WhatFinger


Surprise.

Army to charge Bowe Bergdahl with desertion



I say it's a surprise not because the charges don't make sense. They obviously do. But after the commander in chief dealt away five Gitmo detainees for him, and talked up the virtue of his service and all that, didn't you basically expect them to whitewash the pesky little problem of his walking away from the base out of concern for the obvious problem it presents for POTUS?

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Nope:
Last month, the Army said it sent the findings from its investigation to a U.S. general to decide whether to discipline the soldier, who spent five years in captivity after leaving his post. He was released in May in exchange for five prisoners from the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The deal that led to his release was blasted by some Republicans, and some of Bergdahl's fellow soldiers have labeled him a deserter. If officials conclude that Bergdahl broke the U.S. military's rules, they could force him to forfeit hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay accumulated during his captivity and give up future benefits.
Two questions:
  1. Is that really all that happens if they determine that you deserted? That you give up back pay and benefits? The Uniform Military Code of Justice still allows for punishment as severe as execution for desertion during wartime, although that hasn't actually happened since World War II. Two years in prison is about the most they've done to anyone during the current wartime era. I wonder why the Reuters story would just assume Bergdahl isn't looking at anything worse than loss of pay and benefits. It might just be baseless speculation, but it's very weird speculation unless they know something.
  2. 2.
  3. Since Obama is the commander in chief I assume he could order the Army not to charge Bergdahl, which makes me wonder: Did they check with the White House before they made this decision? Or did not not check precisely because they typically wouldn't, and they didn't want to make this a special case since they knew what the answer might be?
Here's a bonus question: Are you sure he wouldn't have been better off just hanging with his Taliban friends?

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Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

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