Posted on 10/14/2015 8:18:13 AM PDT by xzins
After a preliminary hearing, Army officials are recommending Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl get off without jail time or a punitive discharge for walking off his Afghanistan military base in 2009. He could even get back pay and lifetime disability payments. The recommendation leaked out Sunday, infuriating some of Bergdahl’s former platoon-mates. Instead of examining Bergdahl’s crimes, the hearing whitewashed them.
Why the cover-up? To make President Obama look good. Last year, Obama was criticized for swapping a “dream team” of five top Taliban warriors from Guantanamo for a deserter who had fallen into enemy hands. Reinventing Bergdahl as a hero makes that trade sound acceptable. Disgracefully, that is what the Army is doing.
Defending the swap last year, administration official Susan Rice claimed Bergdahl had served with “honor and distinction.” The hearing was scripted to make that fairy tale claim look true. Inside the 393-page transcript is evidence of a cover-up.
Bergdahl didn’t tell his story at the hearing. Instead the defense called Major General Kenneth Dahl, who had been assigned to investigate Bergdahl’s disappearance and had interviewed him for one and a half days. Dahl spun an implausible tale that Bergdahl never intended to desert. Instead he planned to leave the base for one night, run to a neighboring military base and tell an unnamed general there about mismanagement in his platoon. Huh? The nearest base was 30 kilometers (nearly 20 miles) away over rugged terrain. Running there in the dark night — near physically impossible. It was a crazy alibi, but no one questioned it.
Dahl painted Bergdahl as an idealistic, patriotic, naive man — saying he resembled John Galt in Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged.” Shockingly, no one presented evidence to dispute this phony portrait, though there is plenty: the email Bergdahl had sent his parents saying “the horror that is America is disgusting” or his comments to his platoon-mates disparaging the war effort.
The biggest ruse: the flat denial that any of Bergdahl’s fellow soldiers lost their lives looking for him. The issue came up twice. Dahl was asked whether he investigated that question. Dahl said he had not, because he was told not to. Yet moments later, he stated “there were no soldiers killed who were deliberately looking and searching for … Sergeant Bergdahl. I did not find any evidence of that.” Of course he didn’t. He was ordered not to look.
Bergdahl’s three commanders all testified that as soon as he went missing, a massive search was launched. Thousands of infantry were pushed to their limits, spending 45 days in sweltering 100-degree plus days and cold nights, combing remote areas and driving though villages, down roads and into terrain they had not entered previously. Major S. Silvino testified that IED blasts doubled, and his soldiers faced higher risk because they were searching unfamiliar territory, and were weakened by fatigue and lack of water.
It was compelling testimony, but the fix was already in. The hearing officer announced right afterward that military officials had already agreed to exclude it: “To the extent that Major Silvino or any other government witness testified that there were injuries suffered by U.S. forces during the alleged search and recovery operations, I will not consider this as evidence.”
Some of his platoon-mates have been all over television calling Bergdahl a deserter. They were not on the witness list. Gregory Leatherman, who served with Bergdahl and is no longer in the military, was brought in to testify that Bergdahl was mentally troubled.
But one the Army’s top forensic psychologists, Dr. Christopher Lange (who was not called to testify) examined Bergdahl and reported that in 2009, Bergdahl “was able to appreciate the nature and quality and wrongfulness of his conduct.”
“Wrongfulness.” Not at this charade hearing. The defense called captivity expert Terrence Russell and set him up by asking about “public efforts to smear the reputations of soldiers who are captured.” He answered that Bergdahl is a hero for serving “his country with honor in captivity.”
Bergdahl’s lawyer closed by saying that Bergdahl “is deeply grateful to President Obama for saving his life.”
What about the lives of the men and women in uniform who serve bravely? This hearing dishonored them. Now it will be up to General Robert Abrams, commander of the U.S. Army Forces, to clean up this dishonorable mess.
For example: "Some of his platoon-mates have been all over television calling Bergdahl a deserter. They were not on the witness list. Gregory Leatherman, who served with Bergdahl and is no longer in the military, was brought in to testify that Bergdahl was mentally troubled."
A real show trial would have this guy dead in the ground before Pravda even announced his pending arrest.
With this administration, it’s Potemkin villages all the way down. Nothing done under Obama’s authority can be regarded as legitimate.
You can’t convict Obama’s Only American Muslim War Hero ,will if they did Obama would Pardon him anyway
Desertion of one’s post in time of war and in the face of the enemy is TREASON and should be prosecuted as such.
Bergdahl should have been shot.
5.56mm
I will be disappointed beyond belief at my army, if the desertion charge, at a minimum, is not made to stick. It is irrefutable.
My dad who fought in WWII is a hero to me. He said they would shoot deserters back then. That’s it!
What can be done about this - who do you call - how can they get our (the people’s) views on this? If he gets off this will be awful!!!
exactly !
Didn’t people die doing trying to save him? One report I read (on Free Republic) said nobody died.
He wants another crack at Bergdahl’s mama.
The Romans would have DECIMATED his legion.
The undocumented Moslem makes him a Prince.
What an appalling travesty! Will ANYONE have any faith in our Army if this miscarriage of justice rules the day??? Obama sure has found a myriad of ways to destroy this once great nation.
Dahl is a weak kneed wimp....happy I am NOT in the US Army any more.....what a coward. You are right BirdDog should have been shot....
Robert Redford's next movie is: "Bergdahl - An American Hero" Hollywood will disgrace themselves one more time on the alter of lies... it's how they can look at themselves in the mirror...hold those lies tight and keep pushing them... Ignore cracks in the wall. Robert Redford - you're a fool...
Democrats don't understand that they're going to have to pay the piper for this crap and it ain't gonna be pretty...
And you wonder why a so-called Mgr General would prostitute himself ... Under Obola’s Pentagon?
Looks like the only chance for justice for this deserter is Gen. Robert Abrams to have the stones to ignore the recommendation from this Article 32 and call for a general courts-martial.
I know nothing of Gen. Abrams other than he’s from an Army family.
Obama only has a year to go after him, if he does the right thing.
I’ve no doubt they can prove the desertion. The fantasy cooked up by Bergdahl’s defense attorney, that Bergdahl was actually leaving to report abuse in his unit, is a ridiculous claim that’s easily disputed by Bergdahl’s own comments and by the integrity of other unit members.
The desertion charge will stick. It should be a general court martial.
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