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Sgt Bergdahl comes home (finally)

Started by pate, June 01, 2014, 06:24:49 AM

pate

Quote from: albrecht on June 01, 2014, 11:01:48 AM
Like upon release of this five "leak" out how we have gotten key information from them under interrogation (even if not true) to sow discord and distrust into the enemy camp. Put some RFID tag on them and track them to their lair. Or even inject them with an isotope or biological that will eventually kill them and/or kill those around them.

One can dream... 

The isotope/biological plan is a bit dicey though, not sure that would be looked upon kindly.  Violation of the international laws of war and all.  But in defense of the idea, I have sometimes thought that by beheading prisoners and other tactics used by the enemy that they have forfeited their protections under the law.  Something about high moral ground...

I like the first two ideas though, more please!  heh

Yorkshire pud

Quote from: Quick Karl on June 01, 2014, 07:21:03 PM
So you're proud of your Military career but you're actually stupid enough to pass judgment based on a person's avatar that is designed, intentionally, to enflame idiots?


Ha ha ha!!! Give it up. You have Phil the beard as your avatar because you really want to be him. You want to have his babies. You'd settle for giving him a BJ, but you have a 'thing' for him don't you sweet cheeks? 

Quote
And you "engineered ships"? Surely, you are capable of critical thinking, I mean, at least you were at one time, right?


You probably couldn't pronounce Artificer, so he said what he said to keep it simple for you.


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Another desk jockey taking credit for what the top 10% of real warriors do -

'Real warriors' that march up on DC in their deluded belief they're starting an American spring you mean? The one you supported.

"MV it isn't fair, those nasty members of your clique are being unkind to me and reminding me of stuff I said once but wished I hadn't,
your's with a whimper, Qunt"

Quote
hey, I'll be the first to admit, we need a military infrastructure, to deliver bullets to the guys on the front line, but geez, a clerk, is still a clerk.

You really believe that just 'happens'? Magic and more magic make bullets and guys appear on the front line? You're more idiotic than I first thought. Some have told me in PM they think you're just a fucking retarded twat. I'm willing to accept their conservative estimate, but I'm also prepared to stick 'Incredibly' as a prefix.

paladin1991

Oh you girls.  Always playing at being so vexed with each other.  You know, the further right and the further left you play at...you eventually end up back to back.  Or maybe, face to face.  Better pop a breath mint.

Quick Karl

Yorkie must have had one seriously mean mother...

Jackstar

I vote for dosing them all with a bit of The Jeffrey, right before release.

http://youtu.be/OcM6PgX-Oc8

As most walls in Afghanistan are already furry, I see nothing going awry with this plan.

Yorkshire pud

Quote from: Quick Karl on June 02, 2014, 02:21:56 AM
Yorkie must have had one seriously mean mother...

I still have.... You?

SciFiAuthor

Quote from: Mind Flayer Monk on June 01, 2014, 09:38:43 PM
I read both of the articles that Doc Holliday posted and some things just don't match up. He was homeschooled in Idaho, in a strong Christian environment and learned to shoot and ride at age 5.  This just doesn't seem like the kind of person that would disappear from a unit.

I should have posted more, apologies. There's more breaking.

http://nypost.com/2014/05/31/the-bizarre-tale-of-americas-last-known-pow/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mixed-reaction-to-bergdahls-recovery-by-service-members-who-consider-him-a-deserter/2014/06/01/3713e3ce-e9c5-11e3-b98c-72cef4a00499_story.html

Who knows what is fact in the media today, but if there's a kernel of truth here, we've got a guy that wasn't so hot on the US to begin with and after years of Stockholm Syndrome, well, this could turn into a nightmare.


Quick Karl

I'm going to wait until I can listen to what he has to say, and if I can watch him say it, I am going to pay attention to his body language.

THEN, I will jump to a conclusion!  ;D

SciFiAuthor

Quote from: Yorkshire pud on June 02, 2014, 03:05:18 AM

Those stories are not true...The liberal media couldn't possibly write the truth.

Jesus Pud, just hand me something to beat you over the head with for months if it turns out right.

Quote from: SciFiAuthor on June 02, 2014, 03:03:44 AM
I should have posted more, apologies. There's more breaking.

http://nypost.com/2014/05/31/the-bizarre-tale-of-americas-last-known-pow/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mixed-reaction-to-bergdahls-recovery-by-service-members-who-consider-him-a-deserter/2014/06/01/3713e3ce-e9c5-11e3-b98c-72cef4a00499_story.html

Who knows what is fact in the media today, but if there's a kernel of truth here, we've got a guy that wasn't so hot on the US to begin with and after years of Stockholm Syndrome, well, this could turn into a nightmare.


