Bergdahl excuses
A number of folks have sent us links to the various reports about Bowe Bergdahl who is attempting to take his case of desertion and misconduct before the enemy to the American public in an attempt to put himself in a favorable light. His lawyers put the Article 32 hearing transcript and psych evaluations on the internet to go over the Army’s collective head. There are some doctors who are claiming that he was f***ed in the head before he walked away from his base in Afghanistan. From Fox News;
A document from July 2015 shows that an Army Sanity Board Evaluation determined that Bergdahl suffered from schizotypal personality disorder when he left the post. A Mayo Clinic website says people with the disorder have trouble interpreting social cues and can develop significant distrust of others.
I guess that totally excuses him from walking out into Indian country from his base thinking that he’s going to walk for days, safely, until he gets to a general where he can tattle on his chain of command. That just doesn’t sound like anything anyone would do, despite the mental health mumbo-jumbo. He had five years to come up with that excuse while he was cozy with his new Haqqani pals.
The Washington Post tells about a statement that he signed when he enlisted in the Army after his aborted attempt at a Coast Guard career;
“I joined the Coast Guard in January of 2006. While in recruit training I had a hard time adapting to change. I had a lot going on with things at home and I do not feel that I was prepared on my own. I couldn’t take care of issues at home and was able to obtain a discharge to do so. They did discharge with a reentry code of 3L. I have no ties to home anymore that would hinder my performance while in the military. I have matured and know that I am prepared to go into the Army. Please do not allow my past record to prevent me from coming into the Army.”
From another Washington Post article, Bergdahl mumbles something about his ambitions in the Army;
So, stupid actions, yes. Stupid young man who wanted — I had always been a failure. The Army was — I knew the Army. I knew weapons. I knew soldiers. I knew how to do that. This was my chance to prove I wasn’t just a failure.
I wanted to go Special Forces. I didn’t want to show up at the Q-course with some bullshit Article 15 and say, “Well, I am here, just like all the other guys that want to be super cool Soldiers.” I wanted to show up at the Q- 17 course saying, “I deserve to be here because I have proven myself already that I am capable of doing not what Special Forces does now, but what the real founders, the real guys back in the day did then.”
So, he wandered off. Actually, he doesn’t sound nutty, he sounds immature. He sounds like a million other privates who think they have all of the answers and who are frustrated that their leadership won’t listen to them and their mind-droppings. I was one of them, so I know. The difference is that I never did anything dangerous to get attention for myself. Bergdahl blames his parents, blames the Army, blames the recruiters, blames his commanders and his squad leader – but none of it is his fault. When he’s in jail, he can blame his lawyers.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
I’m sure being in the brig can assure he gets the treatment he needs.
The Army has a Sanity Board? How did I manage to stay in as long as I did? ?
Sure. This explains how the borad makes its determinations…
Then you have to see Major Major when he’s not in.
Please, have some respect. Use the man’s full name and rank: MAJ Major Major Major.
(smile)
I thought their mission was to ensure everyone had enough INsanity to be able to tolerate things!
Bergdahl? FUCK HIM sideways with a mile of triple strand concertina wire wrapped in asbestos!
What? No salt and iodine?
Nah. Just use the mecurochrome that used to come in those tiny little bottles the Army (and presumably other services) issued years ago with field first aid kits/packets. (smile)
How ’bout hot sauce that’s past its expiration date?
but but but but mental health privacy!!!
lol fucking hang this scumfuck already. I grow tired of this traitor using up oxygen that could be better used by honorable men.
SOMEWHERE out there are a number of plants that have worked hard to provide the oxygen that Bergdahl has stolen his entire life, and IMHO he owes every one of them a HUGE apology!
If these things are documented (uncharacterized discharge and schizotypal personality disorder), there should be quite a few other individuals on trial, too.
Well now, considering this new information my opinion is…HANG HIM!!!
Could we quarter him first like they did in the Middle Ages….
I think Command PFC Bergdahl is going to regret not asking for a General discharge instead of going to trial. I don’t think Barry (Obama) is to pardon him. At least not until after the election.
Trump Trump Trump Trump!!!
Buck Fergdahl, as Hondo said below. And Truck Fump, as well.
So…..”when is BIG Army Brass going to try his traitorous ass?”
