The GOP is swift-boating Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl

[scheming daemons]

And it is despicable .

"Support the troops" my ass.

They're more than willing to shit on a US serviceman if it can be used as a tool to bludgeon Obama.

Have they no shame AT ALL?

[trotsky]

1. "Have they no shame AT ALL?"

I think that question was pretty much settled YEARS ago.

[alsame]

2. I hope all members of the military,

as well as their families and friends, are paying attention to things the GOP are saying, writing and tweeting. How they can vote GOP is mind boggling.

[seveneyes]

3. The jury is still out on this person

It's no more prudent to attack him than to clamor on his bandwagon. The truth is yet to be distributed among us.

[MH1]

9. Exactly - but they should back how the military chooses to handle it.

You can sure as hell bet that's what they would say if it were a Republican president.

From what I've seen there are several versions of how he was captured, and from 5 years out it may not be possible to know the truth. The military is not going to support the "deserter" accusation if there isn't really good proof.

It reminds me of the purple heart bandaids at the Republican convention in 2004. By doing that, the GOP mocked every person that ever won a purple heart, effectively saying "we don't trust the process, and just because it was awarded to you doesn't mean you deserved it ... WE will decide if you deserved it .... even though we weren't even there ... if you don't pass our political test than you must not have earned it unless you lost a limb."

Similarly, here they are undercutting the military's handling of the question. Maybe the military should be questioned on how they handle these things generally, but not at the expense of a vulnerable person who has just been rescued from a nightmare, and on whom there is no solid evidence of guilt.

Also, please realize that whatever happened when he was captured, the person who came back is by now a different person than the one who began their deployment in Afghanistan several years ago.

[longship]

18. ^^THIS^^

This whole thread has some very good, well thought out posts. But this one really nails things down. We just do not know at this time what happened. It is best to trust the process. The military is not likely to screw this one up.

[Aristus]

22. "Unless you lost a limb."

Don't forget, Max Clelland lost three limbs, and the repukes had no hesitation about disrespecting him and his service.

[A Simple Game]

24. Not to mention Tammy Duckworth. n/t

[mylye2222]

49. As well as McCain too

[Cha]

44. They walked all over Bob Dole too, who was advocating a Disability law, on their way

to vote it down. Koch rules his little kochroaches with an iron-fist.

[951-Riverside]

15. +1

Some people can't function unless they pick a team first (Democrat or Republican).

Maybe he deserted, maybe he was captured or maybe he deserted then was captured. Right now we don't know but I'm not going to form my opinion on the matter based on "my team" versus "their team".

[TwilightGardener]

28. There's no "bandwagon"--he's an American soldier who has been brought home.

That is cause for celebration, no matter what dumb things he did. Whether or not he served honorably is immaterial to getting him back--especially after five years in captivity.

[spanone]

4. with media help.....

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[atreides1]

8. It's kind of ironic

John McCain signed documents and made statements against the US involvement in Vietnam, and he became a hero...

So far the only information we have from his former "comrades" is that he just walked away...if that's the case why was he promoted?

We don't know what happened. or what may have caused Sgt. Bergdahl to just up and leave...maybe his treatment by his "brothers" because he was 'different',caused him to just say "fuck it, I'm outta here"!

I've served in the Army and even in combat support, we had our not so decent moments when it came to a soldier that didn't fit in...I can only imagine how much more difficult things could be for an infantry soldier at a front line position.

So, I will wait until the Army has conducted an investigation...that way I can have a more informed opinion.

[MH1]

10. I don't get the promotion, either.

If it's true that he went AWOL, then promoting him must have been a major SNAFU. Not that the military has never done one of those.

Still, I really think we should defer to the military's determination in the matter. (How can there be any question of that anyway? We sure as hell weren't there.)

By the way, thank you for your service. I was also in, for a few years a long time ago, but not ever in a really dangerous assignment.

[TwilightGardener]

31. They promoted him because of time in service/time in grade--automatic.

They haven't yet determined that he went AWOL--most likely don't have enough evidence or they are waiting for Bergdahl to defend/explain himself since he's still alive, but was unable to until now.

[riderinthestorm]

16. Not a single soldier appears to have actually seen him leave. Nobody knows what really happened

There appears to be a lot of hostility and jumping to conclusions about him without any evidence.

None of the accounts by anyone contains an eyewitness view of what happened.

[malaise]

5. Then they're swiftboating all of Idaho

which is a really bad idea politically.

