We Should be Talking More About Bowe Bergdahl

We’re not giving enough attention to Bowe Bergdahl. He’s one of the most controversial soldiers our country has produced since the Vietnam War, but the general response to him is mostly either, “He’s not worth the time spent talking about him,” or, “He suffered enough. We should just let it go.” Both are wrong.

Bergdahl’s Not Alone

When President Obama made the deal with our enemies for Bergdahl’s prisoner exchange, his unofficial status as the most-hated soldier in the Army was cemented. While we have to wait for the court martial to finish to know whether we can officially call him a deserter or not, what we know is that he left his post in a time of war, and that while he was gone, five soldiers lost their lives, either actively searching for him or looking for him while they were on other missions.

Yesterday I wrote this article talking about the fact that the soldiers that died didn’t do so for Bergdahl. It had an unusually large response, and a surprising one. Lots of my Army buddies reacted surprisingly negative, considering that in the piece I indirectly and directly referenced Bergdahl as a pile of poop. For some, just referencing Bergdahl in any way other than, “The guy should be used for target practice,” was somehow justifying his actions.

The problem with not talking about Bergdahl is that he exists. Whatever the final verdict is, we know what he did. But while he’s obviously the outlier of the group of U.S. soldiers that are fighting wars while disillusioned about why, the group still remains.

And there are certain things that we (as an Army and as an American public) need to communicate to that group of people.

I deployed to Iraq in 2009. It was at the end of the Army’s time there, so it was quiet, and I was in an aviation squadron, so we were stationed in mostly built-up bases, complete with internet and working showers. Still, I heard plenty of groans about, “We shouldn’t even be here.” Those are the kinds of groans that Bergdahl expounded on in the last email he sent before he took his long walk into the mountains. What Bergdahl, and those groaning soldiers, failed to realize was that as a member of the military, whether what specific task we’re given is “worthwhile” should be absolutely secondary to our primary motivation of serving our country. How many soldiers have died during random, seemingly inconsequential tasks in Iraq or Afghanistan? What did those people die for? If I had died in Iraq, it certainly wouldn’t have been for the Iraqi people. Neither was Bergdahl in Afghanistan for the Afghan people. Neither did the five soldiers who died while searching for him die in service to Bergdahl.

This ideal, that who soldiers are fighting, or what task is set in front of them, is not nearly as important as what they’re fighting for (to support and defend the American constitution, and to protect its people), is an important one. Bergdahl’s reprehensible actions illustrate how crucial it is.

“Bergdahl’s suffered enough.”

The other camp of thought is that Bergdahl should simply be free to go. We know that he spent years confined by captors who don’t play nice. We know that he was tortured. Unfortunately, that doesn’t satisfy the requirements of law. His crime was one of the most heinous there is in the Army, and if he’s found guilty of desertion he should pay the punishment that is set out for that kind of offense. The suffering that he received from the Taliban does not excuse him from the American consequences of his actions.

Those making the argument that he’s not worth the time of day to talk about AND those who are suggesting that we just let him off with the punishment of his time served in a POW camp are both missing the importance of him. We need to talk about why he left. We need to remind soldiers that their motivation is service to their country and not whatever hot and sandy place they end up being sent to. And we need to use Bergdahl as an example to the younger generation of soldiers of what happens when you make bad decisions.

If he gets sentenced to life, I wonder if we could put a webcam in his cell…

My original article on Bergdahl, which is about a detail that most of the media is getting wrong about his story, is here.