DID WE EXCHANGE AN ARMY DESERTER FOR FIVE HIGH-RANKING JIHADIST TERRORISTS?

Soldiers who served alongside Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl accuse him of being a deserter

Even as President Obama, Bob and Jani Bergdahl, and the nation celebrates the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl after five years as a captive of the Taliban, there is a growing chorus of anger that he was set free in exchange for five dangerous high-ranking Jihadist terrorists. Compounding the anger is the fact that the soldiers who were in his unit at the time he was captured consider Berdahl a deserter who abandoned his combat post because he had become disillusioned with our mission in Afghanistan. Five dangerous terrorists is a hefty price for an accused deserter.

From the Fiscal Times:

Writing for The Daily Beast, Nathan Bradley Bethea, a soldier who fought with Bergdahl, said Bergdahl grew disillusioned with the war and voluntarily left his post in June 2009. “The truth is: Bergdahl was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down,” he said, referring to six Americans who lost their lives looking for the former POW.

In an interview on CNN, former Sgt. Matt Vierkant, who served alongside Bergdahl, said:

I was pissed off then and I am even more so now with everything going on. Bowe Bergdahl deserted during a time of war and his fellow Americans lost their lives searching for him.

Two former soldiers who served with Bergdahl confirmed to Mail Online that their comrade was a deserter. Specialist Gerald Sutton said, “I'm positive that he's a deserter, and that it was all premeditated.” And Specialist Cody Full said:

He wasn't out on some patrol one day and got captured by the Taliban, and nobody smuggled him off of the base. This soldier knew what he was doing. He left us. He willingly and premeditatedly deserted his comrades. And he put his team, his squad, his platoon, his company, and thousands of other American soldiers in Afghanistan at a very high risk trying to find him.

Sgt. Evan Buetow, Bergdahl’s team leader at the time he abandoned his post, is happy that he has been released. But like the other soldiers in his unit, he believes Bergdahl is a deserter, not a hero. Beutow told Newsmax TV:

I don't want him regarded as a hero. I don't want him regarded as the example that soldiers should look up to, because he is the exact opposite of that.

On the other hand National Security Adviser Susan Rice told George Stephanopoulos on Sunday’s ABC This Week:

Certainly, anybody who has been held in those conditions in captivity for five years has paid an extraordinary price, but that is really not the point. The point is he's back. He's going to be safely reunited with his family. He served the United States with honor and distinction.

Try telling his fellow soldiers that Berdahl served “with honor and distinction.” Oh by the way, Rice is the Obama administration official that lied about who was behind the attacks on our consulate in Benghazi. In praising Bergdahl, she either put her mouth in motion before putting her brain in gear, or she deliberately lied again.

Since Rice bemoaned the fact that Bergdahl “has paid an extraordinary price,” don’t look for the army to conduct a serious investigation into charges that he deserted his unit.

The exchange deal was for the five terrorists to remain in Qatar for at least one year before being allowed to return to Afghanistan. Don’t count on it! And whenever they are allowed to rejoin the Taliban, you can bet they will plot and act to do us harm.

While in Afghanistan, Bergdahl is said to have sent a series of emails to his parents telling them of his disillusionment. Shortly before he abandoned his post he sent an email that said:

I am ashamed to be an American. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools.

I do not know whether Bergdahl is a deserter or not. And it’s possible those six soldiers would have been killed even if Bergdahl had not abandoned his post. But in the end, we exchanged five dangerous high-ranking Jihadist terrorists for a guy who is ashamed to be an American.