Not that anyone wants to read what I have to say or think regarding the Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl situation but with all of the opinions and headlines I do have an opinion on the matter and I am going to lay it down here. First, as the father of a son who was killed in action in Afghanistan, I can say that without reservation that if Bowe Bergdahl were my son I could or would not care less how many terrorists or what their level in the world of terrorism was that were traded for his release - I would simply want my son released and back on American soil. I can also say that it would not matter to me one iota what the circumstances were of my sons capture by the enemy, I would want him home. Once my son was safe back on American soil and it were proven that he had engineered his own capture or, in the words of some that I have read, he had indeed deserted his post then I would expect that he would have to face the consequences of those actions as outlined in the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. I am not a fan of our President. I repeat, I am not a fan of our President and I am intensely skeptical of his motivations and the timing of this event. However, as outlined above, if Sgt. Bergdahl were my son I couldnt care less what the political motivation or timing was. A lot is being made of Sgt. Bergdahls father quoting the Kuran at the White House. I have no idea what Mr. Bergdahls religious or political leanings are and I highly doubt the President of the United States does as well nor do I think the President had any idea what Mr. Bergdahl would say with a microphone in front of him. However, what I will say is, like it or not, this is a country that espouses freedom of religion. As a matter of fact, I will go farther and say that more of our countrys finest young men and women have died securing and protecting that freedom than anything else. To hear the uproar over a simple phrase from a religion that is not yours, which could easily reference God, flies in the face of everything that is American and what service members place their right hands up and swear to protect and defend with their LIVES. There is talk of laws being violated by the President in negotiating with known terrorists and trading terrorist prisoners for an American Soldier. I can almost bet none of the people discussing that ever had a child, husband or parent held as a prisoner of war with the exception of John McCain having been a prisoner of war. That being said, travel down that road at your own peril as I, frankly, do not see the fruit of that harvest being worth the risk. The fact is, our country and its citizens have spent the last five years wearing free Bowe signs, t-shirts and liking Facebook pages, etc. etc. and now because a President that you may not like and that is affiliated with a party that you do not support took what are considered extraordinary measures to garner his release we are running away from the moment yelling things like deserter, treason and high crimes and misdemeanors rather than embracing the moment. I also understand that other service members were put at risk trying to find him and that some were injured and worse yet some paid with their own lives and I feel, again as the father of a son killed in Afghanistan, horribly for those families. All of those things may be true and if so should be investigated and dealt with appropriately. However, in the short term and unless you are one of the family members directly affected by Bergdahls capture, he is an American soldier and is coming home to American soil, to face, perhaps, American justice and I for one am pleased with that. In closing, if you are upset that this is distracting the country from the real issues i.e. the VA committing fraud and basically killing our combat veterans by failing to provide them with the basic services we, as a country, owe them then that blames falls squarely on us as we are ALLOWING ourselves to be distracted. If, as a society, we cannot keep our attention on the ball why is it anyone elses fault but our own. It is election season - vote your conscience as that is the American process. Had to get this off of my chest... As you were ;-)
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 03:50:17 +0000
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