Provided me by a career, senior NCO whom I know personally (not the writer of the comment above).
The WaPo has more.
Bergdahl, 28, is believed to have slipped away from his platoon’s small outpost in Afghanistan’s Paktika province on June 30, 2009, after growing disillusioned with the U.S. military’s war effort. He was captured shortly afterward by enemy forces and held captive in Pakistan by insurgents affiliated with the Taliban. At the time, an entire U.S. military division and thousands of Afghan soldiers and police officers devoted weeks to searching for him, and some soldiers resented risking their lives for someone they considered a deserter. ...
[A] comment attributed the deaths and woundings of several U.S. soldiers to the search for Bergdahl and asserted that the frequency of enemy ambushes and improvised explosive devices increased after he was gone.Update: Even CNN reports on the controversy.
“The Taliban knew that we were looking for him in high numbers and our movements were predictable,” said the comment, written by an anonymous poster who used military jargon and claimed to have been there.
“Because of Bergdahl, more men were out in danger, and more attacks on friendly camps and positions were conducted while we were out looking for him,” it continued. “His actions impacted the region more than anyone wants to admit.”
(CNN) -- 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.Update: Well, retired Gen. Jack Keane, former Army vice chief of staff, said on FNC this morning that the Taliban have never actually been designated a terrorist organization and therefore he sees no controversy in negotiating with them for Bergdahl's release. He added that since the president has made it clear that the US military will wholly withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of two more years, the question was whether Bergdahl would wind up the only US soldier remaining there, after five years in captivity already. Since we were going to have to take steps to effect his release sooner or later, Keane said, sooner is better than later.
"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."
The issue, Keane said, is not that we made a deal. It is that we made a really bad deal.
Posts
