Must. Suppress. Story!
cali (93,032 posts)
Can we NOT disseminate the right wing meme that Bergdahl was a deserter here at DU?
Please, for the love of reason, stop. Just stop and think for one blessed minute. Bergdahl has not been court martialed and frankly even if he is, war takes a terrible toll and I have sympathy for those that crack under its stresses. The right wing is busy, busy, busy spreading pernicious apocryphal crap for political reasons.
And some of you are busy, busy, busy helping them do it.
What a shame.
sufrommich (15,304 posts)
4. This. It's swiftboating at this point. nt
Which was also true.
malaise (119,189 posts)
24. Agreed in principle but you must mean the Right wing chickenhawk meme
because not one of those ReTHUG scumbags signed up for military duty.
jberryhill (34,144 posts)
27. It doesn't matter one way or another
And the notion that discussions at DU have some sort of impact on the wider world is, IMHO, not accurate.
It takes one little prick to burst their bubble.
Omaha-ha-ha Steve posts a CNN article which is followed by this:
bigtree (51,405 posts)
32. more folks quoted who don't possess any more facts about his capture than the rest of the media
. . .it's a campaign of innuendo, at this point, until all of the facts are revealed in some sort of investigation or hearing.
But we do know for certain Dick Cheney had Pat Tillman assassinated.
riderinthestorm (15,452 posts)
33. Fellow soldiers who are speculating with no eye witness account of what happened.
If Bergdahl was disliked by his fellow soldiers because he wasn't gung-ho enough, I can see them jumping to that conclusion.
Fact is, none of them saw Bergdahl leave. Nobody but Bergdahl knows at the moment what really happened despite what irresponsible journalists write in hopes of feeding the right wing smear machine.
Yeah. It's way easy to go missing from a COP on the Af-Pak border.
Could happen to anyone...
...
...who's a deserter.
Star Member bigtree (51,405 posts)
31. folks popping up with that meme are characteristically uninformed
. . . about history, precedent, and policy. Moreover, they are mired in internet rumor and glaringly devoid of actual facts to support their yammering about the Sgt's conduct before or after capture.
The only real fact is OIF was a goal to steal Iraq's oil.
The_Commonist (2,217 posts)
34. Well...
I have a friend who recently retired from the Army, as a full Colonel. She's anything but a "right-winger." She did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now she raises bees and goats and strawberries and posts memes on Facebook about feminism and income inequality. [Just say "dyke" already. Jeez! -- SGT SB]
She seems convinced that he deserted. From inside info.
And yes, she's happy he was rescued, feels bad for him, and would trade 5 Talibaners for one GI any day.
But, not everything we don't like is a "right wing meme."
Skidmore (31,359 posts)
38. After the number the military did on Pat Tillman and his family,
I will await an investigation and not rely on hearsay from faceless and nameless people on a chatboard.
Skidmore (31,359 posts)
36. I seriously don't understand why even those in his unit would not give him the benefit
of the doubt. Even if he did walk away, his state of mind is very much something to be considered. With all the controversy around PTSD and the the treatment of mental health issues in the military, the possibility of him being in acute distress was the first thing to come to mind for me when this rumor started circulating. What if he was suicidal?
Bowe Bergdahl deserves a chance to heal in privacy and safety.
PS. I'm so sick of seeing John McCain trotted out there to comment in his "tut, tut" sanctimonious way. This guy has been wrong so many times on issues of war and peace and human interactions in general. He needs to sit down and quit interjecting himself.
His state of mind is: Proglodyte.
Blanks (2,206 posts)
43. It's possible that even if he deserted, he was under orders...
We do all sorts of things for counter-intelligence and counter-counter-intelligence.
They sure as hell aren't going to tell us - if he was on a top secret mission to gather intelligence on the Taliban, they (his fellow soldiers) wouldn't know either.
The folks who traded for him would know, but we may never know. I read something a few years ago about the family of Benedict Arnold trying to 'clear his name' because (according to them) he was on a mission to infiltrate enemy forces when he 'betrayed' us.
We can't just broadcast our intelligence plans in the open - a lot of people wouldn't approve.
* I am in no way affiliated with military intelligence. Pure speculation.
If it happened on Obama's watch intelligence has nothing to do with it.
joeybee12 (46,984 posts)
45. I think the soldier who wrote that is a teabagger who hates Obama...
And whatever he did he has to find fault with...even making up shit.
Bush stole the election.
SleeplessinSoCal (2,329 posts)
58. first though, its another way to empty Gitmo
wish we could empty the place this way.
Bergdahl's father tweeted the exact same thing.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025037691Yep. He's one of theirs.
