Bergdahl Sentencing: No Prison Time, Dishonorable Discharge

a reply to: Zaphod58

Is that his story?

How nice. Forgive me, if I really don't give a flyin' # (that's an actual hashtag, because I don't care enough to give an actual #.)

Oh this just got even better.

The lead defense attorney for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl said he wants him to receive the Prisoner of War medal.

His civilian lawyer, Eugene Fidell, on Friday said his client should be recognized for the five years he spent in Taliban captivity after deserting his post in Afghanistan, according to an article by USA Today.

"We have long felt he was entitled to the POW medal," Fidell said, the newspaper reported.

www.military.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

You have got to be kidding me. Oh, my...isn't that ******* special.

They've doubled down, haven't they?

a reply to: seagull

This is going to be the gift that keeps on giving for a long time to come.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Why don't they just take a giant dump on every man and woman that has served with honor and distinction?

I mean, really.

Why not?

Just pull down the trousers and take a huge crap on every serviceman, service woman, veterans memorial.

This disgusts me.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: 200Plus

The argument is that if a higher up makes comments about the case, it constitutes Undue Command Authority. By saying what he did, the claim is that he more or less told the judge what outcome he wanted, and being the Commander in Chief, the judge may feel pressured into ruling the way his comments indicated. It doesn't matter if it's Trump, it can just be a superior officer.

Didn't Obama do the same thing when he paraded Bergdahl's parents before the world in the Rose Garden and gave the deserter high accolades? Then Susan Rice went on the Sunday talk shows praising him.

Nobody criticized Obama for tainting the future court-martial and he was CIC at the time! But, Bergdahl, like Barack Obama's wife, was ashamed to be American. Birds of a feather.

Disgusted beyond belief. I can't really think of anything else to say. He is a wartime deserter. Period

People were maimed trying to find him. For once I agree with POTUS

a reply to: queenofswords

Obama was excoriated for both the exchange and the rose garden charade.

Considering the rose garden farce happened after one investigation hadn’t found any wrongdoing on the part of Bergdahl and before a second investigation did find wrong-doing, they’re not exactly the same situation.

a reply to: queenofswords

Yes, I did. In many places. Some of which were less receptive to criticism of Obama than here. Got banned in a number of places.

I wasn't alone in the criticism, either.

There are times when a Presidents best move, is no move. SHUT THE **** UP, AND SIT THE **** DOWN, MR. PRESIDENT, would have been the best advice he could have got. That's the advice I'd have given him...minus the ****, maybe.

This is what you get when gaining a commission requires a four-year degree. Which universities are churning out conservative graduates? The military has been a liberal puss-bag for decades. And, just like the party Hillary was leading, they've now gone too far.

Let me ask you this: Why was he allowed to walk around totally free for three years? And, did he get and spend the $350,000 Barack Obama's administration claimed he was entitled to in the form of back-pay and allowances?

You know, if Hillary can get away with mis-handling classified information (a ten-year sentence for every instance), and Bergdahl can break the one law you don't break on the battlefield (punishable by death), who's going to tell me what laws I have to abide by?

originally posted by: Deplorable
This is what you get when gaining a commission requires a four-year degree. Which universities are churning out conservative graduates? The military has been a liberal puss-bag for decades. And, just like the party Hillary was leading, they've now gone too far.

Let me ask you this: Why was he allowed to walk around totally free for three years? And, did he get and spend the $350,000 Barack Obama's administration claimed he was entitled to in the form of back-pay and allowances?

You know, if Hillary can get away with mis-handling classified information (a ten-year sentence for every instance), and Bergdahl can break the one law you don't break on the battlefield (punishable by death), who's going to tell me what laws I have to abide by?

The whole innocent until proven guilty thing. Even the military follows that rule.

He had a psychiatrist from Yale testify on his behalf that he had mental illness issues including schizotypical behavior. Judges are not stupid people and it looks like the judge took his mental health at the time into consideration. People can be healthy and 10 months later get sick with a mental illness. When someone gets sick with a mental illness they do things that are out of their control because they are sick. My grandmother was fine one day and 6 months later she can't remember who anyone is because she has Alzheimer's. Same goes with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia generally hits in the late teens early 20's. There are 5 types of schizophrenia and several sub types. I doubt a doctor from Yale got on the stand and lied on his behalf. I have schizophrenia and I did some bizarre stuff that made no sense to any normal person. I'm just glad I never broke the law when I was sick. Because some people have no concept of what it's like to get sick from such a thing. It's beyond their comprehension why someone with a mental illness would do something. I was planning on going into the Marines before I got sick. I was completely healthy before I got sick at age 18. By the time I was 19 I couldn't tie my own shoes. I spent a month in a a psyche ward drugged to max with Thorazine. If Bergdahl was out chasing unicorns and got picked up by the Taliban I don't really think it's his fault.

Drank way to much whiskey last night after reading some of this stuff, the guy deserved at least some time in Prison, the judge trying to "be nice" actually just ruined the kid and just put a giant target on him.

Send him to prison for 10 years with the chance to get out for good behavior or something and a year or two down the road most vets would have moved on, now people are incensed about this someone will find him if he is not in hiding and curb stomp him.

