US Army POW is released in swap for 5 Gitmo detainees.

RLENT

Veteran Expediter
Isn't Ralph Peters the wing-nut-in-residence at Faux News that was doing all the speculating about Bam's love affair and gay sexing with Hugo Chavez ?
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
A carefully modulated whitewash: [Watch] Col Ralph Peters - Deserter Bergdahl Desk Job a Dangerous Whitewash, Obama Saving Face |

The military brass aren't going to allow an outcome which further embarrasses the president.
I don't know if the military brass would go to such lengths to protect Obama from embarrassment, but Obama would certainly go to any lengths in ordering that nothing is allowed to embarrass him. We know that because he's made a career out of it.

But I don't know that Bergdhal is being whitewashed, either. He's been placed on duty in a desk job at Ft. Sam Houston in an office that deals with homeland security issues in civil support and security cooperation activities with Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas. Riveting stuff. He also lives on the base in noncom officer housing. Basically, he's living and working where they can keep a close eye on him, despite the pedestrian claim that that "he's just another soldier in the U.S. Army."

He's lawyered up, but being placed back on active duty will allow him to be informally questioned, and asked questions they probably couldn't otherwise ask if he was in custody under charges. The meat of the investigation is just beginning, and keeping him close and active is probably the best way to handle it.

I do think it's very odd that, so far, he has refused to speak to his parents.
 

layoutshooter

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
When I was in anyone suspected of deserting would be in the stockade while the investigation took place. Which is where he belongs.
 

jelliott

Veteran Expediter
Motor Carrier Executive
US Army
I agree. This would never have happened while I was serving. I don't understand this at all. I didn't realize they had rewritten the UCMJ. Probably a Presidential decree or executive order. :(
 
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layoutshooter

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
He had better watch his back, someone is going to "Tune" that guy up. Can't say that I blame them either. Soldiers tend to look out for each other.
 

aristotle

Veteran Expediter
Hard to believe it took this long
With that thought in mind, it wouldn't be surprising if the military brass, knowing they have to put up with Obama only another 18 months or so, begin trying to right a lot of current wrongs. Our nation's professional military class is permanent and takes the long view, while the occupant of the White House is transitory, and in the current case, a whimsical social engineer clueless about military tradition.
 

aristotle

Veteran Expediter
Hearing reports this weekend that the Army official reviewing Bergdahl's case is recommending no jail or punitive discharge for the alleged deserter. Whitewash mission accomplished?
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
Depends on what the investigation came up with. Abandoning the post is pretty bad in my opinion, and I think deserves being stripped of rank, pay forfeiture, and a dishonorable discharge, because there is no honor in abandoning your post in which others are counting on you to man. But I'm not in the military so I don't know how it works. It doesn't appear that he was sympathetic to the Taliban, and if that's the case then I don't think jail time is necessarily warranted. According to General Dahl, Bergdahl wanted to call attention to what he considered poor leadership of his unit, and believed that that by leaving his post and running the 14 miles to a nearby base he could cause a stir and gain access to a high-ranking officer to complain. So, according to Dahl, Bergdahl didn't abandon his post in sympathy for the enemy, but rather for personal reasons. There is no honor in that.
 

davekc

Senior Moderator
Staff member
Fleet Owner
For some odd or maybe not so odd reasons, there are a lot of blank spaces in this whole thing.
 

Moot

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
According to General Dahl, Bergdahl wanted to call attention to what he considered poor leadership of his unit, and believed that that by leaving his post and running the 14 miles to a nearby base he could cause a stir and gain access to a high-ranking officer to complain.

During the Vietnam War poor leadership was solved by fragging the lieutenant, not by running 14 miles to another base.
 

aristotle

Veteran Expediter
If Bergdahl doesn't get a dishonorable discharge at a minimum, then every military servicemember who has received a less than honorable discharge should be entitled to an upgrade in separation status.
 
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