Moth, Meet Flame

My impression is that Bowe Bergdahl didn’t fit into miilitary life and was unpopular with the other guys in his unit, although that could be wrong. He had been home-schooled and was possibly unskilled at fitting into a group. His Wikipedia profile, which seems unbiased, is of someone who just plain didn’t know how to “play along.”

That said, the viciousness of the Right’s attack on Bergdahl and his family, especially his father, does remind one of a school of hungry piranha. Typical behavior for them, though. And it seems the announcement of Bergdahl’s release was barely out of anyone’s lips before congressional Republicans were screaming for investigations and hearings.

Next week, there will be a news story about President Obama eating a tuna fish sandwich, and congressional Republicans will call for an investigation of the tuna industry and its possible connections to the Administration.

There’s a lot that we don’t know about this case, but there’s nothing about it I’ve heard so far that breaks with long-established precedent involving presidents and prisoner exchanges. And we all know that if a Republican president had done exactly the same thing, the Right would be ready to carve his head next to George Washington’s on Mount Rushmore.

Fox News is running a story that the intelligence community investigated Bergdahl’s conduct. The article quotes an unnamed “counterterrorism official” hinting that Bergdahl possibly corroborated with the enemy. The right-wing side of the Web is linking to this article as proof that Bergdahl is a traitor, even through all that presumed investigation hasn’t led to anyone actually charging him with anything. That could still happen, of course. But even if he is never charged or even is exonerated, don’t expect anyone on the Right to change his or her mind. Anyone named Bergdahl living in a red state might want to change his name, or move.

We’re going to be hearing about Bergdahl from now until the 2016 elections. Whether this story will have any impact on people who don’t already have Obama Derangement Syndrome remains to be seen. It might actually make the majority of Americans more exhausted with wingnuts than they already are.

See also:

Wingnuts’ war on the troops: The ugly lesson of Bowe Bergdahl and Sarah Palin

Bowe Bergdahl Is the Right’s New Benghazi

GOP Strategists Arranged Interviews With Angry Members Of Bergdahl’s Platoo
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18 thoughts on “Moth, Meet Flame

  1. “Bowe Bergdahl didn’t fit into military life and was unpopular with the other guys in his unit”

    I wouldn’t doubt that one bit, my experience in the Army was that it was a click much like a high school football or cheerleading team. Anyone who has an opinion counter to the kewl kids is defiantly an outcast, I would imagine the click is only magnified during armed deployment. I find it interesting that Bergdahl has been promoted twice during his imprisonment. Those promotions tell me the Army Brass has no evidence that he is a deserter, you don’t get promotions unless your record is spotless. President Obama should have issued an announcement on Saturday that he had the opportunity to trade the detainees for Bergdahl but thought the soldiers life was not worth the potential problems with setting the detainees free. Then we could have watched the same phony patriot assholes call for the Presidents head for leaving our brave soldier behind!

  2. Uhm…
    Republicans, while you’re still on the “B’s” – with Bergdahl now added to Benghazi, Benghazi, BENGHAZI! – can we look back at the 30 year anniversary of your beloved Ronald “Maximus” Reagan cutting-and-running from Beirut?

    Bravely bold Sir Ronald rode forth from Washington.
    He was not afraid to die, O brave Sir Ronald!
    He was not at all afraid to be killed in nasty ways,
    Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Ronald!

    Brave Sir Ronald ran away.
    Bravely ran away, away!
    When danger reared its ugly head,
    He bravely turned his tail and fled.
    Yes, brave Sir Ronald turned about
    And gallantly he chickened out.
    Bravely taking to his feet
    He beat a very brave retreat,
    Bravest of the brave, Sir Ronald!

    He is packing it in and packing it up
    And sneaking away and buggering up
    And chickening out and pissing off home,
    Yes, bravely he is throwing in the sponge…

    Everything you need to know about life can be found in a Monty Python TV episode or film!

  3. Yeah, but as Senator McCain will point out the President released five Willie Hortons to help a guy that didn’t deserve any help.

    I really don’t know how much more of this I can take.

