Pentagon furious over call for execution of captured soldier

Pentagon furious over call for execution of captured soldier

rawstory.com

According to NBC’s top Pentagon correspondent, the Department of Defense is furious with Fox News analyst Ralph Peters, who said on July 19 that the Taliban should murder 23-year-old Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl, captured after he strayed from his post, to save the Army “legal hassles and legal bills.”

Peters, a well-known Neoconservative and frequent Fox News guest, attempted to clarify his shocking statement on Tuesday night’s O’Reilly Factor, telling right-wing host Bill O’Reilly...

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Jim Miklaszewski, NBC’s Pentagon correspondent, told Maddow on Wednesday night that Bergdahl “came off patrol on June 30th, dropped off his weapon, his body armor, grabbed up a bottle of water, a compass and a knife and took off out on his own. It was sometime after that, apparently, that some local militants grabbed him and turned him over to the Taliban.”

Is there any update on why this guy took off like that from his post?

Until there is further evidence of him actually deserting his post, this idiot at FOX has got no business making these kinds of statements.

Now he's got the family all pissed off (rightly so), and there are calls for even O'Reilly to be fired along with Peters:

mediamatters.org...

Would it makes sense that if you were going to desert the military in a place like Afghanistan you would leave your primary weapon and body armor back at the post and take just a knife, a compass and a bottle of water with you?

What could he possibly hope to accomplish by being captured by the Taliban? To make a political statement of some kind? Or does he have a death wish? I mean he's seriously gotta know that he may end up beheaded, unless he is planning on fighting for them? Wow, weird story.

And so now what is the Pentagon going to do about this- both in the sense of getting him back, and in the sense of putting serious pressure on the FOX news channel?



rawstory.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Fire him...

Simple as that. Monsters like this simply exist to desensitize the mass public.

Set an example that tossers like this should not be able to get away with such nasty, degrading and upsetting public speech.

Sure you'll have the usual yawn-inducing people blathering on about free speech, but i'm pretty sure most people should let common sense dictate.

It's about time people see war for what it is. It is killing. It is tragedy. It is making sacrifices and war-time decisions about who lives and who dies.

I feel for this kid. I feel for his family. But, he is one soldier. If I were in his shoes, I would be thrilled if our government bombed the hell out of the area and killed my captors and me all at once. That would serve the greater good. That would make me a hero. That would save more soldier's lives in the long run!

Our military needs to decide. Either one soldier is indispensable, and we should overwhelm our enemy with massive force, regardless of enemy or civilian casualties. Use all our technology and all of our resources to make a huge statement! Make the point that we will win at all costs and that the only way for them to survive is to surrender immediately!

Or, we are taking the surgical approach, and we accept that we will lose some individual soldiers while protecting the civilian population, and we won't waste resources on rescues, or hostage situations.

We can't try to have our cake and eat it too! I vote for overwhelming force, take our losses, end the war, and come home!

So why did the soldier leave his post?

It seems simple to me... if he DID leave the post:

You are in hostile territory. You leave your equipment and comrades behind. You die.

Simple... if that's what actually happened.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
It's about time people see war for what it is. It is killing. It is tragedy. It is making sacrifices and war-time decisions about who lives and who dies.

Yeah well it's about time people see the lies, greed and corrupt ass idiots that got us into the war in the first place to have to make that kid be in the position he is in. He shouldn't be there. And he shouldn't be in the hands of the Taliban right now, no matter what he did.

You know what ought to happen right about now, after Obama has lied so much to the American people that trusted his positions on bringing the troops home immediately, ending the war, and all the other things he said he would do to elect him as President?

He ought to be impeached as a liar, plain and simple, and the rest of his support team fired as well. That kid shouldn't be going through this right now, and every one of the soldiers that cast their vote for him to bring them home that have lost their lives too- for what? Deceived by a fricken liar. Makes me sick.

[edit on Fri Jul 24th 2009 by TrueAmerican]

reply to post by TrueAmerican


I totally agree. My main problem with modern warfare is that nobody wins or loses except the citizens of each country!!

I don't want to kill a bunch of civilians, but I would like a "decisive" victory for a change, or a retreat and cut our losses.

I hate: blow-up, rebuild, apologize! Blow Up more, Rebuild it, Elect Patsy, Apologize. Wait....wait.....get killed, blow up more, rebuild more, apologize more!

That is not warfare! I don't know what it is, except profiteering, mis-direction, and oppression.

And I am not bashing America or our troops. They could win this thing! The U.N. and NATO, and the press, and our Elected leaders are the ones mucking everything up and losing sight of the soldier's mission!

Originally posted by TrueAmerican

Pentagon furious over call for execution of captured soldier

Ralph Peters shot be shot and pissed on. Just another Keyboard Kommando.

You can hate Bush all you want, and the Republicans for that matter, but the one policy that they held true to, and in my opinion should always be adhered to, is that we do not negotiate with terrorists.

Don't get me wrong, I am not heartless, nor do I wish this soldier dead. However, negotiating with terrorists will do no good. Period. In fact, the amount of harm it causes far outweighs any temporary gain.

Anybody that thinks if we just give the Taliban what they want they will release this soldier and we will all live in peace, is either naive, living in a bubble, or has been institutionalized and escaped.

I for one think it's about time that we leveled these people and moved on. You don't kill cockroaches one by one and win....you exterminate their nest.

As for the soldier, the initial reports I thought said that he left camp completely intoxicated. Can't really say as I blame him. The thought of going into combat is far different than the reality of combat.

This is getting tiresome. There is no soldier "captured by the Taliban". It's (one more time, as usual) a CIA/Govt planted stage play to impress and "convince" the public. That's also why the soldier "just walked away from his US base camp". Because he's a cast member.

And of course he'll be back hale and hearty.


[edit on 24-7-2009 by WonderfulWorld]

Originally posted by ninecrimes
So why did the soldier leave his post?

It seems simple to me... if he DID leave the post:

You are in hostile territory. You leave your equipment and comrades behind. You die.

Simple... if that's what actually happened.

It seems to me like he might be a defector.

Something just doesn't seem right given the fact that he dropped his weapon and walked away. You never go anywhere in a war zone without your weapon!

We don't know what happened.
How can ANYONE call for execution of this guy when we don't know the story?
That's freak'n insane.

I posted this thread a couple of days ago....

Fox News Analyst Col. Peters - Let Terrorists Kill Our Captured Soldier

If it gets at least some views here though thats cool.

Until we know exactly why he walked off base, it's not really for anyone to say what should be done with him. It's the whole "desertion" thing i don't get. Who the hell wants to desert in the middle of a combat zone where you are linekly to get caught by the enemy?

Unless you knew of course you were going to be in safe hands.

Mods, feel free to delete my thread on this over in War on Terrorism section. Thanks.

CX.

Not sure why he left his post. Could be a number of reasons. But I wanted to share a quote in this article:

“...This is a new age, a new time, and there is no way in Hell that Peters or FOX can cry ‘free speech’ now.”

Orly?