Thus far the Army has been politicized beyond redemption. They are more concerned about their Career than the credibility and integrity of the Army.
Each day brings more shame on those who dither.
His case has already been referred to court-martial. “Big Army Brass” needs to stay the hell out of this case until after the judge is through with it. Otherwise they’ll just give him grounds for relief on grounds of “unlawful command influence.”
(I expect this case to stay judge alone, with no panel being convened. And I expect the sentence to be disappointing.)
A “Sanity Board” is not a sitting institution…it is typically a single psychiatrist doing an evaluation in connection with a court-martial. Or at least that’s how I always saw the term used. (The regulations…it’s Rule for Courts-Martial 706…allow for multiple members, but every one I have seen has been a one-man eval. If there is some other kind of sanity board I am unaware of it.)
The trick with these excuses is not to be distracted by them. Go back to the Rolling Stone article that describes the letter he wrote before he deserted…not after he was back, consulting with lawyers, and facing charges:
“I am ashamed to be an American. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools…The US Army is the biggest joke the world has to laugh at. It is the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies…I am sorry for everything. The horror that is America is disgusting…”
That tells you the most important things you need to know about his real motives.
You sound like a witness for the defense
Schizotypal personality disorder:
1. Odd or eccentric and usually have few, if any, close relationships.
2. Don’t understand how relationships form or the impact of their behavior on others.
3. Misinterpret others’ motivations and behaviors and develop significant distrust of others.
4. Severe anxiety and a tendency to turn inward in social situations
5. Responds inappropriately to social cues and holds peculiar beliefs
Not if the defense is wise, I don’t.
The military uses the M’Naghten standard for the insanity defense (or “lack of mental responsibility”). If he knew he was leaving a unit doing combat service, he is guilty…he’d have to be hallucinating pretty fiercely (he thought he was in Bangkok walking down the Soi Cowboy, not in Afghanistan walking off the FOB) to get off that way.
As far as mitigation goes…personality disorders are not all that mitigating. Try uttering a sentence like this:
“Oh, come on, your honor, don’t punish my client too hard. The poor guy’s a sociopath.”
Or,
“The Prosecutor’s been saying that these schemes show a real disregard for others and a willingness to exploit them heartlessly. And I suppose that’s true. But you’d do the same yourself if you were suffering from severe Narcissistic Personality Disorder the way my client is…”
Buck Fergdahl.
And the roarse he hoed in on.
Man, you’re talking pretty bad about his horse. (smile)
For those that didn’t catch the reference, this might help:
LT: “Able Baker Charlie, this is Roger Fox Dog.”
Patrol: “Wow, man – someone’s talking pretty bad about Roger!”
DILLIGAFF
That is all.
The army made a huge mistake letting this guy in. He clearly had issues and as someone who was discharged at reception and reenlisted it is tough.
Definitely agree he is an immature private. He could not have lasted a week with my platoon. The e4 mafia would have straightened him out pretty fast.
I understand the presures while being deployed that the mighty e4 mafia might not have been able to approparlty whip his ass.
Wtf brah?!?!?!? I am Falton Hotsteel different dude brah…. Who is Dalton Coldiron? Not cool brah to change a brahs name.
SHUT UP, BUNNY FART!! Where’s the DD214 you promised to show, you booger-eating fuckfaced thumbsucking ratshit pissant bedwetting LOSER!!
Dally,where is your shedule of Rodeos you will be contesting in? By the way I live in Sand Springs. We could meet at a Cracker Barrel or such and you could show me your new DD-214. When you don’t(most likely) show I can have something to ear for my travels. Joe
And after you mail Jonn a redacted copy of that DD214 you’ve been promising him for months, bunni-boi . . . then go home and get your (flipping) shine box!
May I have the honor of being the first to tell you to kindly go fuck yourself?
You ain’t the first, SFC D…..
I actually meant the first in this thread!
Not like it’s going to make a difference… but the offer is still up on your 214
Just Saying
That’s not how this works…that’s not how any of this works. How in the living hell did you get “discharged” at reception? Then miraculously go back in and even more miraculously make it through training AFTER being originally discharged at reception? DD-214 or it didn’t happen!
“I knew weapons and Soldiers, that’s why I walked off a base without my weapon and fucked all of my fellow Soldiers.”
