Benghazi Mouthpiece Susan Rice: Likely Deserter Bowe Bergdahl "Served with Honor and Distinction"

Six non-deserting US troops were killed searching for this guy.

She also claimed he was "captured on the battlefield."

Susan Rice, like Ron Burgundy, will literally read whatever is put on a card in front of her.

This CNN piece linked by Mornin' Ben is worth your time.

The sense of pride expressed by officials of the Obama administration at the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is not shared by many of those who served with him, veterans and soldiers who call him a deserter whose "selfish act" ended up costing the lives of better men.

"I was pissed off then, and I am even more so now with everything going on," said former Sgt. Matt Vierkant, a member of Bergdahl's platoon when he went missing on June 30, 2009. "Bowe Bergdahl deserted during a time of war, and his fellow Americans lost their lives searching for him."

Vierkant said Bergdahl needs to not only acknowledge his actions publicly but face a military trial for desertion under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Incidentally, when Chuck Hegel (who is a moron) was asked about the alleged desertion, he offered a non-answer and said that such questions would be answered "later."

Note that this answer, while evading offering an answer, is much better than Rice's. While Hegel won't say if Bergdahl deserted, Rice affirmatively implies he did not, but instead served "with honor and distinction."

At least six soldiers were killed in subsequent searches for Bergdahl, and many soldiers in his platoon said attacks seemed to increase against the United States in Paktika province in the days and weeks following his disappearance.

Many of Bergdahl's fellow troops -- from the seven or so who knew him best in his squad to the larger group that made up the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division -- told CNN that they signed nondisclosure agreements agreeing to never share any information about Bergdahl's disappearance and the efforts to recapture him.

One of the soldiers who went out looking for this guy, Nathan Bradford Bethea, pens his own article on the subject.

For five years, soldiers have been forced to stay silent about the disappearance and search for Bergdahl. Now we can talk about what really happened.

....

After we redeployed, every member of my brigade combat team received an order that we were not allowed to discuss what happened to Bergdahl for fear of endangering him. He is safe, and now it is time to speak the truth.

And that the truth is: Bergdahl was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down.

...

Though the 2009 Afghan presidential election slowed the search for Bergdahl, it did not stop it. Our battalion suffered six fatalities in a three-week period. On August 18, an IED killed Private First Class Morris Walker and Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen during a reconnaissance mission. On August 26, while conducting a search for a Taliban shadow sub-governor supposedly affiliated with Bergdahl’s captors, Staff Sergeant Kurt Curtiss was shot in the face and killed. On September 4, during a patrol to a village near the area in which Bergdahl vanished, an insurgent ambush killed Second Lieutenant Darryn Andrews and gravely wounded Private First Class Matthew Martinek, who died of his wounds a week later. On September 5, while conducting a foot movement toward a village also thought affiliated with Bergdahl’s captors, Staff Sergeant Michael Murphrey stepped on an improvised land mine. He died the next day.

It is important to name all these names. For the veterans of the units that lost these men, Bergdahl’s capture and the subsequent hunt for him will forever tie to their memories, and to a time in their lives that will define them as people. He has finally returned. Those men will never have the opportunity.

Worth reading in full. He also suggests that a deadly attack on a US base could have been detected earlier, and better repelled, if its complement of drones and surveillance aircraft not out looking for Bergdahl.

We gave up four five Taliban terrorists for this guy?

Think about the price that sets for an actual American hero, or an American innocent.

It's an open invitation to capture just two or three non-deserting soldiers to get all of Gitmo emptied out.

posted by Ace at 02:12 PM

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