BERGDAHL TO BE CHARGED WITH DESERTION

Reports indicate that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was exchanged for five Taliban leaders last year, is a about to be charged with desertion

In June 2009, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl disappeared from his combat post in Afghanistan only to turn up as a prisoner of the Taliban. Last May, Bergdahl was released by his captors in exchange for five Taliban leaders being held in U.S. custody at Guantanamo.

Several of Bergdahl’s former platoon mates accused him of deserting his post. Sgt. Jordan Vaughn, a former member of the platoon, told the Daily Mail he had recently contacted other members of the platoon and that each of them agreed Bergdahl was a deserter who should be court martialed.

The army’s investigation of those charges apparently wrapped up awhile back and, according to a number of reports, Bergdahl will be charged with desertion.

Retired Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer told The O’Reilly Factor that the Pentagon is eager to court martial Bergdahl for desertion, but the Obama administration does not want the results of the investigation made public. The administration is still smarting over the criticism of the prisoner swap and does not want Obama to be further embarrassed for inviting Bergdahl’s parents to the White House after their son’s release by the Taliban.

If formally charged with desertion, Bergdahl will lose the $300,000 in back pay that he accumulated while a prisoner of the Taliban and he will be busted from sergeant back to his previous rank of PFC.

The Pentagon and the Obama administration should have conducted an investigation prior to the prisoner exchange instead of afterwards. Had they determined that Bergdahl deserted his post, they should have let the bastard rot as a prisoner of the Taliban. By any stretch of the imagination, Bergdahl was not anywhere near worth five Taliban leaders.