

One can't help but question the wisdom of risking American lives and releasing dangerous criminals for the sake of putting a man in a box for the rest of his life.

Seriously.... just let that sink in for a bit.... It's lunacy.

For example, collaborating with the intelligence services of a hostile foreign power. Much as it might be fitting to see Trump, Don Junior, manafort, Bannon hanged on the Capitol mall as an example to the other Ivan Republicans, I don't think that's wise

(And interestingly the Pentagon concluded that no deaths could be associated with the search)

In fact they couldn't have been looking that hard since he escaped on his own three times for days at a time but the US never found him.

As long as the do the same thing for every other military person who leaves a base without leave. That'd be interesting. We'd have to build a shitton more prisons for them

The interesting question is how much are they going after him for his speaking out about the mistreatment of Afghans by US military. That's probably the bigger "crime."

@Ogion
Your gonna be so sad when the truth is revealed that Trump didn’t colllude with Russia. An investigation has been going for 15 months and other than Flynn we have yet to see a shred of evidence pointing towards collusion. The Trumps are cooperating with the investigation far too much to suggest that they are guilty, but hurr a durr Collusion Trumputin Impeach hurr ba durr.

“The Left champions him”


... no

Dereliction of duty in a combat zone? No one should "walk away" from that. The guys who died looking for him certainly didn't.

"going for a walk"? Really?

The man can hardly be made responsible for the decisions the military took after his capture, regardless of whether people were killed or not.

I'm struggling a little with the timeline of events, to be honest. Have I got this right?

2008: Joins up
May '09: Deployed to Afghanistan
June '09: Goes AWOL and is captured
June '10: Promoted to Specialist
June '11: Promoted to Sergeant
June '14: Released

It's interesting to see that his desertion and capture didn't get in the way of the advancement of his career. Are you promoted by virtue of length of service in the US military?

Yes, there exists basically a system of automatic promotions based on time served - and the U.S. honored those promotions while he was a POW.

"In fact they couldn't have been looking that hard since he escaped on his own three times for days at a time but the US never found him."

This is one of the most disrespectful comments I've read on this site in a long time. And that is saying something.

Going awol from a base is a different crime that desertion of post in a combat zone. Nice try going for the connection.

Wow... that's worth knowing. Being a sergeant in the British army actually means something. I had no idea that a US sergeant was just a private whose been around for a couple of years. That's... an odd sounding system

You need to learn the definition of dereliction of duty. By all accounts he refused no order but left the base at the end of his shift. Whatever he is guilty dereliction of duty isn't it


And Trump has already proven collusion. Mueller is just assembling the facts.

^ ah ogion and his world of fantasy. The DNC actually paid money with the Clinton campaign to alter the election. That was admitted and is being reviewed by a judge. Leaving a post without relief is the same as dereliction. This isn't shift work. I cannot understand how you have a job ogion. Oh that's right you work for a nobody non-profit.

This was the subject of a Serial Podcast: https://serialpodcast.org/season-two/1/dustwun . Bergdahl has already had enough punishment as a POW living in a cage eating spam in a dark, dank room for two years. He was a young guy that made a stupid decision. I do agree that the Obama Administration calling him a hero when he was released from captivity was ridiculous. But more punishment, under the circumstances, is unnecessary. Listen to the podcast.

Thanks. That's roughly my point. Leaving the base was unwise (although I'm wondering what the role of the three Afghan allies he apparently went with was). However, the notion that he gets punished for stuff he didn't do is silly. Should we lock up all POWs for life for being captured? How about locking up soldiers who get. Aight in combat for making an error. For example, it sounds like the troops in Niger didn't follow protocol. Are we going to lock up the commanders there and all the soldiers for life for making a mistake also?

How has Trump proven collusion? Oh no He said the word “Russia” Collusion Confirmed.

Well, maybe the highest level contacts between himself and the Russian government over many years is a bit of a tip off. Then there's the calling for Russian criminal activity in public, which is a felony.

How about standing orders not to leave the base? If he walked off of the base, this was definitely a violation of orders.

Now, some claim he was kidnapped, which would mean he didn't desert.

Yes, he was quite clearly kidnapped, but while he was off base. Where there any orders not to leave base? Since there were no dereliction charges brought, presumably not.

Interesting that the purpose of his leaving base was to report misconduct in his unit. Kind of raises the question of how the Taliban knew Bergdahl was off base. Did the unit tell the Taliban to prevent him from busting them?

In any event, the "people died looking for him" has been repeatedly rejected by the Pentagon itself. But hey, facts don't matter.

Holy fuck Ogion... so much wrong.

1. yes there were orders for him to stay on post, and taking a walk is not allowed on duty

2. no the military did not send the taliban to kidnap and torture one of their own

3. he didn't walk off to report the misconduct, he walked off hoping that would spark an investigation


you... you my friend are Fake News

When you say base, you do realize he was at assigned to a tiny outpost in a hostile area of Afghanistan with no plumbing. When his relief arrived at his post, he was gone.He was a prisoner of the Taliban for five years not two. While he should not have abandoned his post, the larger question is why in the hell is the empire this important that we would assign a young man to it?

According to Bergdahl, he was walking to a base some 40 km away to report conditions at the op. The Pentagon denies soldiers died looking for Bergdahl. However, the standing order for all operations was to look for him, so the question is how do you attribute the deaths.

empire...? and Bergdahl himself has admitted that he walked off, and immediately realized that he'd made a mistake. he described himself to CNN as wanting to be like Jason Borne to prove that he hadn't messed up entirely

Octavious. Most army sgts have a much different path to attain that rank....teust me

yes "empire" as in what the hell are we doing in afghanistan, et al. Bergdahl is an idiot, we agree on that I think.