Bergdahl scandal; a Veteran's perspective

Although the military system is different, it is not ture that you are guilty until proven innocent. What is different is that the military will make sure that the court marital will be the last option, not the first. It takes a lot to get someone to a general court martial and it needs to be pretty damn evident of a crime. But even in a court martial, you are stil innocent until proven guilty. It is the scuttlebutt that says otherwise and that is what we have here, unfortunately.

 

Alwayssa,

It is just serendipity that my personal opinions,
influenced strongly by my years of service in the Army,
the evidence strongly on display regarding the deserter Bergdahl,
and
the shrill cries from the far-right on in-synch this particular time.

As I said earlier, regarding the Republicans, even a blind squirrel gets a nut every now and then.

In the end, Bergdahl will either serve time in Leavenworth for desertion, or he won't.
The US military has it's processes and procedures, and due-process will ensue.

I don't particularly like Republican politicians, if the truth be told.
They are compromisers, crooks, and incompetents.

I also do not like Democrat politicians either.
They are dishonest, crooked, and completely out of touch with their needs of the American people.

In the end, I guess I just don't like politicians.
Whether they be Republican or Democrat, they all just seem to be incredibly useless, dishonest, and self-serving.

I DO however admire leaders.
True leaders.
Men and women of integrity and honor.
I have known quite a few, I have served with quite a few, and I wish that Washington DC had just about 400 more of them really soon.

Re; Obama being my President.
I don't actually like or admire the man.
He's unbelievably dishonest (more so even than Richard Nixon, and that guys was a serious liar), and he's a self-serving politician to the bone.

And his first official act as President was to destroy a bit of work that I and many of my team-mates had worked really hard to implement.
He repealed the NSPS, as a blatant payback to a union campaign contributor, the AFGE.
I have disrespected him ever since that act.

If you asked me honestly if I considered him my President, I would have to say no.
I'm holding out for a man or woman of integrity and honor.
And I really don't care what Party they hail from.
I just want a President who cares more about the nation than they do their own crooked agenda.

 

So what you are saying is that an american footsoldier isn't worth five afghani talibans of "general rank". (brigadiers I could see, four star ya gotta be kidding).

So what is an amerian soldier worth?


For comparative purposes let's evaluate how much the Israelis value a single IDF footsoldier. the last trade was 1 IDF soldier (shalit) for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, some of whom were actually convicted terrorists who murdered Israelis. In total they swapped 7,000 palestinians for 19 live Israelis and 8 dead bodies.


So since you don't believe that an american footsoldier is worth five scumbag terrorist taliban leaders, how much is he worth in your world?

 

No. One American soldier is not worth five Taliban generals (we can argue number of their stars, but they're definitely generals). There are other options, and trade should not have been one of them.

And do not site Israel as a base for comparison. Israel is a tiny Country with their own methods and practices and much smaller army and cannot be compared with such huge, resourceful country as United States. They're also wrong, trading terrorists for their captured soldiers, and that policy have costed them many more civilian lives that they care to admit. Israelis are not infallible.

 

Well, at least the truth finally comes out. You have a personal axe to grind.
Unfortunately, your baby was flawed and lacked democratic support so it died.

So much for "All you will ever get from me is the straight-up, honest truth.
Uncolored and unflavored by any sort of partisan-political influence."

Now maybe we can get this thread moved out of the current events setcion and into the opinion section where it belongs.

 

Mister Spary, i reject your assertion that a drunk can't be a leader. U.S. Grant did just fine.







but then, Boehner is no Grant.

 

so you know nothing about the military either, like another.
He left his post. A criminal action by him.
Under the terms of his contract to leave your post is desertion.
If you are not fighting them, you are aiding and abetting your enemy.
To just up and leave your post, puts you entire platoon in danger.
What is it you don't want to get about that?
What little girl did he allegedly kill?
Of course you are speaking from personal experience, right?

 

and you, like the rest of them speak from personal experience in battle, eh?
Would you trust your life to a fellow soldier who would abandon you?

 

It may be your opinion, but I am interested in facts. And the fact is that I don't think he will serve one day in jail in Leavenworth. This is not to say he is innocent of any crime since I believe, given the evidence, he was UA at his post. But that is a non judicial crime and not punishable by any sentence, generally.

What you have done, however, is pigeon hole yourself with your feelings and emotions. This means you are not thinking outside the box, butr clearly inside. .If the evidence does not point to a serious crime in which a court marital would be necessary, what then? Would you dismiss the Generals for not being honorable?

Quite frankly, I do not care if you like politicians or not. However, if you are a U.S. citizen, then Obama is your President just as he is my President. That does not mean you or I agree with him 100%. This is true if Cruz, Perry, Hilary, or anyone else is President. Because once that person wins the electoral college vote, and is confirmed by both houses in Congress, then he won.

