THIS GUY IS NOT A HERO. What a piece of shit. In case anybody in the military who has deployed has never had whats called a DUSTWUN, it's a REAL HUGE use of our resources. We dealt with two when I was over there, but it turned out the poor guy was blown up so bad, we could only find skull fragments, and another guy who we found in a canal, it turned out he drowned. You mobilize EVERY resource in your area and essentially shut down the whole province. TRUE 24/7 checkpoints, 24/7 patrols looking for whoever is missing, ALL resources used towards the recovery. There is nothing that is available that you don't use to find him. You do things you wouldn't normally do like abandon all "normal" safety precautions, because you want to find the guy. This guy LEFT his COP on his own accord. He is a fucking traitor and deserves to be treated like one for the men that died as a result of them looking for him. He is a selfish piece of shit that doesn't deserve the rank of SGT, nor does he deserve a home coming welcome. There is no justification for what he did. He caused other soldiers LIVES to be taken and even more put at risk because he didn't agree with the war. Fuck him and more important fuck our infamous leader who thinks that he is above all of the rules and checks and balances that we have established. First we negotiated with terrorists. Second, we didn't give congress the proper notification to do this trade. Three, we traded 5 "Peyton Mannings" for a "Jamarcus Russel". All 5 of those guys are HIGHLY dangerous and have American blood on their hands. What a terrible fucking day.

so may back seat quarterbacks.

half probably believe what they read in the national enquirer or get in fake emails.

always need something to complain about

He is entitled to a trial.

If he is innocent, well, untie the yellow ribbon from 'round the old oak tree, and party.

If he is guilty of desertion, aiding and assisting the enemy, the penalty for treason is death.

There damm well better be a trial given the assertions by members of his unit.

There damm well better be tracking devices in the assholes traded to secure his release so the drones can go in for the kill in a year plus.

Let's keep our heads a little bit on this instead of going into full emo=patriot meltdown ok?

WAS the guy a flake? maybe.

Was/is he mentally ill? Possibly.

Did he knowing, and freely give aid and comfort to the enemy? The ARMY will decide that.

IF he did, then we STILL did the right thing, because in my mind, that made him worse than the five we traded him for, so we still came out on the fat end. He'll get to sit before a jury of officers and senior NCO's.

On the question of moral equivalents, we just put sgt Bales in Leavenworth for murdering 15 Afghan civilians, including children.

We just had an American "kill team" prosecuted with the system bending over backwards for them.

Nobody said fuck all then.

So spare me the righteous indignation.

Now I'm a firm believer in the edict that only soldiers should judge other soldiers, and Bergdahl is surely being judged.

But the one argument I am not not going to accept is the concept of our soldiers getting killed in the search for him.

These guys who, actively engaged in combat operations are bitching because they had to go outside the wire on combat operations.

It's WAR gentlemen. Unless you were sent over there to sit behind the barrier, that is what you are there for. It would seem to me the hunt for Bergdhal was just another mission. You don't get to chooses, You raised your hand to be sent into any shit-hole on the planet on any fucked up mission that can be devised.

What's the diff? Who gives a shit whether you are there to save Karzai's ass, so little girls can go to school, or the cinc wants to look good?

So at ease with the bitching.

Are you even in?

No its not just "another mission". You sound extremely clueless about how deployments work and when we do "missions". "These" guys save your life by going outside the wire and staying behind the "barrier". So unless you have deployed SHUT your mouth and enjoy your freedom. If you have been then you should be ashamed of yourself for talking like that. Those "missions" that those soldiers were on, were unnecessary, if Bergdahl didn't walk off the COP, none of this would have happened. Yes it is hard to justify risking your life for a deserter, especially in a time of war.

Anytime we negotiate with terrorists, we are setting a bad precedent. I would rather die for my country then have them do a prisoner exchange for me, as I could guess the vast majority of my battle buddies.