Have we too many options?

[Mojo2]

Have we too many options?

Sometimes a menu lists selections or options or menu items which aren't really popular for a reason. But because it is presented as an option on the menu some yahoo or another will come along and choose it/them when everyone knows nothing good will come from it.

Everyone except the ajole who carefully selected THE worst choice on the menu.

Bowe Bergdahl sounds like he MIGHT have been raised by people who chose the alternative philosophies of Islam even though nothing good was going to come of it.

If they hadn't been led to believe that Islam was a viable lifestyle choice maybe Bo would have been more America-centric.

A draft: I wanted to complete this before posting, but I was prevented from it.

Will edit later. Sorry.

 

[waltky]

Did he or didn't he go AWOL?...

Mixed reaction to Bergdahl’s recovery by servicemembers who consider him a deserter
June 2, 2014 ~ Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s recovery after five years in captivity has rekindled anger among some of his military peers over how he came to fall into enemy hands and the price the United States has paid to get him back.

Bergdahl, 28, is believed to have slipped away from his platoon’s small outpost in Af*ghanistan’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. Bergdahl was recovered Saturday by a U.S. Special Operations team in Afghanistan after weeks of intense negotiations in which U.S. officials, working through the government of Qatar, negotiated a prisoner swap with the Taliban. In exchange for his release, the United States agreed to free five Taliban commanders from the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The news was hailed by President Obama on Saturday as a sign of Washington’s “ironclad commitment to bring our prisoners of war home.” But the reaction from current and former U.S. service members was decidedly more mixed. Some said that although they were glad to see Bergdahl freed, he needs to be held accountable for his choices. Disappearing from a military post in a war zone without authorization commonly results in one of two criminal charges in the Army: desertion or going absent without leave, or AWOL. Desertion is the more serious one, and usually arises in cases where an individual intends to remain away from the military or to “shirk important duty,” including a combat deployment such as Bergdahl’s.

Javier Ortiz, a former combat medic in the Army, said he is frustrated with Bergdahl’s actions and thinks he should be tried for desertion, even after five years in captivity in Pakistan. Many U.S. troops had misgivings about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while they were deployed but did not act on them as Bergdahl did, said Ortiz, of Lawton, Okla. “I had a responsibility while I was there to the guys I was with, and that’s why this hits the hardest,” said Ortiz, who was in Iraq from March 2003 to March 2004 with the 101st Airborne Division. “Regardless of what you learned while being there, we still have a responsibility to the men to our left and right. It’s terrible, what he did.”

After he went missing, the military conducted an extensive search for Bergdahl. The plan was to create a blockade that would prevent his captors from taking him far from Paktika province, especially into Pakistan. The bulk of other operations were halted to focus on finding Bergdahl. One Afghan special operations commander in eastern Afghanistan remembers being dispatched. “Along with the American Special Forces, we set up checkpoints everywhere. For 14 days we were outside of our base trying to find him,” he told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is a member of a secretive military unit.

But U.S. troops said they were aware of the circumstances of Bergdahl’s disappearance — that he left the base of his own volition — and with that awareness, many grew angry.“The unit completely changed its operational posture because of something that was selfish, not because a solider was captured in combat,” said one U.S. soldier formerly based in eastern Afghanistan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the search. “There were military assets required . . . but the problem came of his own accord.” The search in Paktika was eventually called off, after U.S. officials acknowledged that Bergdahl had been taken to Pakistan.

MORE

See also:

Army will conduct 'comprehensive' review of Bergdahl disappearance, captivity
June 3, 2014 WASHINGTON — The Army will conduct a “comprehensive” review of the disappearance and subsequent capture of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl by Taliban forces in 2009, the service announced Tuesday afternoon.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters Tuesday morning that an Article 15-6 investigation into Bergdahl’s disappearance had been conducted, but it is closed and the results are classified. That investigation was conducted by Combined Joint Task Force-82 in Afghanistan. It could be a while before the new review is launched. “Our first priority is ensuring Sgt. Bergdahl's health and beginning his reintegration process. There is no timeline for this, and we will take as long as medically necessary to aid his recovery … The Army will then review this in a comprehensive, coordinated effort that will include speaking with Sgt. Bergdahl to better learn from him the circumstances of his disappearance and captivity,” Secretary of the Army John McHugh said in a statement.

