Doug Mataconis does a good job of outlining the issues at present regarding this case:
“… the deal that led to Bergdahl’s relase came under fire from Congressional Republicans due both to its terms, which included the release of five Taliban prisons from the Guantanamo Bay facility, and due to the stories that quickly began to circulate which suggested that Bergdahl’s capture occurred after he had abandoned his post, and even allegations that Bergdahl had aided the enemy in some way while he was being held captive. While a story about an American returning home after five years of captivity should seemingly have been overwhelmingly positive for the Administration, but the opposite soon turned out to be the case.”
As a veteran, I’ve noticed some veterans angry about his case and support locking him up forever based on FOX News talking points and others who trust the military justice system to handle it without political parties and political ideologies having a say.
On the other hand, the OVERWHELMING majority of people I see talking about this until their mouths are frothing out buckets of foam are conservatives who never served a day. The same people are nowhere to be found on issues of daily importance to veterans such as the suicide rate, the utter incompetency of the military justice system with regard to military sexual trauma and retaliation, a lack of accountability at either DoD or VA for failures in their treatment of active duty and veterans, etc. Their “support for the troops” is mostly limited to hating Bergdahl and Obama for negotiating his release or cheer-leading for more wars.
I agree that this case needs to be dealt with under the UCMJ, but don’t think for a second that when I see assholes on the far right talking about this case that their interest is based on actual support for the troops.
These are the same people who are completely silent when Congress fails to do anything substantial to deal with the problems I mentioned above.
Yellow ribbon bumper stickers, flag-waving, talking points, and empty slogans = jack shit.
I see the far right’s fanatical interest in Bergdahl and I am not fooled that it is anything other than partisan political opportunism. Sergeant Bergdahl will get his day in court. In the mean time, loud-mouthed chicken-hawks need to take a seat and shut their filthy, undisciplined mouths instead of trying to manipulate a legal system they are lucky to have never faced while guzzling whatever swill they drink when masturbating to FOX News.