SGT Bowe Bergdahl Freed

[discus]

To tie it back to this thread--so now that we got Bergdahl back, why not declare the Afghan War officially over/completed and start a rapid withdrawal? Why wait until 2016?

I think you may have hit on a key point here, and the reason we were willing to make such a huge trade out.

This late in the game, having everyone out gives us the freedom to GTFO worry free... If they don't sign the SOFA we can tell them to get fucked and bring EVERYONE home.

[HeloDude]

I think you may have hit on a key point here, and the reason we were willing to make such a huge trade out.

This late in the game, having everyone out gives us the freedom to GTFO worry free... If they don't sign the SOFA we can tell them to get fucked and bring EVERYONE home.

Fuck the SOFA, who cares? Obama will send in 'drones' regardless if we have a SOFA or not. Here's what it comes down to--the administration knows that the Taliban will most likely regain (more) power in one form or another once we leave...they just don't want it to have an adverse affect on their popularity and upcoming elections. After this 'swap' if I were a Taliban fighter (or at least trying to think as a Taliban fighter thinks), my morale woud be much improved.

The Taliban also knows what we're willing to trade...this swap set up something of an 'exchange rate'. You never know what something or someone is worth until the transaction actually occurs. I am more fearful for my brothers in harm's way than I was before this deal. And going off of Bergdahl's Dad's deleted tweet, I'm sure he's happy to have his son back, but disappointed that more detainees weren't released in the process. You can call that brash, but I'm strictly going off of be message he sent to the entire world off of the subject.

[waveshaper]

Yeah reading his twitter feed is unnerving. He wrote(since deleted) on 28 May "I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners, God will repay for the death of every Afghan child. Amen".

He seems like a gitmo, islamist, taliban, pakistan sympathizer.

The goat fornicators exchanged for Sgt Bergdahl's release should of been 6 total; 5 Taliban + throw in Sgt Bergdahl's

dad for good measure. It does seem like his daddy would blend right in and be welcomed with open arms in the

Pashtunistan border region. Hopefully this was a world class deception act his dad pulled off to help keep his son alive while in captivity, if so then all is forgiven.

[Fuzz]

Huggy, although the line is extremely thin, technically we did not negotiate with terrorists on this. The Taliban is a political party, so much so that they even hold seats in the Afghan parliament. Al-Qaeda are terrorists who the Taliban likes to harbor because they agree with what they are doing. I see no difference between negotiating with the Taliban or negotiating with the Iranian or Pakistani government. Both of them are quite good at harboring terrorists as well.

As for releasing the detainees, only history will be able to tell if that was a good move or not. These guys could be so screwed up after their detention that they would go crazy if they hurt an ant...or they could mastermind the next 9/11. As for now, as an American Armed Forces member, I have to believe what they did was in the best interest of the Sgt. And the country. Without that belief, my effectiveness as a fighting member is severely degraded. God, I hope I am right.

So the Taliban is now a legitimate entity? I'm sure you feel the same way about Hamas since they hold seats and a couple years ago controlled the Palestinian government; or how about the Muslim Brotherhood since they were running the Egyptian government for a time?

[busdriver]

In the end, we don't get to decide who is legitimate or not, despite what we say. Those who rule do so at the consent of the governed, either by design or implicit. Afghanistan is a 3rd world shit hole, and will operate and be governed like a 3rd world shit hole. No amount of money/lives/hope spent will change that until the people of that country want it to be something else and are willing to stand up and fight.

Bergdahl back is a good thing, he may or may not be a deserter/dirtbag/disturbed dude, but he's our guy. We reserve the right to pass judgement, no one else. What happens after, I don't really care about. I'm more interested in ensuring the institution keeps faith with those isolated. I can only hope that those dirt-bags released are kept on a short leash, with a game of catch with a Hellfire on the other end.

[Fuzz]

You are right we don't get to decide that, my point was there is a difference between an unfriendly sitting government and a terrorist organization turned government entity.

