The new Bergdahl defense; everyone walks away from the FOB
Chief Tango sends us a link to ABC News in which they tell us that Bergdahl wasn’t the only fellow to go for a walk outside the wire in Afghanistan;
At least a dozen guys just walked off their posts” in Afghanistan since 2009 for a variety of reasons, said an experienced soldier, one of four Afghan war veterans familiar with the incidents who spoke to ABC News. The other sources estimated the number could be more than a dozen.
The highly experienced combat veterans — whose deployments cover the entire Afghan campaign — said the significant incidents spanned a timeframe from when President Bush in late 2008 boosted conventional troop numbers in Afghanistan to well beyond President Obama’s early 2010 surge that added 30,000 more troopers to the fight.
They tell us about one fellow who left with an axe and some beef jerky who was scarfed up by the ANP. Then, of course, there was Robert Bales who went for a walk and murdered 16 Afghans in a nearby village. And then there was the SF dude who went joy riding with his terp – they got in a firefight with the ANP and the terp died. All of the trops involved, of course, were punished. ABC mentions that there might have been drugs involved.
The soldiers discreetly slipped “outside the wire” to find drugs or were already intoxicated, left to “hang out” with local Afghan villagers or Afghan forces, or just simply snuck away without any idea where to go or what to do, the Army sources said.
So, I guess that makes it OK that Bergdahl walked out because, apparently everyone goes for a walk, unarmed, outside the safety of FOBs. I feel better about Bergdahl costing untold millions of dollars and countless lives, not to mention providing a distraction from the mission in Afghanistan through a critical point in time. Thanks, ABC News!
Category: Terror War
(A)nother (B)ullshit (C)ommentary.
Always Broadcasting CRAP!
No shit. Didn’t you people see The Hurt Locker? Insert sarcastic tone…
I know. That fucking piece of shit won an Oscar. I’d like to know who their “experienced combat veterans” were that they used for sources. Bateman? Other staff fucks like him? ABC is just showing their ignorance about the military and insulating their dear leader from any bad press.
Yeah, everyone goes walkabout. NOT everyone actively seeks out the enemy and chooses to cooperate with them and help them kill Americans for a goddamn five years. No, that dubious honor belongs to this traitorous piece of detritus, and I hope he burns in hell for it.
I think I got this whole thing figured out. Our dear leader inherited this problem of Army type guys outside the wire from George bush sr or jr. So its just not his fault.
Sapper3307…You got it brother. Everything that has gone and will go wrong is still all the fault of the economic, foreign and war hawk policies of the Reagan/Bush Administrations. Hell if these guys could find a way to blame any of this on JFK they would!
Don’t think so, Sparks. Wrong party.
Eisenhower? Yep.
Hondo…Even if JFK being a Democrat were running today, I think I’d vote for him. He was a veteran, served honorably. Respected the military and I think he truly wanted what was best for our nation. Johnson on the other hand, gave us the “Great Society”.
Sparks, I don’t think that JFK could buy his way onto a dem ticket nowadays.
I have an observation and suggestion for ABC.
Observation: You went full retard.
Suggestion: Never go full retard.
Hmm. “At least a dozen” since 2009, eh? Well, let’s do some math.
Average US troop strength per year in Afghanistan since then: let’s estimate that at, oh, 75,000 (it might be a bit higher or lower, but for argument’s sake let’s use that).
2009-2014: let’s call that 4 years (throw out last half of 2009 and this year).
Army tours in Afghanistan are 1 year. For simplicity, let’s use that for everyone (USAF, USMC, and USN do shorter tours, so if 75,000 is a high estimate of “boots on ground”, the shorter USAF/USN/USMC tours will compensate at least partially for that error). 4 x 75,000 = about 300,000 individuals have served there in the last 4 years.
So we have 12 “walkabouts” out of roughly 300,000 deployed troops.
In case anyone was wondering, that’s about 0.004%. On a normal distribution scale (such as is found for human intelligence), that would be a bit less than 5 standard deviations from the mean.
“Justification” my ass. That simply shows Berghdal either (1) was a freaking idiot (literally; the old definition of idiot was IQ between 0 and 25) or (2) he willfully disregarded both common sense and policy. And he’s reputedly fairly intelligent, so there goes the “moron” defense.
Ding, ding, ding!
And we have a winner!
Yeah, a dozen guys really is everyone.
“Highly-experienced veterans” who shall remain nameless say it happens all the time. That a great source right there! Highly credible! No way they could’ve just pulled this quote out of their ass and made up a source! Out of all the hundreds of thousands of combat vets who have been discharged and have nothing to fear from talking openly about the good, the bad, and the ugly over there, they couldn’t find one willing to identify himself. Right.
Then there’s the fact that each of these dozen or so individuals who chose to go for a walk on his own was up to no good, reasons ranging from intoxication to multiple murder. So yeah, that shows that Bergdahl clearly meant no harm.
I wonder if the geniuses at ABC are conscious of how idiotic they sound.
Maybe it was Jordan Taylor, the phony panhandler.
I know when I was in Baghdad, I always wanted to downtown and see the sights with my good buddies the Iraqi IP’s. I knew I would be safe if we went out because, well, IP’s.
/End sarcasm
Dude, you never hit the parties in Sadr City? Mookie’s parties were the bomb! Those Shi’ite dudes were a blast
Often literally.
My one and only excursion into Sadr City was when our Lt. was our navigator. This was in 2008 sometime. Kids were rocking our trucks down one side of the street and then laughing as we turned around.
You could definitely tell you were in the blast party side of the block once you passed those blue T-Walls.
I guess I missed the part where the anonymous confidential informants said that leadership approved the reported walkoffs. Or are we back to the , “But Mommmy, Johnnie did it too!” defense?