Please proceed ReTHUGs.

[hamsterjill]

20. Exactly!

n/t

[nilesobek]

33. Yeah I heard what Butch Otter

said today about the Bergdahl controversy the Republicans created, "be that as it may," (Otter meaning the prisoner trade and questions about Bergdahl's character.) then he continued, "we are glad that Idaho could get him back."

You are known by the company you keep Mr. Otter. He knows it might be a political pitfall to participate in the swift boating. He might have to sit out the next round of Obama bashing.

[Blue_In_AK]

37. And Alaska

He was based out of Fort Richardson here in Anchorage. We followed this story closely.

[malaise]

40. Very interesting

Thanks for that

[Leme]

6. ahh, some of this might become public some year

From what little I watch on this, seems he took a walk. Not sure what prompted that. Not sure whether it was just to be a stroll, or a Carlos Castaneda adventure.

[Zen Democrat]

14. What American solder would "take a walk" in Afghanistan? Not sure anyone knows except Bergdahl.

We're leaving Afghanistan. We don't leave our guy there.

Do we know if the 5 terrorists released from Gitmo are healthy? They may be mentally gone.

[Hoyt]

21. Yeah, he'd have had to be on a suicide mission to stroll around in that locality.

If he did walk off, he had to be really despondent. I want to hear his side of it, not a bunch of buddies who might not have liked him because he wasn't as gung-ho about what was going on.

[A Simple Game]

26. That's the first thing I thought of, desert in Afghanistan? To where? n/t

[JoeyT]

43. There could be a whole lot of reasons.

First and foremost: If he has PTSD, it can make you do some pretty odd stuff.

You can never tell. He might've been chatting with someone on facebook that claimed to be a woman from the area and he was going to visit.

We could list reasons other than going AWOL that he might've wandered off all night.

[spanone]

34. if you've watched 'little' on this, how can you form the opinion that 'he took a walk' ?

[Leme]

36. well, to me it appears he took a walk

if you think it definitely is something else... post it.
-
I just do not trust current info...but it appears there was some sort of voluntary action on his part. he was no longer in his secure zone. Nothing mentioned about a kidnapping.
-
and it was just a guess, a hypothesis... not an opinion.

[spanone]

39. it doesn't matter what anyone thinks.

[Leme]

41. hey, pay attention !!!

that's why I started here with "some of this might become public some year" lol

[B2G]

7. Evidently so are some of his fellow soldiers nt

[AtheistCrusader]

11. shame? No. No they don't.

[Zen Democrat]

12. Blows my mind that McCain is criticizing a POW release. He's the Statue of Hypocrisy

[mopinko]

13. i gotta think, at this point, they have screwn the pooch.

between this and the blatant lies on the va situation, and i gotta think that their fat, fat base of veterans is gonna sit this one out.

in fact, it would be a fun little project for the du brain trust to map out the heavily retired military districts and just watch them suckers go red to blue come nov 4.

[George II]

17. I can't say I'm surprised, just surprised at how long they took to start it.

[chrisa]

19. I really don't care if he deserted. Maybe he had just had enough. Maybe he was a traitor?

The GOP only supports troops that fit their cartoony version of the army - straight out of a Chunk Norris movie. This is something more complex. There isn't enough info to make a determination about this story, but the GOP seems to be pushing the "traitor" narrative blindly.

[NuclearDem]

23. Does it really matter?

A POW is back, and Gitmo is a little more empty. I don't particularly care who anybody in this equation is.

[War Horse]

42. That might be conceived as progress, yes n/t

[mindfulNJ]

25. Despicable indeed.

I suppose the Rethugs would rather have the Taliban deal with of our "deserters"?? The fact that John McCain, former POW, is in the middle of this is doubly despicable.

[Spirochete]

27. Since when does the GOP

dislike deserters? After all, they ran one for president twice...

[bigtree]

29. now the GOP hates POWs

. . . who's next?

[Arkana]

30. How is it not supporting the troops to get Bergdahl back before they killed him?

I suppose Obama could have traded arms for hostages. Then they'd hail him as a transformative leader.

[jmondine]

32. No they don't. And BTW, that is NOT the same as having "guts" or "balls".

There is nothing brave about being without morality or integrity.

[JHB]

35. It's not about him, it's about using him as yet another pretext to attack Obama

I don't know enough to have any strong opinion on Bergdahl one way or the other. His fellow soldiers have their views; maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong. I'll leave figuring that out to those who investigate his situation thoroughly.

