Posted on 06/04/2014 10:04:07 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is reportedly scheduled for a promotion.
CNN’s Barbara Starr reports that a defense official said that Bergdahl will be promoted because he has not been classified as a deserter. The official also told CNN that the Army needs to hear from Bergdahl as to why he wandered away from base and how he got captured..
Bergdahl was promoted twice after he was taken prisoner in June 2009. He was promoted to the rank of specialist in June 2010 and then sergeant in June 2011.
Bergdahl is hospitalized at a U.S. military in Germany as questions mount at home over the swap that resulted in his freedom in exchange for the release of five detainees who were sent to Qatar from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo, Cuba.
Even in the first hours of Bergdahl’s handoff to U.S. special forces in eastern Afghanistan, it was clear this would not be an uncomplicated yellow-ribbon celebration. Five terrorist suspects also walked free, stirring a debate over whether the exchange would heighten the risk of other Americans being snatched as bargaining chips and whether the released detainees — several senior Taliban figures among them — would find their way back to the fight.
U.S. officials said Sunday that Bergdahl’s health and safety appeared in jeopardy, prompting rapid action. “Had we waited and lost him,” said national security adviser Susan Rice, “I don’t think anybody would have forgiven the United States government.” She said he had lost considerable weight and faced an “acute” situation. Yet she also said he appeared to be “in good physical condition” and “is said to be walking.”
One official, who spoke on grounds of anonymity because the person wasn’t authorized to discuss the subject by name, said there were concerns about Bergdahl’s mental and emotional as well as physical health.
On Monday, a U.S. military hospital in Germany reported Bergdahl in “stable condition and receiving treatment for conditions requiring hospitalization” after arriving from Afghanistan. The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center said Bergdahl’s treatment “includes attention to dietary and nutrition needs after almost five years in captivity” but declined to release further details. It said there “is no pre-determined amount of time involved in the reintegration process” for the 28-year-old soldier.
Two officials said Monday that the Taliban may have been concerned about his health, as well, since the U.S. had sent the message that it would respond harshly if any harm befell him in captivity.
Republicans in the U.S. said the deal for Bergdahl’s release could set a troubling precedent. Arizona Sen. John McCain said of the Guantanamo detainees who were exchanged for him: “These are the hardest of the hard core.”
And in Kabul Monday, the Afghan Foreign Ministry called the swap “against the norms of international law” if it came against the five imprisoned Taliban detainees’ will. The ministry said: “No state can transfer another country’s citizen to a third country and put restriction on their freedom.”
Tireless campaigners for their son’s freedom, Bob and Jani Bergdahl thanked all who were behind the effort to retrieve him. “You were not left behind,” Bob Bergdahl told reporters, as if speaking to his son. “We are so proud of the way this was carried out.” He spoke in Boise, Idaho, wearing a long bushy beard he’d grown to honor his son, as residents in the sergeant’s hometown of Hailey prepared for a homecoming celebration.
The five detainees left Guantanamo aboard a U.S. military aircraft flying to Qatar, which served as go-between in the negotiations. They are to be banned from leaving Qatar for at least a year. Among the five: a Taliban deputy intelligence minister, a former Taliban interior minister with ties to the late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and a figure linked by human rights monitors to mass killings of Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001.
Questions persisted, too, about the circumstances of Bergdahl’s 2009 capture. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel declined to comment on earlier reports that the sergeant had walked away from his unit, disillusioned with the war. Such matters “will be dealt with later,” Hagel said.
But the former Pentagon official said it was “incontrovertible” that he walked away from his unit.
The military investigation was broader than a criminal inquiry, this official said, and it didn’t formally accuse Bergdahl of desertion. In interviews, members of his unit portrayed him as a naive, “delusional” person who thought he could help the Afghan people by leaving his army post, the official said.
U.S. military and intelligence agencies had made every effort to monitor Bergdahl’s location and his health, the official said, through both signals intelligence and a network of spies.
Nathan Bradley Bethea, who served as an officer in Bergdahl’s unit, said in an article Monday on the Daily Beast website that Bergdahl was not on patrol, as some reports have suggested.
“There was no patrol that night,” he wrote. “Bergdahl was relieved from guard duty, and instead of going to sleep, he fled the outpost on foot. He deserted. I’ve talked to members of Bergdahl’s platoon_including the last Americans to see him before his capture. I’ve reviewed the relevant documents. That’s what happened.”
Hagel, visiting troops in Afghanistan, was met with silence when he told a group of them in a Bagram Air Field hangar: “This is a happy day. We got one of our own back.” At the White House on Monday, press secretary Jay Carney said the exchange “was absolutely the right thing to do.” In much the same tone as the president over the weekend, he said: “The United States does not leave our men and women behind in conflict.”
