Presently the sentencing phase is underway, and speculation on the severity of the sentence is wide-ranging. Some think he will get a slap-on-the-wrist type of sentence, with time served in Taliban custody docked from his sentence; others think he was lose his promotions (which were made while he was being held), will have to forfeit his back pay, will be dishonorably discharged or perhaps will be jailed. There are a few who believe that Bergdahl’s action merit the death penalty.
Susan Rice, President Obama’s National Security Adviser, assured a national audience that Bergdahl served with “honor and distinction.” That wasn’t true when she said it, and it is even less true now. In pleading for leniency, Bergdahl told the court, “I am admitting I made a horrible mistake.” He claims he was “trying to help and knowing it didn’t breaks my heart.” Well, several soldiers were wounded, some severely, in the search for Bergdahl, and maybe a few were killed. A military K-9 was killed, and the search consumed scarce resources that could better have been deployed in other tasks. The fact that men were wounded, or perhaps killed is important – but Bergdahl’s crime would be just as bad even if no one had bothered to look for him at all. He left his active duty post and went over to the enemy in time of conflict. True, he later was mistreated by the Taliban- who probably didn’t trust him, either – knowing that he had turned his coat once and that it might happen again.
This should have been treated as a case of a soldier abandoning his post and seeking to join the enemy, for that is surely what it was. What turned it into a scandal was the Obama Administration’s sympathy for Bergdahl and its propensity to treat him as a hero, as an honorable soldier, one whose repatriation would cause America to rejoice, no matter how his freedom was obtained. Had they been more alert to the likelihood that he may have attempted to defect, and had not been quite so eager to assume that Bergdahl had valid and defensible reasons for wandering off his base, most of the agony over his case would never have occurred. The Obama administration did not like America’s mission in Afghanistan; nor did Bowe Bergdahl; and the former found common cause with the latter, and tried to convince everyone else that Bergdahl, and the other anti-war critics, were right all along. And now Bergdahl pleads guilty and begs for mercy from the same Army he deserted, or abandoned, if you prefer less harsh terminology. And, given that he will not be executed, even if he gets a 20-year sentence that will be more merciful treatment than he received from the Taliban. Ironic that the people he abandoned actually will treat him more fairly, with due process, than the people he tried to affiliate with.