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For several weeks now, since President Barack Obama held a Rose Garden event to brag about his exchange of five Taliban terrorist leaders for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the patronizing elite of the left have scolded conservatives and a few fellow Democrats for a hateful “rush to judgment.” Critics are not supposed to listen to, or place any credibility in, multiple members of Bergdahl’s unit, who have declared publicly that the former prisoner of war is a deserter. We’re not supposed to draw any conclusions about anything, they tell us, until “all of the facts are known.” After all, Bergdahl...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)American Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, while held prisoner in Afghanistan, was locked in solitary confinement for two straight years and did not see another human face for that entire time, senior military sources with knowledge of his "reintegration process" told Fox News. Officials said Bergdahl, during that period, only talked to his captors through the wall of a six-foot-by-six-foot metal box, in which he was kept. The box was just big enough for him to stand up straight and stretch his arms. If he was ever taken out of the box, Bergdahl was apparently hooded. Bergdahl told officials that this treatment...

‘Was He Worth It?” blared the cover of Time magazine, as if that should be the question Americans ask in light of the release of Bowe Bergdahl after five years of brutal captivity by the Taliban. No, the question we should be asking is a version of the one Pope Francis made famous in a different context: “Who Are We To Judge?” Who are we, in the safety of our civilian homes, to judge whether an American soldier captured overseas is worthy of rescue? Who are we to decide whether, somehow, the fact that he was imprisoned for so many...

If he couldn’t tend to the coasts, why’d the Army think he could handle the Taliban? The U.S. government confirmed Wednesday that Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was discharged early from the Coast Guard, after only 26 days in boot camp, two years before he tried to enlist in the Army. The fact raises questions on a third front that has nothing to do with how Bergdahl came to be captured by the Taliban, or how much the Obama Administration did to win his freedom May 31 in an exchange for five senior Taliban leaders: why did the Army let a failed...

Prior to his Army service, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was “administratively discharged” from the Coast Guard after only 26 days in 2006. U.S. Coast Guard and Army officials confirmed to CBS News that the sergeant who was recently exchanged for five Taliban detainees had joined the Coast Guard before the Army, but was dismissed for unclear reasons just 26 days later. Lt. Col. Elaine Conway told CBS News that the Army knew of Bergdahl’s discharge from the Coast Guard, and said they are “looking into” whether it was known at the time of his enlistment into the Army. An “uncharacterized discharge”...

[SNIP]...Responses from more than 8,800 service members, their spouses, veterans and retirees to questions regarding Bergdahl's release show the military community would not forgive Bergdahl and want him held accountable if he willingly left his post on June 30, 2009...[SNIP]...About 95 percent of the more than 1,000 active duty, Guard and Reserve troops who responded to the survey said Bergdahl should face a court-martial or separate punishment if it is found he deserted his unit. If Bergdahl is convicted, 86 percent of survey respondents said Bergdahl should not receive back pay for the past five years. The voluntary survey was...

This generation is going to have to study war some more, alas. Even admirals today don’t seem to know how it works outside their politically corrected service academies. Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, commented the other day that — wait, they assign admirals as flacks now? Isn’t that expensive? Anyway, Rear Adm. Kirby doesn’t think the American military leaves anyone behind. “When you’re in the Navy, and you go overboard, it doesn’t matter if you were pushed, fell or jumped,” he said the other day in justifying the prisoner exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. “We’re going to...

Death Penalty Month at anncoulter.com has already been interrupted by the psycho in Santa Barbara, and now it’s being interrupted by the Buddhist in Bagram. Keeping to the spirit of Death Penalty Month, let’s review the execution of Pvt. Eddie Slovik. Slovik’s offense: desertion in wartime. (See the tie-in?) Unlike Bowe Bergdahl, who deserted his unit, according to the accounts of his comrades, Slovik never actually deserted. He also didn’t call America a “disgusting” country or say he was “ashamed to be an American.” Slovik was just a chicken.

Since his release nine days ago, many have been wondering why Bowe Bergdahl has been so quiet! Latest reports say he hasn’t even spoken with his parents since being handed over by the Taliban! Well, according to one caller allegedly familiar with the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Bergdahl’s silence is due to the fact that he has already been put under arrest! On Monday’s show, “Richard from Saginaw”, called in and told Tom he understands that Bergdahl is expected to be charged with 11 counts — all related to his mysterious 2009 disappearance. Richard said he worked with the...

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl could be entitled to about $300,000 in back pay and special compensation following his release as a Taliban prisoner, experts say. Service members designated by the Defense Department as "captive, missing or missing in action" are entitled to receive back pay and allowances, officials said. Any additional pay and allowances earned such as promotions or special entitlements are not issued until they are officially recovered or classified as deceased. However, questions remain over how much Bergdahl will receive and how much he is able to keep as he faces potential charges following allegations from his former unit...