No wonder Obama was so eager to get him back

Jackstar

Quote from: SciFiAuthor on June 02, 2014, 03:03:44 AM
well, this could turn into a nightmare.

What's he going to do, spill the beans on the use of depleted uranium? *yawn*

On the back pages by Thursday, replaced by news of new Brainghazi intel. Have they picked a new WH press shill yet? I will miss Jay Carney.

Yorkshire pud

Quote from: Paper*Boy on June 02, 2014, 03:22:25 AM

No wonder Obama was so eager to get him back

You're not believing what you read in the papers are you? It's all lies.

DocHolliday

Quote from: VtaGeezer on June 01, 2014, 11:39:00 PM
As for Bergdahl's status, there's considerable fog.  It appears he was certainly AWOL and probably guilty of some sort of abandonment of his post since it was a forward post. I think it only becomes desertion after 30 days, but he was captured and couldn't return if he had intended to.  There's no indication he intended to join the Taliban, or to act against US forces. Calling the kid a traitor is typical of the thoughtless over-the-top crap from the usual suspects. Its on the record that his unit was having ongoing leadership problems and turnover in the midst of hostile activity when he walked.

He is a traitor.  It is on record that Bergdahl was telling his father he was ashamed of being an American and didn't have faith in the U.S. or U.S. Army.  It's on record that he was learning Pashto and other local languages prior to leaving his post.  It's on record that he was asking "If I were to leave, what happens with my night vision and firearm?"

Call it what you will, and I'll call it what I will.  He's a traitor who had a premeditated plan to leave because his staph infection or whatever he had couldn't keep him from going downrange.

And we lost a lot of good guys trying to go find his ass who will never be seeing THEIR parents again.

Jackstar

Just because he's a fucking idiot, doesn't make him any less American.

VtaGeezer

Quote from: DocHolliday on June 02, 2014, 07:36:08 AM
He is a traitor.  It is on record that Bergdahl was telling his father he was ashamed of being an American and didn't have faith in the U.S. or U.S. Army.  It's on record that he was learning Pashto and other local languages prior to leaving his post.  It's on record that he was asking "If I were to leave, what happens with my night vision and firearm?"

Call it what you will, and I'll call it what I will.  He's a traitor who had a premeditated plan to leave because his staph infection or whatever he had couldn't keep him from going downrange.

And we lost a lot of good guys trying to go find his ass who will never be seeing THEIR parents again.
In the report I read, he studied Pushto because interaction with locals was his favorite part of his job.  I also read that he asked his sergeant if taking his combat gear would impact the unit...the sgt's reply was yes, and he left them. Where are you reading that there was a rescue attempt with casualties. I've seen/heard nothing on that.  I'm not defending Bergdahl but words have meaning and throwing virulent terms around serves no good purpose.  If Bergdahl is a traitor, what's an American who deliberately aids the enemy?
Written long before the current headlines...
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/americas-last-prisoner-of-war-20120607

Yorkshire pud

Quote from: DocHolliday on June 02, 2014, 07:36:08 AM
He is a traitor.  It is on record that Bergdahl was telling his father he was ashamed of being an American and didn't have faith in the U.S. or U.S. Army.


He wouldn't be alone with that opinion though. In context (and it's only a theory)..Ashamed he's American because he was ashamed that he'd signed up to something that he didn't feel was worthy...BUT...when you sign the dotted line you don't have the luxury of decided which conflicts you get sent to..

Lost his faith in the US? Maybe he saw how the US is seen from the point of view of those on the receiving end of carpet bombing. When you're in someone else's country you often get a new perspective on life.

Lost his faith in the Army? Well, if has also been reported his platoon was a bit dysfunctional, I can imagine he was royally pissed off that the organisation he expected wasn't forthcoming when his life (and others') literally depended on it.

Did he desert? Probably. Did he have justification? Probably not. Would I be pissed if one of my sons dies looking for him? Knowing what we know now, absolutely.

But he's clearly traumatised..I don't believe he's lost the ability to speak English. I think he may be in a state of shock though, and probably for some time to come. Will it all be resolved? Probably not.

Was exchanging the five from Git the right thing? Yeah, why not, there have been thousends released so far. Bear in mind almost all have been detained by some arbitrary order that the USA and not stood trial in open court: Who would have been the most outraged if it had happened to a US citizen?


paladin1991

Quote from: Jackstar on June 02, 2014, 08:53:18 AM
Just because he's a fucking idiot, doesn't make him any less American.
True dat.
In fact, it strengthens my view of my fellow Americans. 

DocHolliday

Quote from: Jackstar on June 02, 2014, 08:53:18 AM
Just because he's a fucking idiot, doesn't make him any less American.

trai·tor
ˈtrātər/Submit
noun
a person who betrays a friend, country, principle, etc.