These guys story is more full of holes than a chicken wire canoe, and I hope the book they throw at him hits him in the face and it’s the thick UCMJ one.
You should hear his interviews with Mark Boal on Serial. The guy is completely delusional. He sounds like a more deluded version of Dwight Schrute if Dwight Schrute had been in the Army. Those interviews will be used against him, and rightfully so.
Sounds to me as if he sees the world the same as your average liberal Democrat…
Maybe they shouldn’t use the interview…the thing is, anything that makes him sound “crazy and delusional” is a lot better for him than the letters in Rolling Stone, which make him sound like a shitbag traitor plain and simple.
(‘course, to me, the combination makes him sound like a “shitbag traitor trying to turn himself into something else for the court.” Kind of like the kid who robbed an apartment and shot the old woman…then said he was living out his fantasies from watching heroic police detectives on TV.)
Most deserters leave their weapon behind. It is actually BETTER they do, if they are going to desert.
But he’s tried to paint himself as not really a deserter at all…sometimes he says he was going to walk to another base in order to report wrongdoing to a higher authority, and sometimes he says he was carrying out his fantasy of being an “action hero.” Walking off without a weapon doesn’t make much sense if these things are true; it makes a great deal of sense if he was going out to hand himself over to the enemy.
I think we can agree he would not have done this unless he was f****ed in the head. So his being f****ed in the head was a significant contributing factor.
It depends on how much responsibility someone with mental health issues has for their actions.
I am mixed on it. I think the severity and effects of mental health on people’s decision making is greater than we like to admit. However, I also think that there has to be consequences.
He definitely suffered consequences. I do not imagine he was treated well during captivity and almost certainly dealt with severe degradation, abuse, and humiliation as a target of hate, anger, frustration, sadism, and amusement by captors.
Was it enough consequences? It was certainly worse than the vast majority of US military deserters faced.
It is a tough balance. But it is the duty of his legal team to seek an outcome most favorable to their client. And severe mental health issues is a mitigating factor.
I think he suffered more than most for walking away from his post. But I recognize and agree with the need for some judicial consequences including a term in prison.
To me he showed the ability to determine right/wrong by trying to conceal his actions. Considering the risk he put his fellow soldiers in and the resources used to effect his release, the fact that he suffered in captivity is just karma. Anything that comes as a result of judicial proceedings is justice.
Regardless of what happens, he dealt the play.
I think we can agree he would not have done this unless he was f****ed in the head. So his being f****ed in the head was a significant contributing factor. No, not necessarily. The letter he wrote before he deserted doesn’t show signs of insanity…just a really bad attitude towards his leadership and his country. An attitude that Soldiers sometimes call “FTA” (“fuck the Army”), or more generally “a case of the ass.” Soldiers who have just been punished, or otherwise put in their places, often get it…though not usually with the “fuck my country” he added on. If you call this insanity, it’s not the kind that draws or ought to draw sympathy. There’s no real evidence he suffered that much from the Taliban…or if there is I have not yet seen it. The stories on the subject turn vague exactly when you want them to give details. For example, they’ll say he was assaulted “during” his capitivity, but only give one example…and that not a severe one. The idea is to give the picture that he was being beaten severely throughout his captivity, but the stories I have seen don’t actually say that. And of course the only source for the details is likely to be Bergdahl himself. If there’s medical evidence to corroborate anything he says, it hasn’t been released yet. Investigations are only as good as the evidence that goes into them, and there may not be anything beyond Bergdahl’s own words. The most important thing to remember with respect to his punishment is this. Military justice exists primarily to promote discipline in the Armed Forces. Bergdahl is already a celebrity, and likely to draw the rewards of celebrity. His punishment has to be such that nobody, not even the most frustrated private who’s just got the worst smackdown, thinks it’s a good idea to do what he did. Objective evidence that he really did suffer at the hands of the enemy…especially if that evidence is made public…might help to make that point. But if all we have is his word…once he is through punishment, he… Read more »
Agreed.
Slovik’s court-martial panel and Eisenhower both got it right – the former with the sentence, the latter by approving it. Unfortunately, the Army – and the nation – doesn’t seem to have the guts to do anything like that these days.
Too bad Bernath is not entitled to practice law. Bernath would make a fantastic lawyer for Berghdal