Lawyer: Army officer recommends against prison time in Bowe Bergdahl case

According to Bergdahl's attorney, one of the Army investigators has recommended that he be given a special court martial, or as little as non-judicial punishment, as opposed to a general court martial. The attorney claims that the Army officer has declared that Bergdahl was not and is not a Taliban sympathizer, his desertion could not be related to any deaths.

So apparently deserting your post in a combat zone in the face of the enemy is something that can be, nay....SHOULD be handled with a simple reduction in grade by one rank and some loss of pay.

Is anybody surprised by this? Given what the government gave up and was willing to do to get him back, is anybody surprised that he's apparently in the running to get off pretty lightly? Before anybody freaks out yes I know this is simply a recommendation, yes I know how the military judicial process works, and yes I know this isn't over. That being said, I can't even pretend to be shocked at this apparent turn of events, given how the administration spun this and played this whole charade like a fiddle. The guy we did all this for turns out to be the giant d-bag all the guys in his unit say he is?

Nope. Can't have that, can we?


www.washingtonpost.com...

a reply to: Shamrock6

Obama cannot have egg on his face in having traded 5 radical extremists for a convicted deserter. This will be handled in a light most favorable to Obama.

Bergdahl intentionally left his post to embrace the enemy. People died while trying to find him. He is a traitor.

a reply to: Shamrock6

He's mentally ill and shouldn't have ever been accepted into the military to begin with. Obama really was between a rock and a hard place on this one. Republicans were feeding nibbles to the media that Obama was going to let the Taliban behead an American soldier and do nothing about it of course they had their gotcha! because as soon as Obama went all in, the media was fed that Bergdhal was a deserter and Obama was risking all by rescuing a terrorist sympathizer.

a reply to: Kali74

The first accusations of desertion came in 2010, well before Obama was ready to pull the trigger on the exchange. Bergdahl made comments about leaving his post before he ever deployed. I don't deny that the repubs were playing the political angle, but I'm not going to pretend this wasn't something that had a good deal of backstory before the exchange was ever made.

He's a weird dude, no denying that. Mental illness? That's the claim but I haven't seen the actual medical board's findings. Just his attorney saying that's what they said. Given that I don't believe there's nothing political behind the recommendation against prison, I can't really see that it's all that surprising the medical board says he was mentally unfit six years ago.

I can honestly say that it wouldn't matter one bit to me who arranged this prisoner exchange. Whether it's a democrat, republican, independent, Green Party, whatever, I don't care. The way that this was played by the White House, I don't think there's a chance in hell that Bergdahl would be allowed to turn out to be a crap bag.

a reply to: Shamrock6

When he walked off isn't really the point in my opinion. You could be right that he wasn't going to be allowed to be a bad guy... I'm just not sure of the reason. To protect Obama or to protect the Pentagon? America already think he's a traitor and should be executed or remanded to GITMO, so I'm guessing it's not to shine a light on the military's blunder in accepting him. Perhaps that is a can of worms?

a reply to: Kali74

The Pentagon is another angle, absolutely. Perhaps even both entities (the White House being the other). Maybe he really does have an actual mental issue beyond "weird." Hell if I know.

The bottom line for me is despite the tough talk coming out of senior level people, I don't think he was ever going to be made the bad guy in this. Too many people with too much face to lose if that happened.

a reply to: Shamrock6

Anything less than a firing squad is pandering, imho.

a reply to: Shamrock6

There's also another aspect which the more we discuss the more I'm reminded of the details that came out when he was exchanged. Bergdahls unit was 'questionable'. Just more food for thought as to why this chapter needs to be closed.

I'm fine with Bergdahl not serving any prison time just as long as he spends a little time at the end of a rope... Say a quarter of a second, or about how long it takes to drop eight feet...

a reply to: Mirthful Me

What does killing him change?

Is it just that you then think he gets what he deserves?

a reply to: Kali74

Hi, what was "questionable" about his unit..Im vaguely familiar with the story..the whole thing is a mess.
This what came up
dailycaller.com...

NOOOOOOOoooooooooOOOOOOO. Berghdahl received TWO, read it TWO promotions while in "captivity", received over $300K in back pay and his parents get invited to the White House. I guess it pays to be a traitor, desert your unit leaving a letter of your intent to start a new life, and risk the lives of your unit while they look for you.

All the while you're playing soccer with your 'captors'.

"A U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan in 2009 has received his second promotion while in captivity, U.S. Central Command announced Friday. With the promotion, Bowe Bergdahl, 25, rises to the rank of sergeant. He was last promoted in June 2010 to the rank of specialist, according to Central Command. Brig. Gen. Rick Mustion, the adjutant general of the Army, traveled to Bergdahl's hometown of Hailey, Idaho, on Thursday to deliver the promotion certificate to his parents.
www.cnn.com...

Who gets a promotion when they're aren't there? How was he qualified for his new positions? This is bullcrap. Every bit of it. He's a traitor!

Once again Obama has set the bar.

a reply to: StoutBroux

The tradition of promoting POWs and MIAs has been around quite a while and was not at all unique to him.

What bothers me that if they give him an NJP, the most they can take is one stripe. So it's not even like they can bust him back down to his pre-desertion grade. He loses one stripe from wherever he's at now.

a reply to: Shamrock6

Why can't they bust him down more? Is it because he is a NCO now?

a reply to: Sremmos80

Military sentencing has guidelines just like civilian sentencing does. A general court martial can sentence somebody up to and including the death penalty or a life sentence. Each type of court martial handles different levels of crime and different sentence structures.

Non judicial punishment isn't a court martial per se. It's still a punitive hearing, but it's for "low level" incidents. An NJP can do things like dock pay, reduce rank, confine to quarters, etc.

a reply to: Shamrock6

Ya I am familiar with NJP, just thought they could do more then just take his stripe.

a reply to: Shamrock6

I am aware of that practice. But Bergdahl shipped his personal belongings home, made comments about disappearing and wrote a letter of desertion to his unit and then DESERTED HIS UNIT.

Under those circumstances alone, the SOPs should also have been abandoned.

a reply to: StoutBroux

But he wasn't convicted of desertion.

He WAS known to be in the custody of the Taliban.

I get the point you're making but at the end of the day he wasn't in deserter status.

a reply to: Sremmos80

As far as total punishment? They can confine him to quarters, put him on extra duty, blah blah blah. But as far as the rank is concerned, it's one grade reduction. The only time it can be more than that during an NJP is a reduction to private if you're not a non-commissioned officer.

a reply to: Shamrock6

The only time it can be more than that during an NJP is a reduction to private if you're not a non-commissioned officer.

Gotcha, thought they could do more with different infractions of the UCMJ.
From my understanding it does sound like he deserted, not so sure about the posh life once he was in the hands like is said but that is irrelevant really.
So I do think he deserves some punishment and loss of one rank isn't really enough.
Like a BCD or some other than honorable is what I thought was coming.

I do see the political game being talked about though and how that can be changing things.