June 17, 2014
Top News Today
In a congressional hearing last week, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel defended the deal that freed Bergdahl. “We got our one remaining prisoner back,” Hagel said after more than 5 hours of testimony. “I don’t think that’s an incidental accomplishment.” His words were meant to ease the minds of congressional leaders who took issue with the U.S. negotiating with the Taliban, in a deal that released 5 terrorists from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Bergdahl.
“War, every part of war, like prisoner exchanges, is not some abstraction or theoretical exercise,” Hagel continued. “The hard choices and options don’t fit neatly into clearly defined instructions in ‘how to’ manuals. All of these decisions are part of the brutal, imperfect realities we all deal with in war.”
Congressional leaders were not the only ones who took issue with Bergdahl’s brokered release.
Former Army medic Joshua Cornelison, who previously served with Bergdahl, is speaking out strongly against the prisoner exchange, calling the former POW a deserter. “He had mentioned I want to walk to India, I kind of want to disappear off the grid but you don’t ever think that someone’s going to walk off in the middle of Afghanistan,” recalled Cornelison, who is now among several former military members who served with Bergdahl and have come out against him.
“He’s not a hero. He didn’t serve with honor or distinction as certain people have said. He’s a deserter, purposefully left his post. He abandoned his platoon,” said Cornelison.
“Not only did he put everybody that was already there in danger, he put thousands of other people in danger that got sent over looking for him,” Cornelison continued. “The army ethos, the creed goes both ways. Never leave a man behind. We didn’t leave Bowe Bergdahl behind, he left us behind,” Cornelison said.
What exactly prompted Bowe Bergdahl to leave his military post and wander off into the night in the middle of a war? Is the Obama administration correct to think of him as a prisoner of war who deserved the full attention of the U.S. military to bring him home safely? Or are Bergdahl’s military comrades correct in calling him a deserter and traitor who should not be celebrated?
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