Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was handed over to U.S. special operations forces by the Taliban Saturday evening, local time, in an area of eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border. Officials said the exchange was not violent and the 28-year-old Bergdahl was in good condition and able to walk.
Later reports say that we sent 5 jihadis held at Guantanamo Bay to Qatar, where our enemies surely assume they will "escape" from in due time. Qatar will eventually send them to fight Assad, I'll guess.
I don't think I mentioned Bergdahl since there was nothing to know. I assumed we were working on this and there was no point to complaining about lack of success.
In addition, there is a question of the circumstances of Bergdahl's capture. Was he captured or did he desert? His return thus presents a dilemma for the military in whether to prosecute if he walked.
Although if he walked, 5 years in Taliban captivity is surely a good chunk of time served. I assume he came to regret walking away--if that is what he did. I sure hope he was captured and can at least receive an enthusiastic welcome home.
There is of course controversy over trading 5 of the enemy for our soldier. Yes, yes. We don't negotiate with terrorists. I agree. But this is not that clear cut since a soldier was captured by enemies we also fight on the battlefield. My view is that we've released others for nobody in the past, so why not get one of our guys back? I count this as a prisoner exchange.
And even if Bergdahl went AWOL and surrendered, and regrets nothing, I think his release is a good thing for our troops who will know that we really won't give up on anybody in captivity regardless of circumstances. What might a soldier captured in a war think if press reports wrongly speculate he went AWOL and so doesn't deserve rescue?
Obviously, it would have been better if special forces had rescued Bergdahl and killed his captors. But we got our soldier back. Told all our troops that we won't leave them behind. And with luck we'll kill those 5 guys we released if somehow they manage to walk away from their Qatar captivity.
UPDATE: If we lost troops looking for a deserter, that changes Bergdahl's fate quite a bit:
"I was pissed off then and I am even more so now with everything going on," said former Sgt. Matt Vierkant, a member of Bergdahl's platoon when he went missing on June 30, 2009. "Bowe Bergdahl deserted during a time of war and his fellow Americans lost their lives searching for him."
Vierkant said Bergdahl needs to not only acknowledge his actions publicly but face a military trial for desertion under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
That goes beyond a moment of stupid.
We punish if you abuse civilians. We should punish if you desert your unit. Even if he gets "time served" for his stay in Afghanistan and in US custody until tried, if Bergdahl deserted, he should be convicted.
UPDATE: The five jihadis we released weren't just ordinary Joes. They are very dangerous terrorist leaders:
There are good reasons why the Taliban has long wanted the five freed from Gitmo. All five are among the Taliban’s top commanders in U.S. custody and are still revered in jihadist circles.
The deal is looking less acceptable as more is known. I guess this explains why the Obama administration violated the statutes and failed to provide Congress with advance notice of the trade.
Unless we surgically implanted tracking devices in those we released, I'm not sure what new information could make me less uneasy, as I've become, about the trade. Maybe we can convince the Taliban through leaks that they gave up a deserter and we did, too--giving up guys who cooperated and told us everything they knew. Perhaps we can put enough doubt in their reputations to make some jihadis suspicious of them. Suspicious enough to kill them. Who knows in that world?
I guess I'll hold judgment for now. Maybe I'll be shocked and the Gitmo 5 remain under control in Qatar until they die. Stranger things have happened, I suppose. But do hold the "hero" talk.
UPDATE: Military opinion is apparently conflicted, too. Out.