I am not even going to touch on the unintended consequences of him getting to walk after deserting during war time, F#$% this judge screwed things up.

originally posted by: 200Plus
a reply to: jtma508

Please explain how Trump is at fault for no punishment in a case where the Defendant pleaded guilty to two capital offenses (though of course reduced to life in prison).

How can Trump undermine the case if the defendant pleaded guilty?

Are you saying the Judge was afraid to punish him as proscribed by law - because Trump?

I didn't say Trump was at-fault. If you read my post I said 'in part'. And it wasn't I that said it. Both the prosecutor and the judge said that Trump's public comments undermined their case. They're professionals. They do this for a living. Are you an attorney or a judge or do you just play one on the internet? I presume these individuals do/did not take this case lightly and that they know what they're doing. But then again, we should all know by now that only Donald Trump knows everything.

a reply to: jtma508

Many people do many things for a living. Do we have to hold the position to question them?

Are you the President (or do you just play on the internet)? See how much sense that makes.

Anyone should question a case involving multiple offenses carrying life sentences that resulted in less than minimal sentencing after a guilty plea.

It's no different than the case of the "affluenza teen" - were people right to question the judge and lawyers in that case? Or do we need to attend law school to see the wrongness of the situation?

Corpus delicti and Mens rea were both established. What is missing is the element of Judicial Punishment. What Bergdahl received is on par with an Article 15 or Non-Judicial punishment that any low level Commander can mete out. So why the "dog and pony show" of a trial? Why the excuse of "_____ said ______" knowing that senior commanders influence the outcomes of Court Martial proceedings every day in the military.

I'll put this decision right up there along side the "no intent" for showing that the system no longer works as it should and leave it at that.

a reply to: wantsome

I agree wholeheartedly with you on this and I honestly believe that 99% of veterans would agree with you as well. Soldiers will carry their brothers on a road march if they are injured while making the attempt (or their gear at least), but a soldier won't spit on a troop that quits before he absolutely has to.

If Bergdahl had been out "chasing unicorns" or had been mentally broken, his comrades would have either gone out of their way to help him at the time, or forgiven him later. Sometimes it takes time to forgive things but it usually happens. Seeing a brother with an honest injury be it mental or physical is enough to make any soldier try to help. The "tough guy" façade has it's place but having a 50% troop on the line or at your back is not the best idea in any situation.

However, Bergdahl was lucid enough to denounce his nation, denounce his comrades, and actively go out looking for the enemy with at least a non-hostile intent (supposedly to join, but I wasn't there).

His story later became "I thought I was Jason Bourne" once he got a decent defense attorney.


*We had soldiers "break" due to experiences in combat from the trip north into Baghdad (72 hours in country and a bad childhood), to nine months in country and 800 missions, to three months after we came home. Contrary to common belief it's not the stigma it once was. People have a threshold and once its gone past it results in severe and lasting damage. I've never seen or even heard of PTSD or even a Moral Injury leading to betrayal. I've seen it result in abject terror, utter violence, uncontrollable crying, depression, anxiety, isolation, and even soldiers becoming conscientious objectors and simply refusing to continue mission. Never the denouncement of nation/unit/brothers or the attempted switching of sides.

Everyone of my comrades that came home broken, whether it was early or with the unit was still welcome among us and still treated as family. The fact that they had PTSD didn't make them lesser men than us, it simply meant that they hit their wall before we did. It happens. (though in honesty the 72 hour kid was never seen in the unit again as he was chaptered out before we came home, so I cannot say if he would have been treated the same as an actual combat veteran "battle brother".

originally posted by: ClovenSky

originally posted by: intrptr
What a bunch of warmongers.

I think y'all jealous.

He got excused, so what.

Just think how wonderful it would be if the rest of them grew a conscious and followed this example.

The realization of 'What am I doing here'? 'I am not defending freedoms, I am invading a sovereign country'.

Maybe even with the mental clarity of realizing that you signed a contract and the consequences of breaking that contract will be severe, but your moral voice will not allow for anything else.

Beautiful.

What if they gave a war and no one showed up to fight it?

To the warmongers:

Just a liberal judge trying to protect Obama's legacy. Pure politics, like everything else in government. All I've seen from military experts they say Bergdahl committed one of the worst crimes and got off with not even a slap on the wrist. Some anti-American liberals will praise the decision, but the people who actually serve the country seem to think it is a total disgrace.

originally posted by: SlapMonkey

originally posted by: seeker1963
a reply to: SlapMonkey


Slap in the face to those who died trying to find his sorry ass!

It's a goddam slap in the face to anyone who understands honor and duty.

and it's not, to those people that understand the rule of law....by the way, that terrorist in NY will probably only get prison time due to Trump's commander-in-chief influence PUBLICLY wanting him to get the death penalty.

originally posted by: TruMcCarthy
Just a liberal judge trying to protect Obama's legacy. Pure politics, like everything else in government. All I've seen from military experts they say Bergdahl committed one of the worst crimes and got off with not even a slap on the wrist. Some anti-American liberals will praise the decision, but the people who actually serve the country seem to think it is a total disgrace.

it's called the rule of law...but, why would you possibly want to know that, blaming liberals is so much easier for you.