This guy brings up some good points about the holes in this deal. Specifically what would the network holding him agree to his release for people that don't belong to their organization, when we specifically have people from their organization in GITMO. Looks we just gave the Taliban their people back to in turn cut a nice check to the Haqqini network.

http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/negotiating-with-terrorists-inside-the-capture-and-release-of-sgt-bowe-bergdahl/

[tac airlifter]

Fuck the SOFA, who cares? Obama will send in 'drones' regardless if we have a SOFA or not.

What do the quotes around drones mean? And what makes you think we'd send assets into a location without a SOFA?

[HeloDude]

What do the quotes around drones mean? And what makes you think we'd send assets into a location without a SOFA?

The quote refers to the term constantly used by the 24 hours news media, hence the quote. Typically

I don't refer to a Reaper as a 'drone'...af.mil media calls them an RPA, and that's what I call them as well.

As for a SOFA, do you mean we only use assets in a country in which we have a SOFA? I wasn't aware we had a SOFA with Libya to perform such operations prior to 2011. Unless I'm missing something here as I only get my news from TV and open source news websites. Don't forget, I'm a rotorwing guy...I'm not that smart.

[Herk Driver]

Not to mention RPA strikes in Yemen or Pak or other countries without declared hostilities. The current policy about tracking down those that wish to do us harm and killing them does NOT have a SOFA caveat.

Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

Edited June 2, 2014 by Herk Driver

[TreeA10]

An article from someone who was there:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/02/we-lost-soldiers-in-the-hunt-for-bergdahl-a-guy-who-walked-off-in-the-dead-of-night.html

[HeloDude]

An article from someone who was there:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/02/we-lost-soldiers-in-the-hunt-for-bergdahl-a-guy-who-walked-off-in-the-dead-of-night.html

Don't be giving us these lies...Susan Rice already said he served with 'honor and distinction'. And she's pretty smart--she was one of the first people to tell Americans that the Benghazi attacks were the result of a Youtube video.

[tac airlifter]

Not to mention RPA strikes in Yemen or Pak or other countries without declared hostilities. The current policy about tracking down those that wish to do us harm and killing them does NOT have a SOFA caveat.

Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

Do you think the activities in those locations would continue unabated without SOFAs in nearby countries?

[Herk Driver]

Personal opinion, Yes. But, either way, that was not the original question asked. We are in plenty of countries with no SOFA and there are other options...we just haven't pursued them all yet.

I think that where there is the political will that we will find a way to swack the dudes that we want to swack.

Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

Edited June 3, 2014 by Herk Driver

[TreeA10]

Don't be giving us these lies...Susan Rice already said he served with 'honor and distinction'. And she's pretty smart--she was one of the first people to tell Americans that the Benghazi attacks were the result of a Youtube video.

Hey, she was 50% correct. I believe he has served with "distinction" regarding the conflict in Afghanistan. That definitely meets and exceeds the 5% truth rule.

[Steve Davies]

So, Obama invites the father to say a few words at the White House. Nice.

[xcraftllc]

I would like to be a fly on the wall for that debrief.

Whoops, sorry man, I meant to give you a positive feedback on that one but I was on a bouncy bus and hit the negative button, anyway to change it that you know of?

[herkbum]

So, Obama invites the father to say a few words at the White House. Nice.

Yeah, and interesting look and choice of words he used as well.

[waveshaper]

Yeah, and interesting look and choice of words he used as well.

His good old dad does seem to have a few Jane Fonda-ish type attributes.

[pawnman]

I'm glad he's back. I'm very unhappy that in doing so, we just validated that we will, in fact, negotiate with terrorists, and in doing so we put a price on every American's head.

Do we really think that any of the people we're fighting in Afghanistan would not have already been doing their best to take any one of us alive? If anything, I think it will increase the odds that if you are captured over there you'll come back alive, instead of the summary beheadings that seemed so common in the opening days of the war.

[Lawman]

Do we really think that any of the people we're fighting in Afghanistan would not have already been doing their best to take any one of us alive? If anything, I think it will increase the odds that if you are captured over there you'll come back alive, instead of the summary beheadings that seemed so common in the opening days of the war.

