Was Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl a deserter?

There is no doubt. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was released from Taliban captivity after five years as a hero. Within days he was branded a deserter by members of his own military unit from his last assigned base in Afghanistan. The debate is no longer one of should we have negotiated with the enemy for the release of one of our own. It has become a debate over whether we ought to have left one of our own there as a deserter.

Forgotten is that desertion is a felony criminal offense subject to legal charges and, in this as a military offense, a military trial. There are two things to bear in mind about this Bergdahl controversy. the first is that this is not about Bergdahl. It is about American principles, values and ethics. The second is that This young man, right or wrong, will be destroyed by the controversy. Condemned by politicians and media, both hungry for attention with little concern for fair justice.

Just as a matter of argument, Bergdahl may have gone off base for any number of reasons. He is reported to have described the situation on his base by characterizing his unit as a bunch of undisciplined backstabbers before his last walk off base. That leaves us with a possibility that Sgt. Bergdahl left his base because he could not tolerate the behavior of his unit. It is unlikely that he left the base on some sort of leave. It is pretty clear that he did go AWOL, and apparently not for the first time. But did he intend to be captured by the Taliban? That might be construed as desertion. If he intended to return to base after some time to himself, that would just be AWOL.

There is no report that Sgt. Bergdahl allowed himself to be used for propaganda. He was known to the military as the Taliban's sole American captive. If soldiers were lost trying to recover Sgt. Bergdahl in the early days of his captivity, could that have been due to their lack of training, discipline or competence as soldiers? Bergdahl was certainly, from all reports, "different" from the men in his unit. Five years later, a few of his comrades in arms brought shame to their unit by greeting Sgt. Bergdahl's release with condemnation of him as a deserter. That condemnation lends truth to the negative characterization of Bergdahl's unit and perhaps some credibility to Bergdahl's strange behavior.