# Bowe Berdahl charged with desertion. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 25, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983 "2015-03-25T21:35:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983/41 "2015-03-26T23:20:47Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > 1. Berdahl was not a deserter when he was traded. He was a POW. I don’t know that he was a POW, either. A deserter\*, who gets into trouble with the enemy for crimes that have nothing to do with his fighting against them, does not automatically become a POW, IMHO. A deserter, whether he is convicted as such, or not, is still a deserter. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983/42 "2015-03-26T23:22:44Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Funny how conservatives, who normally fan their faces and get the vapors whenever someone mentions the troops, think that Mr. Obama overvalued one of their heroes. I don’t think BB is a hero, and I will be surprised if many say that he was. He definitely wasn’t ‘one of \*their \*heroes’. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983/43 "2015-03-26T23:37:26Z")
It was pretty clear to me that he walked away from his post because he was nuts. Still is. That is still probable cause for desertion. He is still one of us, and I, for one, am happy for his family that he is home and safe, even if in a US military prison. The US really needs to do something about mental health care. ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2015, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983/44 "2015-03-27T13:53:08Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > (SNIP) > The OP and others of its ilk are symptoms of the moral sickness that is destroying this country. Our justice system is NOT founded on karmic retribution, but examination of evidence and application of prescribed remedy. “Potential terrorists” deserve to stay in a hellhole like Guantanamo with no trial? How American is that? A US Soldier is worthless and undeserving of a fair trial? As a veteran I say this thread is definitely in the wrong forum. Mr. Chairman, The Great State of Dickens casts all of its 14 votes for the next President of the United States, The Great Sun Jester! ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2015, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983/45 "2015-03-27T14:48:17Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > I don’t know that he was a POW, either. A deserter\*, who gets into trouble with the enemy for crimes that have nothing to do with his fighting against them, does not automatically become a POW, IMHO. The armed forces stopped designating US personnel as “prisoners of war” in 2000. The term now in use is more general: “missing/captured.” Bergdahl was classified as “missing/captured” soon after he disappeared. If Bergdahl is acquitted of the charges, do you still think he should have been left in Pakistan? ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2015, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983/46 "2015-03-27T15:20:43Z")
Bowe Bergdahl had no business even being in the military. I heard he was booted from the Coast Guard for mental health reasons and it sounds like someone in the recruiters office may have pulled some strings to get him enlisted. If those rumors are true, I almost think he’s been punished enough already. So I’m certainly okay with the swap that we made. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2015, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983/47 "2015-03-27T19:22:15Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > Bowe Bergdahl had no business even being in the military. Opinion. > [@](#): > > I heard he was booted from the Coast Guard for mental health reasons Rumor > [@](#): > > and it sounds like someone in the recruiters office may have pulled some strings to get him enlisted. Pure speculation. > [@](#): > > If those rumors are true, I almost think he’s been punished enough already. Ah, so you do know what a rumor is. > [@](#): > > So I’m certainly okay with the swap that we made. Yeah, let’s base the validity of a government action on rumor and speculation. This is why we have this nifty thing known as “a trial”. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983/48 "2015-03-28T01:21:12Z")
**Monty** - get a grip, man. Saying that Bergdahl probably didn’t belong in the Army isn’t a totally whacko idea, nor does it have any bearing on his trial, nor does it have any significant meaning on whether or not a prisoner exchange was justified. The press has published bits of his personal journals, and it seems pretty reasonable to conclude that he wasn’t in a good state of mind. There seems to be a reasonable basis to conclude that he left the Coast Guard after 26 days due to some type of bad fit - his friends told journalists that it was because of mental illness. The Army last summer couldn’t confirm whether they had actually reviewed that episode or not before allowing him to enlist. I think making a deal to get him home was unquestionably the moral thing to do. But implying that Sgt Bergdahl and the Army were most likely getting along like peas and carrots? Are you kidding? What’s your real issue here? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2015, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983/49 "2015-03-28T01:42:34Z")
Get a grip yourself, Ravenman. Nowhere did I imply that “SGT Bergdahla nd the Army were most likely getting along like peas and carrots.” Also, unless the Army has changed rather drastically since I went through BCT, “his friends” don’t constitute competent medical authority. Maybe he didn’t belong in the Army. If he didn’t, then the Army probably shouldn’t’ve promoted him to SGT. But the determination for what happened is for the trial to do. And that should be based on actual fact, not rumor and what little evidence manages to find its way into the media. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2015, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983/50 "2015-03-28T02:16:30Z")