People ignore the fact that this happened. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_hostages_in_Afghanistan

Ransom is one of the oldest traditions in Warfare.

[pawnman]

It wouldn't be much of a stretch to be "captured" and trade yourself home for your friends. It might be a but tinfoil hat, I hope I'm wrong and he is happy to be home.

Five years later. That is a very patient man.

[HerkFE]

I am already tired of the drooling over this dude. If the accusations of desertion are true then he should be court martialed and spend the rest of his days in prison. I don't know first hand the facts but I haven't seen ANYONE coming to his side to say that he got rolled up or just accidentally ventured into enemy territory so I am believing the desertion accusations at this point. I'm also not hearing much mentioned of the heroes who DIED trying to find this dude. Am I glad he is home? Absolutely not. He made a conscious decision to walk into the arms of the enemy, heroes died trying to rescue him, and now five bad guys are free to plot against our real military men and women. Now he is at Landstuhl claiming to not understand English. Bullshit. Strap him to a board and pour water on his face and see how fast he learns English.

I realize there are bigger issues that I don't, and probably never will, understand but IMHO this is a case where we should have left him. He gave up his right to rescue the moment the he made the conscious decision to abandon his post and walk into the arms of the enemy. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

The question was asked earlier in this thread about putting a price on our people. What is an aircrew worth? A crewchief? A foot soldier? A general? I can't answer that. What I can answer is "What is a deserter/traitor/enemy sympathizer worth?" ......Not one single Fvck. Six families are now without a husband/ son/ father/ uncle because of this POS. As far as sending a message to the enemy about what our people are worth, let them know that traitors are worth nothing to us. Let them cut off his head. Just make a video and send it to us. Use that video as a pre-deployment training tape...."You turn your back on your country and this is what happens"

Eng out

[ForgotPassword]

The story behind Bergdahl and the circumstances surrounding his disappearance are far dirtier than has been released. Most people on his OP had to sign an NDA. Hopefully it will eventually get out. The families deserve the truth.

[Day Man]

I am already tired of the drooling over this dude. If the accusations of desertion are true then he should be court martialed and spend the rest of his days in prison. I don't know first hand the facts but I haven't seen ANYONE coming to his side to say that he got rolled up or just accidentally ventured into enemy territory so I am believing the desertion accusations at this point. I'm also not hearing much mentioned of the heroes who DIED trying to find this dude. Am I glad he is home? Absolutely not. He made a conscious decision to walk into the arms of the enemy, heroes died trying to rescue him, and now five bad guys are free to plot against our real military men and women. Now he is at Landstuhl claiming to not understand English. Bullshit. Strap him to a board and pour water on his face and see how fast he learns English.

I realize there are bigger issues that I don't, and probably never will, understand but IMHO this is a case where we should have left him. He gave up his right to rescue the moment the he made the conscious decision to abandon his post and walk into the arms of the enemy. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

The question was asked earlier in this thread about putting a price on our people. What is an aircrew worth? A crewchief? A foot soldier? A general? I can't answer that. What I can answer is "What is a deserter/traitor/enemy sympathizer worth?" ......Not one single Fvck. Six families are now without a husband/ son/ father/ uncle because of this POS. As far as sending a message to the enemy about what our people are worth, let them know that traitors are worth nothing to us. Let them cut off his head. Just make a video and send it to us. Use that video as a pre-deployment training tape...."You turn your back on your country and this is what happens"

Eng out

I'm as skeptical as the next guy, but those are some pretty aggressive words for a guy "who doesn't know the facts"...

[nsplayr]

Yikes HerkFE...let's recap your rant:

First we jump to conclusions, next we let the enemy handle our justice, then we torture active duty service members.

Did I summarize that correctly?

Here's my thought process:

Is he a traitor? Unknown for certain, debrief necessary, leads us to want to repatriate.

If he fucked up (highly likely) in a way that's against the UCMJ, does he deserve appropriate justice? Yes, all signs point to repatriation, the Taliban can't and won't provide the justice we should seek.

If others died to bring him back do we complete the mission or give up? Honor those who died, bring him back and complete the mission.

That's how I see it anyways.