Free Republic

Attention, all troops peeved with your platoon sergeant, bored with your field rations, or who just want a little private time: It’s okay to desert your post in a combat zone. It’s fine for you to trigger the deaths and grave woundings of better men than you. A military judge just set a precedent: Deserters in wartime walk free. You’ll probably get a book deal, too, and be portrayed as a hero in a big-budget film. The US Army colonel and judge who decided Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s fate has some explaining to do. How is it that a confessed...

Thank you for contacting me to relay your concerns regarding Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, prisoner of war who went missing in Afghanistan in 2009. I appreciate you taking the time to share your views with me. As you know, on June 20, 2009, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl went missing while serving in Afghanistan. Since that time, Islamic militant groups have released multiple videos showing Sergeant Bergdahl, the most recent of which was released in January with a reference date of December 14, 2013. As a former POW, please rest assured that I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress to...

I have spent a good deal of time considering how to approach this column. We know about the "fog of war" when first reports of action are typically incorrect because of the confusion borne of people shooting at each other.There is also the "fog of five years" when memories that might have been, contemporaneously, crystal clear have become fogged with retelling, hearing others retelling, or just plain forgetting certain parts and innocently filling in the blanks.Finally, there is the Galen/Gore Gallop wherein if we tell a story long enough we think it actually happened, even if we made it up...

(Please excuse the vanity but I did do a diligent search and didn't find a current news article addressing this issue.) The Afganistan War is a war conducted under the auspices of NATO, with some 28 nations cooperating with each other to achieve their goals, some by providing troops and some by providing funds. Not all prisoners at Gitmo were captured by US forces; some prisoners were captured by NATO forces and ended up at Gitmo. So while the USA provides the jail cells and the meals, aren't Gitmo prisoners from the battlefields of Afganistan actually NATO prisoners, and not...