These MF’ers are unreal in their zeal to spin this for the regime. I read the whole story and what stands out to me is their repeated characterization of these (unnamed/unidentified) Soldiers as “Highly experienced Combat Veterans”, “Experienced Soldiers”, “Seasoned Leaders”. Now juxtapose these descriptions to what much of the press is now describing Bergdahls Platoon mates as, undisciplined, troubled, unprofessional. No fucking shame at all.
MK75Gunner…Good points. I wonder what the “unnamed source” got for his input. Because you know he was sought out by the admin to speak up. Maybe a gimme pass on the next promotion boards?
I read at another site, SOCNET, that Bergdahl left to go get some hashish with some of the locals he hung out with. The guy who said that is an admin there and I know of no reason not to take him at his word.
Why does this story sound like one from Nam and Bill “ASSASSIN” Perrys dope buying escapdes with villagers?
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Bill Perry. I was just relaying some info posted back in 2009 that ties into what was said about the other soldiers who went AWOL.
http://www.socnet.com/showthread.php?s=0f5b7006630b55744212db9417e08bdf&t=91440
Post 7
We had guys leave the wire to go find booze. The Ecp gate guards knew they where they were going and let them out. It was all Secfore guys doing it. They got caught and nothing happened to them. It was swept under the rug.
Well, by now Bergdahl has been asked some questions. By whom? I don’t know but I can guess. I just hope that any questioning is done in the presence of observers and that at least three tape recorders and as many video machines are recording on and working properly. Otherwise, we know what the outcome will be. What’s more–and this is key–the prep work is being done, as MK75Gunner suggests, so that men who were actually members of the unit and knew Bergdahl are discredited and the anonymous media sources set the stage for Bergdahl to say, “I was taken prisoner by force when I, like so many others before me, walked outside the protection of the camp. I am grateful to President Obama for taking the difficult steps he did to have me released.”
The newest edition of Winter Crybabies-Part Three courtesy of the All Babies Cry news network. Doing all they can to muckrake the troops morale and humiliate veterans.
2/17 Air Cav…You and MK75Gunner nailed it. They have not just shit on Bergdahl’s platoon members but every man who served in Afghanistan. In their view, they are all prone to go outside the wire at any time. So Bergdahl was just one of countless walkers before him. But being the clean cut, soft spoken guy he was, he wasn’t out for drugs, booze or broads. He was out to “absorb some of the local color” and got nabbed for just being the sensitive guy he is. Screw Bergdahl. He is a deserter and as far as I am concerned at this point a traitor who lent aid to the enemy. Until it is shown otherwise. I know that is ass backwards from our system of innocent until proven otherwise but those are my feelings. Men are dead because of his ass hattery and deliberate act of desertion. He needs to answer for those lives and be held accountable for them.
That story is 100% ridiculous.
Six guys went AWOL over a five year period in the Stan?
Shit, back in 1992, Proteus had that many miss movement from Sydney to Brisbane. One fucking underway. Two whole days.
Apparently the deserter was in the Coast Guard before he joined the Army:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/bergdahls-writings-reveal-a-fragile-young-man/2014/06/11/fb9349fe-f165-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboPN
Hea ppartently made it to day 26 of basic training.
What fascinates me about all of this is the obvious shock and loss of stride of the Administration about this situation. With each story and excuse, each one more ridiculous and shallow than the last, it becomes apparent that the Administration truly believed they were going to have a giant hearts-and-flowers propaganda blitz that was going to completely sweep away any and all problems that the Administration has had up to this point.
Instead, this story — and we thought it would be Benghazi! — has thrown the wrench into the machinery so thoroughly that nobody in the government seems to know what to do or how to respond. It would never occur to them to tell the truth or admit they made mistakes; and really, WHAT ELSE IS THERE FOR THEM TO DO? Nothing, but they haven’t figured that out yet. So they are left slipping and struggling to get their feet under them on an increasingly icy slope. They keep trying to cover the fact that the horse got out of the barn by burning down the barn, instead of catching the horse!
Note to President Obama, Susan Rice, and all of the other Bergdahl spin-doctors: Stop lying, and start being honest about what happened and why. Quit blaming everyone and everything but yourselves for the mistakes that were made where Bergdahl is concerned. Come clean with the American public and start acting like the leaders you’re supposed to be.
You expect The Emperor to say, “They wouldn’t let me close Gitmo so I am releasing the terrorists secretly, in violation of law, in order to render the Gitmo closure issue moot.” Because that’s what he would have to say if he were honest. As for Benghazi, you expect him to say, “I really didn’t know what the hell was going on. I was asleep and had left instructions not to be awakened. I had a fundraiser in Vegas the following day. Some of my people covered for me and they were rewarded. None were fired at State. I helped arrange Clinton’s testimony not to be under oath. I promoted Rice to my national security adviser to keep her close and protected. As for the loss of life, shit happens.” There, that’s what an honest statement would look like.
and we could bet all our over-paid pensions etc. that we will never, ever see a word of that, too. Well, maybe “and” or “the”
Let’s say the numbers and the story are generally accurate. So what? A statistically insignificant number of soldiers are “proven” scumbags. There are many more than that calling in “sick” on any Monday in any moderately sized company in the country.
Seems like the reporter interviewed masturBatesmen for the article.
PFC Snufflenutz gets caught wandering around outside the wire without his gear and weapons and gets chewed out by his Team leader.
PFC Snufflenutz: But Sarge PFC Berdahl did it!
Sarge: Well if PFC Berdahl jumped off a bride into muddy water, got caught by the Taliban, locked in a cage, butt fucked and held for 5 years until he got traded for 5 assholes would you do it to?
PFC Snufflenutz…. umm no.