As for the media attention to the allegations, though...

What I do have an opinion on is conservatives using him as yet another tool to carp about Obama: "he negotiated with terrorists! For a traitor! Raarrrrrrrrrggghhhhh!"

You may recognize this from the Clinton years: throw balls of elephant dung at him fro any reason (or none) to see if any sticks. What doesn't stick will pile up at his feet, so then they can point to the fogbank of steam rising off it and gravely note: "well, you know the old saying, where there's smoke...."

That's why this is being promoted.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

38. Yup

Well said

[Nonhlanhla]

47. You're 100% right

That's the reason for all the "scandals" that apparently only Fox watchers are aware of. I think your analysis is spot-on.

[JHB]

48. "arranged by Republican strategists"

Here's how that applies to this case. Emphasis added by me:

“Yes, I’m angry,” Joshua Cornelison, a former medic in Sergeant Bergdahl’s platoon, said in an interview on Monday arranged by Republican strategists. “Everything that we did in those days was to advance the search for Bergdahl. If we were doing some mission and there was a reliable report that Bergdahl was somewhere, our orders were that we were to quit that mission and follow that report.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/us/us-soldier-srgt-bowe-bergdahl-of-idaho-pow-vanished-angered-his-unit.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0

Just to make clear: I don't have a position in the Bergdahl situation. I don't have a dog in that hunt. I don't know any of those people personally, so I can't evaluate who the good actors are, who the bad actors are, who is merely mistaken, who could shed more light but we haven't heard from, what the actual records are, etc.

I'll leave that to people doing real investigations, and if warranted, a court martial.

But I sure as hell will condemn Republicans for playing politics with it, and when interviews are "arranged by Republican strategists", that's exactly what's going on -- in Washington and in the media.

[Nonhlanhla]

50. This is just politics to them

If Obama had left Bergdahl there, and specially if Bergdahl had died in captivity, they would be screaming bloody murder as well. Obama is damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't. His actions do not matter - whatever he does, they will spin it into a fake scandal.

I can just hear them if this had been Bush: "no matter whether this guy may (or may not) have deserted, America does not leave its soldiers behind." And they would have reminded everyone that pres. Bush was clever enough to get an American solider back essentially for free, since the 5 terrorists would have been freed soon anyway (which is true). But no, Obama Derangement Syndrome does not allow them to even rejoice that the last American prisoner of war in Afghanistan has been freed.

The issue is not the potential desertion of this soldier, but the fact that Obama is president.

[wandy]

53. +1 More GOP noise created for lovers of GOP noise.

[Cha]

45. Want this to blow back in their collective weasely face.

[yeoman6987]

51. Well they definitely don't have any shame

However, if these facts are true then it really can't be Swift-boating. We still have to wait and see what the investigation turns up. Things don't look good for the Sergeant or his fan base, but time will tell what the ultimate conclusion will be. This will not be tomorrow, next week and POSSIBLY not until next year depending on how bad his medical problems are.

[maxrandb]

52. You do realize

that if a Republican were in the White House, the Repukes would praise the release of this soldier, blame his walking away from his post on "left-wing surrender monkeys" who tear America down, and caustically question the patriotism of anyone who would dare question the motives of this POW.

I expect that from the Repukes, but I can't believe that there are folks here on DU who have already convicted Bergdahl of "desertion" and "treason".

Whether we like it or not, we fed and clothed this young man, had some no-neck flat-top Drill Instructor yell at him for 12 weeks, sent him to a fucking hell-hole in our name, had him serve under our flag...AND EVERY FUCKING ONE OF US IS RESPONSIBLE....and I mean EVERYONE

To put it simply, if we hadn't sent his ass over there, he wouldn't have been in a position to be fucking held by the Taliban for 5 FUCKING YEARS.

I wish every fucking DUer who starts talking shit like "Derserter", or "Traitor", would have a fucking opportunity to take his fucking place.

We should be damn fucking thankful that he is coming home to his parents. Ask the fucking 10's of thousands of parents who will never see their kids again, or had them come back with missing arms and legs, whether they would give a fuck what some wing-nut asshats on Faux News say about their child, if that were the price thay had to pay to hold their son or daughter again.

I'm sorry, but I spent 29 years in the military, and defaming this guy gets me so "effing" pissed I can't see straight.