  4. These people are sick. I don’t really see how crucifying Bowe Bergdahl works to the Republicans’ advantage, though. There are a lot of sick people out there in America, but most of them aren’t that sick.

  5. Paths of Glory! The big attack fails because the generals are a bunch of arrogant fools, so of course the generals pick out three men by lot and have them shot for cowardice.

    Another similar movie is Breaker Morant. That one is in the Boer war. The scapegoats are three Australians.

  6. While away Bowe Bergdahl was promoted twice from PVT to SGT. If Bowe is/was a deserter would the promotion happen?

  7. It sure would be a breath of fresh air if the Republican Party just once considered what is correct for the country over petty political posturing in the final years of the Obama Administration. It sure hasn’t happened once in the first 5 1/2 years…

  8. Susan, from what I’ve heard, it’s mostly because they won’t charge him until he’s there to face a hearing, and with no charges, he’s got a clean record. Scuttlebutt says it’s pretty clear he was at least AWOL. (Doesn’t make it the truth, of course.)

    This is how a military unit is supposed to operate. He’s one of their own, you *get him back*. And then – well, then you do the investigations and find out what happened, and bring charges if warranted.

    The point in getting him back is not to get back a valiant hero deserving of every honor and accolade. It’s to get back AnyGoddamnOneOfOurMen.

  9. There’s more going here than meets the eye. Microchips, implants, and psychological warfare.

  10. LHW has it right. I’m a vet. We don’t know about how Berghdahl was captured and it does not matter! He’s an American captive POW. We want him back. Every Vietnam era vet (which is not the same as a Vietnam vet) gets it. All soldiers are not equal, cut from the same military cloth, except in this one aspect. All American POWs, every American POW, in any conflict we put them into deserves every effort to bring them home. If there are *issues* related to circumstances of their capture or conduct, those are separate from the issue of whether we expend every effort to return EVERY POW home. There’s a reason for that – every serviceman (including women) should have absolute confidence that the US government will secure their release if they are captured.

  11. It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

    But it’s easy to stand on principles when somebody else’s life hangs in the balance. Obama did the right thing. I’m happy for the Bergdahl’s. Bowe will answer for whatever mistakes he made, but his parents won’t suffer for whatever mistakes we might have made.
    It wouldn’t be a good day for America to be seen as abandoning one of it’s own on the battle field when they’ve expressed a desire to return to their country and their family. Regardless what actions put him in the situation he was in. He was still a prisoner of war.

  12. uncledad.. I liked that bad beardo’s link. I gotta admit when I saw Bergdahl’s father with that scraggly beard and his Pashtun message I did feel a sense of revulsion. I guess there must be some conservative residue that hasn’t been purged from my soul. Not that I agree with Fox and Friends, but…Lose that beard, Pal. It doesn’t become you! Unhygienic comes to mind.

  13. “We don’t know about how Bergdahl was captured and it does not matter”

    Your right, I knew when I was blathering about his rank that it does not matter. What matters is that the right wing and many in the MSM have determined that SGT B’s life was not worth saving. So they should be forced to define what soldier’s life is worth saving! When does someone who volunteered for our war become our enemy?

  14. “scraggly beard and his Pashtun message I did feel a sense of revulsion”

    See I don’t mind the pashtun crazy talk near as much as the english christian crazy! Maybe cause I don’t speak pashtun?

  15. It’s nice that Sarah Palin offered some input on what a soldier’s sense of unit cohesion and loyalty should be. Like she should know? I haven’t heard from Joe the Plumber yet, but I’m sure it won’t be long before we get his take on what’s expected from the guys and gals who do put on the uniform to serve their country.

  16. Various Republican mouthpieces, including recent pres/VP candidates John McCain and Sarah Palin, have flip-flopped on their previous demands to bring Bergdahl home. Here’s one post on that:

    http://crooksandliars.com/2014/06/and-after-shots-republicans-pleading-pow

    Of course we have a long tradition of bringing our soldiers home, even if they’ve given tactical secrets to the enemy like McCain did in Vietnam (which, according to his autobiography, he did before he was tortured).

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