Wait, now someone has to be a “competent medical authority” for us to give any credence to what they say on such matters? If my friends tell you that I have hay fever in the spring, are you going to dismiss what they say because they aren’t MDs? You’re making it sound like folks on a message board have the same duty as jurors to ignore news reports in favor of eyewitness or expert testimony. In reality, we’re a bunch of people reading newspapers and forming our own conclusions that have no legal consequence on anyone else in the world. I will bet you anything that if someone looked through your own posting history, we would find that you formed conclusions on various issues based on media reports, rather than on some courtroom-level standard on the rules of evidence. Do you doubt that? The bizarre part is that your calling out people who seem to fundamentally agree that getting him back was the right thing to do, and the courts should determine if he did something criminally wrong. And the Army promoted Bergdahl to specialist and then later sergeant while he was in captivity. The fact he was promoted is neither here nor there with respect to his quality of a soldier. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2015, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983/51 "2015-03-29T05:28:10Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > The armed forces stopped designating US personnel as “prisoners of war” in 2000. The term now in use is more general: “missing/captured.” Bergdahl was classified as “missing/captured” soon after he disappeared. > > If Bergdahl is acquitted of the charges, do you still think he should have been left in Pakistan? Being acquitted of the charges is a legal matter. It depends if he did what he was accused of, not of what a jury convicts him of. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983/52 "2015-03-31T12:58:07Z")
The idea that desertion should be a capital crime is itself ridiculous. It’s just shit based on jingoism. The idea that any employer can force you to work without you being able to quit is ultimately a form of slavery, even if you sign up for it. Consent doesn’t last forever. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983/53 "2015-12-14T22:59:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl to face most serious kind of court-martial in Army desertion case > \*\* > Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face general court-martial in connection with his 2009 disappearance from his base in Afghanistan, the service announced Monday, raising the possibility that the soldier could face life in prison after being held captive for five years. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/12/14/sgt-bowe-bergdahl-recommended-to-face-general-court-martial-for-desertion/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/12/14/sgt-bowe-bergdahl-recommended-to-face-general-court-martial-for-desertion/) ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983/54 "2015-12-15T01:22:12Z")
Also, for the interested, Bowe Bergdahl is the subject of Season 2 of Serial, the podcast that was a huge hit last year when it examined the murder of Hae Min Lee and the conviction (which has subsequently been overturned) of her then-boyfrien, Adnan Syed. Here the website for Serial, with the first episode of Season 2, up - > **[Serial: Season One](https://serialpodcast.org/)** > > A high-school senior named Hae Min Lee disappeared one day after school in 1999, in Baltimore County, Maryland. A month later, her body was found in a city park. And two weeks after that, her former boyfriend and classmate, 17-year-old Adnan... Meant to add - Wapo article about Serial & Bergdahl - > **[In new ‘Serial’ podcast, Bowe Bergdahl says he likened himself to Jason...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/12/10/in-new-serial-podcast-bowe-bergdahl-says-he-likened-himself-to-jason-bourne-before-capture/)** > > "I’m not about to outrun a bunch of motorcycles," the U.S. soldier said. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983/55 "2015-12-15T03:56:51Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > The idea that desertion should be a capital crime is itself ridiculous. It’s just shit based on jingoism. The idea that any employer can force you to work without you being able to quit is ultimately a form of slavery, even if you sign up for it. Consent doesn’t last forever. That’s just stupid. The military isn’t just “any employer”. It’s an organization that’s charged with fighting the country’s wars, and as such, operates under different rules than other employers. Most of the reason desertion is punished so harshly is because if there’s not a certain deterrent, some soldiers may find that it’s preferable to take their chances with the military legal system rather than fighting the enemy. It’s somewhat of a relic of conscripted militaries, in that if you weren’t really wanting to be there, there had to be a reason you just didn’t bail, and that something was the harsh penalty for desertion. That said, I tend to think that the military has a pretty good balance right now- you can get things like entry-level separations if you decide the military’s not for you early on, but they punish the bailing out on your comrades due to selfishness very harshly- mostly for the deterrent factor, but also as a certain backup to the idea that everyone has everyone else’s back, and transgressors of that code are punished harshly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bowe-berdahl-charged-with-desertion/715983.md?page=2)