Questions surround Pfc. Bergdahl disappearance
There are a lot of questions surrounding the disappearance and capture of Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl. Last night, the Fish ran an article documenting the disappearance and propaganda video dispersed by his Taliban captors. The many questions surrounding his disappearance have, as one might expect, generated a lot of speculation. There are multiple accounts of exactly how he disappeared, leaving much to the imagination
On July 2, two U.S. officials told the AP the soldier had “just walked off” his base with three Afghans after his shift. He had no body armor or weapon and they said they had no explanation for why he left. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
On July 6, the Taliban claimed on their Web site that five days earlier “a drunken American soldier had come out of his garrison” and was captured by mujahadeen.
In the video, Bergdahl said he was lagging behind a patrol when he was captured.
Details of such incidents are routinely held very tightly by the military as it works to retrieve a missing or captured soldier without giving away any information to captors.
Afghans in contact with the Taliban told the AP that the soldier was held by a Taliban group led by a commander called Maulvi Sangin. They said the fighters initially planned to smuggle the soldier across the border into Pakistan but ruled that out because of U.S. missile strikes and Pakistani bombing attacks against militant targets in the area. Instead, they decided to move him north into Taliban-controlled areas of Ghazni province.
While all of these questions need to be hashed out, and are to be expected in this type of situation, this summation struck me as a bit over the top, and I am sure you would agree. Fox News had Lt. Col. Ralph Peters on today to discuss the issue. Sadly, Lt. Col. Peters never answered the questions posed to him, and went on a rant based on hardline conjecture, eventually leading up to his assumption that Pfc. Bergdahl deserted his unit, and even went so far as to suggest that the Taliban should do us a favor and kill him. Watch this video, to me it was shocking. Many thanks to the anchor Julie Banderas for attempting to soften his hardline rhetoric, indicating that we do not want to see any US soldier killed or captured. Lt.Col. Peters was doing his best not to allow her to do that, but she prevailed and got the last word in. If his claim is true, that Bergdahl is a liar and a deserter, than the US military should follow its protocall in dealing with this type of behavior. But Lt. Peters was way over the top in his implication that the Taliban should save us the legal hassle and take care of the problem for us. I mean, who is this guy!!!?
Here is the video, enjoy!
We should for the near future pray for the safe return of this young US soldier. The military is well equipped to deal with the facts when they come out, and they certainly will. If Peters is correct, than so be it..the military will deal with it. It is however, entirely too early to make the leap into these type of conclusions. The facts are not in. Lets just continue to hope and pray that Pfc. Bergdahl is brought back safely.
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There is a code of conduct that all soldiers are required to follow. In this video not only did the Q&A seem rehearsed but the young paratrooper seemed to know things off the top of his head that your normal every day pfc just doesn’t know. The soldiers whole demeanor seemed like he was in on the plan, as if he walked off post with the intention of being caught. His opinionated statements and outright lies against the US forces is a blatant disregard for Army Regulation. He stated there were no rules against using interrogation tactics and such things and for killing civilians on the battlefield. I can list about 40 different things preventing that, but the one that he should be most familar with is his Unit and or the centcom’s ROE. I have a hard time believing this soldier with his anti-american opinions is actually a POW.
While I agree with your assessment to an extent, the problem is that we currently do not have all the facts. For all we know, there may have been rifles aimed at his head off camera. I was also able to pick up some coercion in the background from whoever was interviewing him. I would hate to see that he was in on this, but I am willing to let the whole situation play out before coming to that judgement, I believe its hasty to do so at this point.