That being said, if you do not think he is your President, then that means you have renounced your U.S. citizenship. You no longer represent the uniform you once wore or uphold the oath you once did. Sorry, ubt if you are going to make those statements, then the only honorable path is for you to renounce your citizenship. That is the price you pay for being honorable.

BTW, I met a guy named Tex Hill when I was just 12 years old. I also met John Glenn and Scott Carpenter, and many others. I have met every President since Jimmy Carter. I have met politicians from both sides as well as diplomats from the Philippines, China, Thailand, and the UK. So, you are not the only one here who has done this and been there.

 

Difference between trusting someone who you are in a foxhole with and trusting the attorney who is sitting next to you in a court room.

 

There is a difference between unauthorized absence and desertion. It is in the UCMJ. You do not have the facts to meet the requirements under Article 85 to make that claim and substantiate it with facts.

 

Surfer Joe,

I learned a long time ago that it is useless to try to talk logic and common sense to a drunk, and it is equally useless to speak the plain, honest truth to a Kool-aid drinking, partisan-poltical true-believer.

If you think for one moment that the NSPS (a far-reaching, well-thought-out, and deep into implementation) was some sort of personal axe or a political football, then you are truly a fool.

The entire package was on track to improve efficiencies in the Government Workforce, demand productivity out of Government servants, reward hard workers, and reduce the pay of lazy slackers.

The government union AFGE hated it, because it upset their grievance-mill culture of frivolous litigation.
They donated heavily to Obama, and he paid them back the very moment he became President.
He knew NOTHING about what the NSPS did or contained, but he repealed it as a campaign payback.

This is the straight-up, honest truth.
Unflavored by any sort of partisan-political influence.

Have you ever worked to improve an organization, and to reduce the instances of waste, fraud, and abuse, and then have a crooked politician $hit all over your hard work?

That's not politics, it's a Godda#%ed crime.

I reject your dismissive, ill-informed attitude, sir.
And I don't believe you know enough about the topic to even weigh-in, quite frankly.

 

and, while you interpret military law, you really no nothing about it................
I would hate like hell to have you defend me in a court martial.................

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so if the fellow next to you in a foxhole ups and leaves, it's ok, eh?

 

And if we use your logic, they will already be building the gallows once the "trial" is over.

You may want to rethink your premise there James for I am sure I can find something, anything under the UCMJ which you are guilty of.

- - - Updated - - -

It would depend on what he was doing.

 

Is that simply a long winded way of saying that you actually are an independent who has a more or less centerist position?

Okay, I can readily accept that I misread your OP.

I do think that many people cannot be placed in one box or another.
OTOH, this place is infested with those that can and who are blatantly hypocritical completely blind to it.

I apologize for categorizing you too hastily. But I sure as hell don't apologize for my responses to the partisan knee jerkers in this thread and around the community.

 

you have my blessing to do so

and you have no battlefield experience, Alwayssa. You've never served in combat. You know nothing about these things.

 

from what i've heard from his hometown friends, surviving cohorts, and the local villagers, the boy was mental as (*)(*)(*)(*). was he suffering from one of these "episodes" where he'd go off into the woods when he was stressed at home when he went and asked the locals to point him towards the Taliban TWICE? idk, but it will be investigated. i can wait.

 

too easy. it'll never happen.

 

Difference between the battlefield and a difference being in a military court room or the use of the UCMJ . You may have experience in the battlefield, but you have none with the UCMJ.

FYI, I have known combat, mjst not military. Think about that/

 

I apparently know more than you. I feel asleep on watch once after ,Nam ended..............you'd would have thought I had blown the ship up they way they carried on.
I served 8 weeks in the Delta, pre-peace accord, rag boat duty, fox holes everywhere and the whole base was full of malcontents. But we ever left our duty stations because our brothers would have been left at odds. I was my own screw-up, but I never did anything to endanger my brothers in the field.
Abandoning your post in war time used to be an executable offense. wonder why that was.............

 

i didn't say i have extensive knowledge of the military processes, i accessed ucmj and quoted it

face it, you're jumping to false conclusions like an emotional basket-case and have no clue what you're talking about

 

Pot, meet well-digger's butt.

 

that's typical emotional basket-case talk

try presenting some evidence and making a rational argument, if you know how

 

Says the guy who's emotions for Obama has compelled him to defend a deserter and possible traitor....time will tell.

 

Freaking God-awful thunderstorms rolled thru here over the past hour and a half.
Rained like a b1tch.
Thunder and lightning like crazy.

I unplugged everything electronic right out of the wall.
Computer, my wife's Roku, her television, her treadmill, exercise bike,
everything in my music room (guitar amps, multi-track recorder, everything)
all in an effort to avoid longterm damage.

I am happy to report that everything electronic survived the storms, and now it's just a matter of seeing how high the flash-flood waters rise.

I wish to all of you a wonderful and safe good-night.