“In a situation like this, you have a prisoner of war, a uniformed military person that was detained,” Carney said.
Asked in an NBC “Today” show interview about victory claims by the Taliban, Carney replied, “I caution anyone against buying the propaganda of terrorists.” In weighing the swap, U.S. officials decided that it could help the effort to reach reconciliation with the Taliban, which the U.S. sees as key to more security in Afghanistan. But they acknowledged the risk that the deal would embolden insurgents. Republicans pressed that point. “Have we just put a price on other U.S. soldiers?” asked Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. “What does this tell terrorists, that if you capture a U.S. soldier, you can trade that soldier for five terrorists?”
I watched the video of his turnover. Aside from this man rubbing his eyes a lot, there was nothing about him that looked ‘dire’ or ‘urgent’ or the condition that Rice attributes Obama’s headlong rush into lawlessness.
FURTHERMORE. It is TELLING, that before he was allowed to board the helicopter, he was frisked.
This tells me all I need to know. The man is a traitor.
They seem to have completely skipped 2012/2013, and going right for the 2014 promotion. I'm not totally versed on the progression of military rankings, but so as to not shortchange the guy, shouldn't he advance at least to a lower-rung General?
Then how did he get promoted if he was a PFC when he took off? There's that other case of the guy in Iraq, Matt Maupin. He was a PFC when he was captured, was later killed by his captors, and a couple of years later when his remains were recovered the media was saying he was a Staff Sergeant. Does the Army just bump them up in grade on a regular basis on the assumption they'd have made that rank if they had served the whole period?
Discussed on another thread:
For enlisted POW’s promotions are a matter of time & grade, for the most part.
For other active duty bucking for NCO you have to take the appropriate leadership courses & achieve a sufficiently high score in testing. Then you branch establishes a “cut-line” for your particular MOS based on all scores. Then the promotion board weighs “other considerations”.
POW’s get promoted along — I guess — because the assumption is that they didn’t have the opportunities to further their career while in captivity.
The whole story seems to have a slight smell of outdated milk. I kept my record unquestionable in the military & still couldn’t get promoted anywhere near on schedule.
So you think anyone who wants to desert the Army, should just be able to take off, and the Army shouldn’t even bother to go back to him?
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A deserter getting a promotion? Only in obungler’s military.
I wish I could answer your question. I was Army in the 60s. Promotions up to E-4 were pretty much automatic provided you weren’t a total screw-up. I had to go before the CO and a couple of Warrant Officers and answer questions to determine proficiency in my MOS in order to get my Spec. 5 promotion (that rank no longer exists, btw). Even then it was two more months before a slot opened up. While it’s possible to make SSGT. in one enlistment, it rarely happens. And regardless of when you are up for the promotion it’s not a gimme by any means.
Of course, that was almost fifty years ago. No doubt times have changed.
There is a PR win for our side if the White House has to respond.
Besides, the idiot liberals put me on their spam lists along time ago.
Not so bad to see their game plans ahead of time.
We have the Taliban inside of our WH yet life goes on, business as usual. The FACADE of Obamadullah being black comes off. He AIN'T BLACK, he's Middle Eastern.
Anything that can be done by the administration to shame the American people out of viewing this Traitor as a Traitor will be done.
Did I say anything like that?
People died looking for him. That’s what I said. That should figure in at his trial.
I do know that after 2010 when they Army itself had determined he went AWOL, when they considered SF missions to go in and get him becuase they knew pretty much where he was, the SF refused because they figured they would lose more people and it was not worth it.
I am glad he is back if they will put him through the Artcile 32, the court martial, and bring him to account for what he did.
So, right after he went missing, of course they were going to try and find him. But when it became clear how costly that was becoming, particularly because they pretty much knew he had deserted, they slacked up on it. Then when they determined for usre he was AWOL, the were very careful about losing more people over it. But of course they wanted him back.
I still feel the price...with the five animals they gave up...was far too high. Better to have waited until they could nab him at far less risk.,..even if that took a few more years.
I wonder if he’ll take the $300k back to Afghastan and build a school for the Afghan children he cares so much for? Oh wait, the Taliban that he has allegiance too doesn’t allow schools.
Disregard.
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Maybe Obama will dub him the new Commander in Chief./s
Obama is a "hands off" delegating kind of president.
It keeps his skirts clean.
The creep can’t do any worse. But I’d hate to see the father and mother moving into the White House.
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On hold until this settles down or until the next crisis takes its place.
What do you do when you’re Branded and you know you’re a man?!
You and I are old................
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