Is Ransomed U.S. Soldier Bowe Bergdahl a Deserter?

For President Barack Obama (and thus America),
foreign policy in every way remains a disaster. The latest
incident? In swapping five Taliban leaders for a U.S. soldier who
was held prisoner in Afghanistan for five years, Obama may have
just exchanged some
certifiably bad guys for…a deserter from the U.S. Army. CNN’s
Jake Tapper
explains:

The sense of pride expressed by officials of the Obama
administration at the release of Army Sgt. Bowe
Bergdahl is not shared by many of those who served with
him—veterans and soldiers who call him a deserter whose “selfish
act” ended up costing the lives of better men.

“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
Bergdahldeserted during a time of war and his fellow Americans lost
their lives searching for him.”

There’s this:

According to first-hand accounts from soldiers in his platoon,
Bergdahl, while on guard duty, shed his weapons and walked off the
observation post with nothing more than a compass, a knife, water,
a digital camera, and a diary.

At least six soldiers were killed in subsequent searches
for Bergdahl, and many soldiers in his platoon said attacks seemed
to increase against the United States in Paktika Province in the
days and weeks following his disappearance.

More here.

This is all
completely apart from the question of whether exchanging prisoners
for prisoners is a good idea while the U.S. still has over 30,000
troops in Afghanistan (and more than 100 detainees in
Gitmo). And once again, yesterday, Susan Rice—she of Benghazi
talking points fame—was making spurious claims on Sunday talk
shows. She emphasized that Bergdahl had been
“captured” on the battlefield, which may not be exactly right.
Or even at all right.

I caught a few minutes of MSNBC’s Morning Joe earlier today
and co-host Mika Brzezinski cautioned that whatever else we know
about the five-for-one prisoner deal (which involves the Taliban
going to Qatar, where they will be monitored by the government
there for at least a year), we don’t know everything. Which is
likely accurate and besides the point: Leaving aside the Obama
administration’s constant invocations about its super-fantastic
dedication to transparency, this White House has managed to make
itself toxic
to increasing swaths of the public and drive faith in its best
intentions and ability to cross the street through the floor.

Here’s hoping that after more than a dozen years of poorly
conceived and executed wars—and declining public support for the
idea of America as globocop—that official foreign policy will start
to appreciate the idea that we cannot undertake large and
small-scale military interventions lightly.

Related: “Guantanamo Bay in 54
Seconds”: