You had to know this was coming.
The New York Times has already intimated in passing that it wasn\’t bowe bergdahl, it was everyone else in his unit.
Now The Times has progressed to a feature article which tries to make this claim.
You can use the above link to read it all if you care to. But here are a few key excerpts:
Theplatoon was, an American military official would assert years later,”raggedy.”Butthe unit – Second Platoon, Blackfoot Company in the FirstBattalion, 501st Regiment – might well have remainedindistinguishable from scores of other Army platoons in Afghanistanhad it not been for one salient fact: This was the team from whichSgt. Bowe Bergdahl disappeared on June 30, 2009.
Hisformer platoon mates gave sharply contradictory accounts of howSergeant Bergdahl viewed the war, and America\’s proper role init. Theirplatoon commander, who some described as less than inspiring, wasrelieved weeks into the deployment, replaced by the platoon’ssergeant first class, who was popular and respected by the troops.Then, a few months later, the sergeant found himself in trouble afterpictures appeared online showing some in the platoon wearingbandannas and cutoff T-shirts. Such garb was not uncommon at remotecombat outposts, but it angered and embarrassed commanders, and ithelped lead to the sergeant\’s dismissal soon after SergeantBergdahl disappeared.
Justhow and why Sergeant Bergdahl disappeared remains a mystery to hisfellow soldiers.Theysay they do not remember his leaving behind any note or explanation.They said they were unaware that he had previously wandered off thebase, asthe internal Army review reported.
Andthey vehemently disputed reports that implied he had seen a vehiclefrom his unit run over an Afghan child, which Sergeant Bergdahl hadapparently told his parents in an email before his disappearance.That never happened, his fellow soldiers said.
Amazing, isn\’t it, how someone whom every member of his unit who has spoken out has accused of deserting, is not the problem. The problem is that his first platoon commander may not have been very good.
Assuming this to be correct, that platoon commander was was relieved and replaced by someone “popular and respected” who was there when bergdahl deserted. So what possible difference does the first commander\’s performance make?
And what difference does it make that he was relieved after bergdahl deserted, for something that had absolutely nothing to do with bergdahl himself?
And what difference does it make whether his fellow soldiers knew how and why he deserted to the fact that he did so, or whether they knew he “wandered off the base” previously without deserting?
bowe bergdahl deserted. He emailed his parents detailing disgust with the army and with his country, before walking into a village looking to connect with the taliban. I\’ll bet his fellow soldiers didn\’t know that either, but – again – what is the difference, if it happened. What they do know is that he voluntarily left, and that radio transmissions were picked up that he was in the village seeking out talibam members.
The Times can try all it wants, but unless and until those facts are shown to be false – and not one soldier so far has disputed their veracity – the Obama administration put five major-league terrorist murderers back in business to get an American-hating deserter.
Trying to deflect these realities by telling us that there were problems with his platoon – like that they wore bandanas and cutoff t-shirts, as if that something in any way meaningful to bergdahl\’s desertion – is an obvious, and ridiculous, dodge.