"At least a dozen guys just walked off their posts" in Afghanistan since 2009 for a variety of reasons, said an experienced soldier, one of four Afghan war veterans familiar with the incidents who spoke to ABC News. The other sources estimated the number could be more than a dozen.

President Barack Obama is moving ahead with his push to close the Guantanamo Bay prison despite the uproar over the exchange of five Taliban prisoners for a captured American soldier, an administration official said Thursday. The Periodic Review Board has determined that more former 'forever prisoners,' including one who says he has been reformed by practicing yoga and another who was a bodyguard for Bin Laden but now wants to start a 'milk and honey farm' are fit for release to their homelands or repatriation. Ghaleb Nasser al Bihani, 35, told a parole board in April that he had read...

A former U.S. intelligence official, who worked on covert operations throughout the Middle East and Latin America, claims the scuttlebutt among Beltway security experts is that there may be an a abrupt end to the freedom of the Taliban terrorists released from Guantanamo Bay's detention center, he intimated on Sunday. "With all the negative publicity generated by [President Barack] Obama's Taliban prisoner swap for an Army sergeant, Bowe Bergdahl, the Commander in Chief is being offered plans for covert operations to 'terminate with extreme prejudice' the five terrorists now living relatively free in the Arab nation [of] Qatar," said the...

U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was promoted while held prisoner by the Taliban, said he wants to be recognized by his old rank, according to a senior U.S. official. "In his mind, he's a Pfc," the official told CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr on Sunday. Now in the beginning of the lengthy road to reintegration after his exchange for five Taliban commanders previously held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, Bergdahl is letting those around him know he still feels like a Pfc, regardless of his in-absentia promotion. The U.S. official could not confirm to CNN whether...

This Bergdahl swap is emitting a growing stench that is more apparent to those who are serving and those who have served. A huge question is why those who served in Bergdahl’s squad, platoon and company may have been intimidated into silence by being required to sign Non-Disclosure-Agreements by their superiors. My take on that is that the Army and the Obama administration were embarrassed by the desertion and probable defection of an American G.I. in Afghanistan. Knowing what I have learned in the past five years about this “most transparent” administration, they were eager to avoid the negative publicity...

The platoon was, an American military official would assert years later, “raggedy.” On their tiny, remote base, in a restive sector of eastern Afghanistan at an increasingly violent time of the war, they were known to wear bandannas and cutoff T-shirts. Their crude observation post was inadequately secured, a military review later found. Their first platoon leader, and then their first platoon sergeant, were replaced relatively early in the deployment because of problems. But the unit — Second Platoon, Blackfoot Company in the First Battalion, 501st Regiment — might well have remained indistinguishable from scores of other Army platoons in...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) It is well established now that Bowe Bergdahl, the Army sergeant for whom Barack Obama traded five top Taliban jihad commanders to get him out of captivity in Afghanistan, is a deserter. But there are also numerous indications that Bergdahl is something even worse: a traitor to the United States of America. Although the White House continues to ignore the evidence that Bergdahl deserted, every day new revelations make the case increasingly compelling. According to Colonel David Hunt, Bergdahl “called his unit the day after he deserted to tell his unit he deserted.” Nathan Bradley Bethea, a former infantry...

Chris Matthews Is Not a Fan of This Bowe Bergdahl Deal MSNBC’s Chris Matthews doesn’t seem to have gotten the channel’s memo on the Bowe Bergdahl deal. Many liberal pundits on his network have shown nearly lockstep support for the Obama administration’s handling of the trade of five Taliban commanders for Bergdahl, who’s been accused of desertion by many of his fellow soldiers. However, Matthews, usually a huge fan of the president, has sharply criticized the cost of the trade, the national security consequences of releasing dangerous “Johnnies” as he put it, the actions of Bergdahl himself and the legality...

"If I've lost Neuman, I've lost Middle America." That's how we imagine President Obama reacting to being scathed by MAD magazine. The Usual Gang of Idiots tweeted a parody poster yesterday for "Barack Obama's Unfortunate New Movie," titled "Trading Private Bergdahl." The tag line: "They got five Taliban leaders. We got one deserting weasel. The mission is a disaster." Obama is depicted as the lead actor, with the Taliban quintet in supporting roles. The picture is rated "NC" for "No Congressional Approval." How in the world did an administration known for political competence, if for no other kind, manage to...

A former Veterans Affairs official apologized Thursday for suggesting that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl may have left his post in Afghanistan five years ago because he was surrounded by “psychopaths.” “While I just wanted to make the point that the public should wait before passing judgment, I unfortunately used my own poor judgment in choosing inappropriate language that many view as disparaging to U.S. service members,” Brandon Friedman, who currently serves as a spokesman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, told BuzzFeed. “That was certainly not my intent and I regret making the comments on my personal account...