Wow! You are doing more intellectual contortions than I’ve ever seen on Free Republic.
Bowe’s own fellow service members on the ground said he deserted.
His father by his very own words sympathizes with the Islamists.
I’m sorry if you’re close to these people, but your acting like none of this matters is disturbing.
“Bowe’s own fellow service members on the ground said he deserted.”
Some did; not all.
I am not trying to do intellectual contortion. The fact is that there are many conflicting reports about what happened. They can’t all be true. So I don’t understand why everyone seems to be eager to believe the worst of them.
I am not close to these people. I am close to someone who is close to them.
His father spoke some Pashto to a son who is reported to be speaking nothing but Pashto right now. I don’t think that should condemn him. If he praised Allah, I don’t support it. If it was just a use of “allah” as the generic word for God, which is a true use of the word, then I don’t find it particularly objectionable.
All I am trying to say is, why the rush to believe the worst, here? I don’t find that to be intellectual contortion.