According to the Washington Times, quoting from a “classified” report, Bowe Bergdahl has wandered off from his unit twice before the last and most famous “walk”;
A classified Pentagon report on Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s dissappearance in Afghanistan outlined how the soldier had wandered away from his unit on two occasions — once during training in California and once from an outpost in Afghanistan — prior to going missing in June 2009.
[…]
“We have no indication that he intended to leave permanently,” one government official familiar with the probe told Military Times. Several soldiers in Bergdahl’s unit told investigators that Bergdahl had previously talked about a desire to leave the base unaccompanied and may have done so and returned unharmed at least once before the night he disappeared, the official said.
It really doesn’t matter that he didn’t intend to leave permanently, I’m pretty sure there were rules against leaving the wire and wandering around at night to smell the flowers, or to have congress with goats or whatever excuse he’ll use. It’s not his intentions that counts, it’s the result.
Henry Mark Holzer writes a little history of past deserters and how they were punished and he concludes that given the lessons of the past, Bergdahl has little to worry about.
As the credulous are joyous over the safe return of Sgt. Bowe Berghdal after nearly five years of Haqqani captivity, and as every hour the Internet traffic swells with questions about whether Bergdahl was a deserter, sadly, if it’s the latter he probably won’t have too much to worry about.
Not only because Obama, Hagel, and others occupying dark corners of the administration now have a vested interest in Bergdahl and the POW narrative that they’ve wrapped him in, and not only because of the parades and keys to the city that will be proffered, but because the Pentagon’s track record of severely punishing desertion leaves much to be desired.
As far as the release of the five Guantanamo alumni, the Pentagon had successfully fended off White House attempts to release them before, but this time they were told to “suck it up and salute” according to Time Magazine as quoted in the Washington Times;
“This [sudden release] was out of the norm,” [an anonymous Pentagon official] continued. “There was never [a] conversation.”
“Obama’s move was an ultimate victory for those at the White House and the State Department who had previously argued the military should ‘suck it up and salute,’ says the official familiar with the debate,” reported Time.
National Security Counsel Deputy for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes told the magazine that “there was not a dissent on moving forward with this plan,” from representatives at the Pentagon, State Department, intelligence community and Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Officials who spoke with Time contradict that claim, saying of the released terror suspects: “These five are clearly bad dudes.”
But, like I’ve said before, it’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask for permission.
And then there’s this from Fox News;
U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl at one point during his captivity converted to Islam, fraternized openly with his captors and declared himself a “mujahid,” or warrior for Islam, according to secret documents prepared on the basis of a purported eyewitness account and obtained by Fox News.
The reports indicate that Bergdahl’s relations with his Haqqani captors morphed over time, from periods of hostility, where he was treated very much like a hostage, to periods where, as one source told Fox News, “he became much more of an accepted fellow” than is popularly understood. He even reportedly was allowed to carry a gun at times.
I could mitigate some of that. I would say crazy stuff to keep my head attached to my neck, too, so I’m between not believing it and not caring about it. But, it may affect you differently.
