I have to admit, I am waiting to see what transpires before I weigh in on this topic.  I feel like the media is running wild.  However, some sanity has to be brought in.  So, I wrote some short biographies of the five men we traded for SGT Bergdahl.  No opinion, just fact.

Abdul Haq Wasiq
Mullah Mohammad Fazl
Mullah Norullah Noori
Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa
Mohammad Nabi Omari

I also want to bring some sanity into our debates.  I don’t know whether or not SGT Bergdahl is a deserter, traitor, conspirator, or anything else.  He is, however, an American Soldier and we should be bring him back.  Period.  If he did desert or betray, the military investigation will bear that out.  Whether or not he is given mercy because he “suffered enough” already is not a decision for anyone to make except the court.  He should be tried and if found guilty, the court should decide whether leniency is appropriate.

This is a complete separate issue from the deal that was made.  Although I agree that we should not leave an American in the clutches of the Haqqani Network, I also think that the deal that was struck is a bad one.  It does no good to save one man by releasing top leaders of an organization that will kill many more Americans. Period.

We need to remember that there are two separate issues here.  It is not that we traded these Taliban men for a traitor.  We traded them for an American Soldier.  Good or bad, that is what we did.

The second issue is whether or not Bergdahl is a traitor.  He should be given the opportunity to have an investigation and trial to bear that issue out.  No one knows all the circumstances.  I will agree that the evidence we are aware of seems to not be in his favor.  But that is not our place to judge.

It is a sad day when an entire town has to cancel the celebration of a person returning from war because they are receiving threats.  This man is innocent til proven guilty.  If you listen to all of his military accusers, you will see that they all agree he should be tried.  In a court.  Meaning that he is subject to our laws.  And our laws say that a man is innocent until proven guilty.  Period.

So before we start condemning this man, let’s find out the story.  Let the courts decide his guilt. And when we are debating the issue of his rescue, let’s keep the argument to that, not his character. 

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