Bergdahl could face punishment if he deserted his unit, the top U.S. military officer suggested Tuesday. “As for the circumstances of his capture … we’ll learn the facts,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey said in a statement on his Facebook page. “Our Army’s leaders will not look away from misconduct if it occurred.” Decisions about potential punishment for Bergdahl won’t be made until after the review is complete, and they will be made “in accordance with appropriate regulations, policies and practices,” McHugh said.

On Saturday, the White House announced that it had released five detainees from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in exchange for the Taliban’s release of Bergdahl, who was being held by the militants following his capture in Afghanistan in 2009. President Barack Obama appeared in the Rose Garden next to Bergdahl’s parents to celebrate his release. In remarks made in Poland on Tuesday, Obama defended his decision: “The United States has always had a pretty sacred rule, and that is: we don’t leave our men or women in uniform behind,” Obama said during the first stop of a four-day European trip.

Asked about the circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture, Obama said that no one was debriefing him yet and that it did not change the responsibility to try to recover him. “Regardless of circumstances, whatever those circumstances may turn out to be, we still get an American prisoner back,” he said. “Period. Full stop. We don’t condition that.” But rather than being welcomed home, some are calling for Bergdahl to be prosecuted for desertion or other violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Under the UCMJ, desertion in wartime can carry the death penalty. Some of Bergdahl’s former unitmates and others in the military have accused Bergdahl of being a deserter, and that American soldiers were killed searching for him. Dempsey acknowledged that servicemembers risked their lives to try to find Bergdahl.

MORE

 

[Mojo2]

Did he or didn't he go AWOL?...

Mixed reaction to Bergdahl’s recovery by servicemembers who consider him a deserter
June 2, 2014 ~ Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s recovery after five years in captivity has rekindled anger among some of his military peers over how he came to fall into enemy hands and the price the United States has paid to get him back.

Bergdahl, 28, is believed to have slipped away from his platoon’s small outpost in Af*ghanistan’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. Bergdahl was recovered Saturday by a U.S. Special Operations team in Afghanistan after weeks of intense negotiations in which U.S. officials, working through the government of Qatar, negotiated a prisoner swap with the Taliban. In exchange for his release, the United States agreed to free five Taliban commanders from the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The news was hailed by President Obama on Saturday as a sign of Washington’s “ironclad commitment to bring our prisoners of war home.” But the reaction from current and former U.S. service members was decidedly more mixed. Some said that although they were glad to see Bergdahl freed, he needs to be held accountable for his choices. Disappearing from a military post in a war zone without authorization commonly results in one of two criminal charges in the Army: desertion or going absent without leave, or AWOL. Desertion is the more serious one, and usually arises in cases where an individual intends to remain away from the military or to “shirk important duty,” including a combat deployment such as Bergdahl’s.

Javier Ortiz, a former combat medic in the Army, said he is frustrated with Bergdahl’s actions and thinks he should be tried for desertion, even after five years in captivity in Pakistan. Many U.S. troops had misgivings about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while they were deployed but did not act on them as Bergdahl did, said Ortiz, of Lawton, Okla. “I had a responsibility while I was there to the guys I was with, and that’s why this hits the hardest,” said Ortiz, who was in Iraq from March 2003 to March 2004 with the 101st Airborne Division. “Regardless of what you learned while being there, we still have a responsibility to the men to our left and right. It’s terrible, what he did.”