I'd say willfully leaving your post to seek out the Taliban--your enemy--and leaving your comrades in arms short handed at a combat outpost (after saying you're ashamed to be an American and don't have any faith in your country or military), labels you a traitor.

But to each his own.

Yorkshire pud

Quote from: VtaGeezer on June 02, 2014, 08:55:00 AM

Written long before the current headlines...
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/americas-last-prisoner-of-war-20120607

From the foot of page 2.
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The prolonged aspect of the war was also forcing the Pentagon to send more and more recruits who were unprepared and undisciplined, like Bowe's unit. To meet its recruiting goals, the Army had lowered its standards for intellectual aptitude, and allowed more waivers for recruits with felony convictions and drug problems. "One of every five recruits required a waiver to join the service, leading military analysts to conclude that the Army has lowered its standards," Col. Jeffrey McClain wrote in a definitive study for the Army War College in 2008, the year many in Bowe's unit joined up.

DocHolliday

Quote from: VtaGeezer on June 02, 2014, 08:55:00 AM
In the report I read, he studied Pushto because interaction with locals was his favorite part of his job.  I also read that he asked his sergeant if taking his combat gear would impact the unit...the sgt's reply was yes, and he left them. Where are you reading that there was a rescue attempt with casualties. I've seen/heard nothing on that.  I'm not defending Bergdahl but words have meaning and throwing virulent terms around serves no good purpose.  If Bergdahl is a traitor, what's an American who deliberately aids the enemy?
Written long before the current headlines...
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/americas-last-prisoner-of-war-20120607

His favorite part of the job that he hadn't even performed yet?  My apologies if I don't find that very plausible at all.  Bergdahl was a PFC at the time he went missing on his FIRST deployment, during his FIRST stint in the Army.  He has no favorite part of the job because he has barely peformed any jobs in the Army.  He joined in the fall of 2008 and went missing in June of 2009--not even a year into the military.

As far as sources of soldiers dying while trying to look for Bergdahl, the Rolling Stone article I linked to already provides some insight of Taliban communications that were intercepted showing dialogue of how they were waiting for responding soldiers and littering the place with IEDs.

Also:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/02/we-lost-soldiers-in-the-hunt-for-bergdahl-a-guy-who-walked-off-in-the-dead-of-night.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2645922/Bowe-Bergdahl-deserted-Americans-lost-lives-searching-The-bitter-backlash-soldiers-served-Taliban-POW-SIX-men-killed-looking-revealed.html

http://myfox8.com/2014/06/02/fellow-soldiers-call-bowe-bergdahl-a-deserter-not-a-hero/

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/01/us/bergdahl-deserter-or-hero/

Yorkshire pud

Quote from: DocHolliday on June 02, 2014, 07:36:08 AM
  It's on record that he was learning Pashto and other local languages prior to leaving his post.

Yeah, well if more invading armies spoke the language of the country they're fucking, you'd be surprised how much information you can find out..


Hearts and minds , hearts and minds...

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The discipline problems that had plagued Bowe's unit back home only got worse when immersed in the fog of war. From the start, everything seemed to go wrong. In April, Lt. Fancey was removed from his post for clashing with a superior officer. He was replaced by Sgt. 1st Class Larry Hein, who had never held such a command â€" a move that left the remote outpost with no officers. According to four soldiers in the battalion, the removal of Fancey was quickly followed by a collapse in unit morale and an almost complete breakdown of authority.

The unruly situation was captured by Sean Smith, a British documentary filmmaker with The Guardian who spent a month embedded with Bowe's unit. His footage shows a bunch of soldiers who no longer give a shit: breaking even the most basic rules of combat, like wearing baseball caps on patrol instead of helmets. In footage from a raid on a family compound, an old Afghan woman screams at the unit, "Look at these cruel people!" One soldier bitches about what he sees as the cowardice of the Afghan villagers he is supposed to be protecting: "They say like, the Taliban comes down and aggravated­ their town and harasses them... Why don't you kill those motherfuckers? All of you have AKs. If someone is going into my hometown, I know my town wouldn't stand for that shit. I'd be like, 'Fuck you, you're dead.'" Another soldier laments, "These people just want to be left alone." A third agrees: "They got dicked with by the Russians for 17 years, and now we're here."

DocHolliday

Perhaps, but I might tend to disagree with you on your version of "fucking" their country.

Yorkshire pud

Quote from: DocHolliday on June 02, 2014, 09:30:29 AM
Perhaps, but I might tend to disagree with you on your version of "fucking" their country.

If you were an Afghan civilian, you wouldn't see the Taliban or the Americans as anything but unwelcome invaders, and fucking you over.

That disillusionment explained.