After he went missing, the military conducted an extensive search for Bergdahl. The plan was to create a blockade that would prevent his captors from taking him far from Paktika province, especially into Pakistan. The bulk of other operations were halted to focus on finding Bergdahl. One Afghan special operations commander in eastern Afghanistan remembers being dispatched. “Along with the American Special Forces, we set up checkpoints everywhere. For 14 days we were outside of our base trying to find him,” he told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is a member of a secretive military unit.

But U.S. troops said they were aware of the circumstances of Bergdahl’s disappearance — that he left the base of his own volition — and with that awareness, many grew angry.“The unit completely changed its operational posture because of something that was selfish, not because a solider was captured in combat,” said one U.S. soldier formerly based in eastern Afghanistan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the search. “There were military assets required . . . but the problem came of his own accord.” The search in Paktika was eventually called off, after U.S. officials acknowledged that Bergdahl had been taken to Pakistan.

MORE

See also:

Army will conduct 'comprehensive' review of Bergdahl disappearance, captivity
June 3, 2014 WASHINGTON — The Army will conduct a “comprehensive” review of the disappearance and subsequent capture of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl by Taliban forces in 2009, the service announced Tuesday afternoon.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters Tuesday morning that an Article 15-6 investigation into Bergdahl’s disappearance had been conducted, but it is closed and the results are classified. That investigation was conducted by Combined Joint Task Force-82 in Afghanistan. It could be a while before the new review is launched. “Our first priority is ensuring Sgt. Bergdahl's health and beginning his reintegration process. There is no timeline for this, and we will take as long as medically necessary to aid his recovery … The Army will then review this in a comprehensive, coordinated effort that will include speaking with Sgt. Bergdahl to better learn from him the circumstances of his disappearance and captivity,” Secretary of the Army John McHugh said in a statement.

Bergdahl could face punishment if he deserted his unit, the top U.S. military officer suggested Tuesday. “As for the circumstances of his capture … we’ll learn the facts,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey said in a statement on his Facebook page. “Our Army’s leaders will not look away from misconduct if it occurred.” Decisions about potential punishment for Bergdahl won’t be made until after the review is complete, and they will be made “in accordance with appropriate regulations, policies and practices,” McHugh said.

On Saturday, the White House announced that it had released five detainees from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in exchange for the Taliban’s release of Bergdahl, who was being held by the militants following his capture in Afghanistan in 2009. President Barack Obama appeared in the Rose Garden next to Bergdahl’s parents to celebrate his release. In remarks made in Poland on Tuesday, Obama defended his decision: “The United States has always had a pretty sacred rule, and that is: we don’t leave our men or women in uniform behind,” Obama said during the first stop of a four-day European trip.

Asked about the circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture, Obama said that no one was debriefing him yet and that it did not change the responsibility to try to recover him. “Regardless of circumstances, whatever those circumstances may turn out to be, we still get an American prisoner back,” he said. “Period. Full stop. We don’t condition that.” But rather than being welcomed home, some are calling for Bergdahl to be prosecuted for desertion or other violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Under the UCMJ, desertion in wartime can carry the death penalty. Some of Bergdahl’s former unitmates and others in the military have accused Bergdahl of being a deserter, and that American soldiers were killed searching for him. Dempsey acknowledged that servicemembers risked their lives to try to find Bergdahl.

MORE

His team leader, Sgt. Evan Buetow, tells us the story here.

It leaves little room for any other conclusion.

He voluntarily left his unit and failed to be where he was assigned to be (he was gone when someone went to wake him to stand watch). He left and sought out the enemy without any firearm after having mentioned his disapproval of our mission in Afghanistan and having mailed his laptop home in the weeks before he left his unit.

Whatever the legal charges are, we know he had a soft spot for the Jihadists and went on his own volition, to join them.

That's all i need to know.

I will listen to any other extenuating circumstances but it seems obvious from the Sgt.'s account that Bergdahl is guilty.

Now, to learn the details from Bergdahl's perspective.