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Then, on June 25th, Bowe's battalion suffered its first casualty of the deployment. A popular officer, 1st Lt. Brian Bradshaw, was killed in a blast from a roadside bomb near the village of Yaya Kheyl, not far from the outpost. Though Bradshaw was in a different company, the 24-year-old's death rocked the unit, shattering the sense of invulnerability that accompanies those who have just arrived in country. Bowe's father believes that Bradshaw and Bowe had grown close at the National Training Center, and his death darkened his son's mood. It was all too much for Bowe. On June 27th, he sent what would be his final e-mai­ to his parents. It was a lengthy message documenting his complete disillusionment with the war effort. He opened it by addressing it simply to "mom, dad."

"The future is too good to waste on lies," Bowe wrote. "And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be american. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting."

The e-mail went on to list a series of complaints: Three good sergeants, Bowe said, had been forced to move to another company, and "one of the biggest shit bags is being put in charge of the team." His battalion commander was a "conceited old fool." The military system itself was broken: "In the US army you are cut down for being honest... but if you are a conceited brown nosing shit bag you will be allowed to do what ever you want, and you will be handed your higher rank... The system is wrong. I am ashamed to be an american. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools." The soldiers he actually admired were planning on leaving: "The US army is the biggest joke the world has to laugh at. It is the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies. The few good SGTs are getting out as soon as they can, and they are telling us privates to do the same."

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In the second-to-last paragraph of the e-mail, Bowe wrote about his broader disgust with America's approach to the war â€" an effort, on the ground, that seemed to represent the exact opposite of the kind of concerted campaign to win the "hearts and minds" of average Afghans envisioned by counterinsurgency strategists. "I am sorry for everything here," Bowe told his parents. "These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live." He then referred to what his parents believe may have been a formative, possibly traumatic event: seeing an Afghan child run over by an MRAP. "We don't even care when we hear each other talk about running their children down in the dirt streets with our armored trucks... We make fun of them in front of their faces, and laugh at them for not understanding we are insulting them."

Bowe concluded his e-mail with what, in another context, might read as a suicide note. "I am sorry for everything," he wrote. "The horror that is america is disgusting." Then he signed off with a final message to his mother and father. "There are a few more boxes coming to you guys," he said, referring to his uniform and books, which he had already packed up and shipped off. "Feel free to open them, and use them."
[/quote

DocHolliday

There are probably a number of Afghan civilians that welcome the U.S. eradication of the Taliban (if that's even a possibility).  Have you ever been there and talked to an Afghan civilian?

Quote from: Yorkshire pud on June 02, 2014, 04:28:27 AM
You're not believing what you read in the papers are you? It's all lies.


I have no idea.  I was being facetious about that being why O wanted him back.

If he is a whacko as reported, good chance he'll end up around here with our local nut-wing contingent, speechifying, 'protesting' from tree branches, helping tear up downtown when commanded and otherwise making a nuisance of himself.

Yorkshire pud

Quote from: DocHolliday on June 02, 2014, 09:39:05 AM
There are probably a number of Afghan civilians that welcome the U.S. eradication of the Taliban (if that's even a possibility).  Have you ever been there and talked to an Afghan civilian?

No, but I know a few ex military personnel who have.

Yorkshire pud

More from the link posted

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Ordinary soldiers, especially raw recruits facing combat for the first time, respond to the horror of war in all sorts of ways. Some take their own lives: After years of seemingly endless war and repeat deployments, active­duty soldiers in the U.S. Army are currently committing suicide at a record rate, 25 percent higher than the civilian population. Other soldiers lash out with unauthorized acts of violence: the staff sergeant charged with murdering 17 Afghan civilians in their homes last March; the notorious "Kill Team" of U.S. soldiers who went on a shooting spree in 2010, murdering civilians for sport and taking parts of their corpses for trophies. Many come home permanently traumatized, unable to block out the nightmares.

Bowe Bergdahl had a different response. He decided to walk away.

paladin1991

Quote from: DocHolliday on June 02, 2014, 09:39:05 AM
There are probably a number of Afghan civilians that welcome the U.S. eradication of the Taliban (if that's even a possibility).  Have you ever been there and talked to an Afghan civilian?
Probably.  But the vast majority of those poor bastards would love to be left alone.  By everyone. 
When I was there, none of the ppl I met spoke the Queens English, much less my PRC dialect.  We had to rely on 'thoroughly vetted' translators.  Vetted?  Some of these 'TV's' would finger assholes as Taliban or Taliban symps in order to settle some 100 year old slight between their families or villages.   

DocHolliday

Quote from: Yorkshire pud on June 02, 2014, 09:55:06 AM
More from the link posted

Never asked for help.  Never brought anything to the attention of his superiors.  Never told anyone but dad that he was unhappy.  Never asked to go home.  Never talked anything out with his peers.

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