Judge lets Bergdahl walk

Bowe Bergdahl walked away from his post to join that Taliban. The Taliban captured him and treated him poorly. But according to Bergdahl speaking to British journalists, not so poorly as the American Army treated him.

Six soldiers were killed looking for Bergdahl. Others were injured, some severely.

Barak Obama as president traded Bergdahl from the Taliban for five Taliban leaders held at Guantanamo that Obama had already planned to cut loose even without any trade.

Following Bergdahl's released President Obama invited his parents to the Rose Garden for a public statement.

 

Bergdahl's desertion trial was delayed until Obama was out of office but there is no way this can be proven. It's extremely unusual for court-martial trial to be delayed so long for such a convenient date. At trial Bergdahl's lawyers hoped the accounts of their witnesses will help reduce his punishment.

John Leatherman, a U.S. Border Patrol agent who was in Bergdahl’s unit in Afghanistan and was stationed with him in Alaska, described an efficient and quiet Bergdahl who was a great squad assault weapon gunner, always had his handbook with him and clearly wanted to "better himself." 

"He didn't seem to adjust as quickly and smoothly as most soldiers adjust. Something about him was a little bit slower coming to terms with what was happening," Leatherman said in court today, adding that he mentioned this to their first sergeant and asked about getting help for Bergdahl. But the first sergeant told him to shut up and to not tell him how to handle his soldiers -- a sign of the stigma associated with asking for mental health help, according to Leatherman.

Russell spoke about the extreme torture and abuse Bergdahl faced in captivity.

 "His muscles atrophied to the point he could barely stand up.... He was living in filth," he said. "It was extreme neglect. They just let him nearly rot inside that cage for four years." 

Bergdahl's accounts of his time in captivity have been extremely helpful to the military's training of other soldiers, Russell said, because no other soldier has ever been captured and returned in 16 years of war in Afghanistan.

Bergdahl has acquired neuropathy, damage to peripheral nervous system, due to extreme vitamin deficiency. He faced starvation, dehydration and diarrhea.

The substance and the tone of this testimony contrasted sharply with prosecution witnesses who described how Bergdahl's disappearance put soldiers at risk.

Shannon Allen described the "minimally conscious state" her husband, Master Sgt. Mark Allen, has been in since being shot in the head by insurgents. Doctors removed both his frontal lobes leaving him unable to speak and with extremely limited mobility.

"He lost me as a wife because I have become his caregiver," she added in tears, noting that he cannot be left alone because he's prone to seizures. "We can't even hold hands anymore without me prying open his."

During last year's presidential campaign Trump caled Bergdahl "a no-good traitor who should have been executed." The defense said the president's more recent remarks showed his opinion of Bergdahl had not changed and unfairly influenced the proceedings.

How so? There are no jurors to be influenced. There is only the defense, the prosecuting attorneys, and the judge. The defense is saying Trump's statements might influence the judge!

Judge Jeffery Nance said in advance that he would not rule out a prison sentence due to the possible influence of President Donald Trump's criticism of the soldier, but he would consider the president's remarks as a mitigating factor at sentencing, however, raising he possibility of a lighter punishment.

He will consider something irrelevant to apply to something monumentally important. Why? Because he says so.

November 3rd Judge Colonel Jeffery Nance sentenced Bergdahl to be dishonorably discharged, reduced in rank and fined $1,000 per month from his pay for ten months, with no prison time. The discharge pends automatic appeal.

Within hours of sentencing President Trump tweeted, "The decision on Sergeant Bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military."

President Trump's remarks as candidate and as president before and after are irrelevant to this case because there is nobody to be influenced by them. There is no jury to be found isolated from them. Every article that I've read, even Wikipedia, frames the case between Trump's before and after statements as if they impinge on this case. Where Obama's remarks and his actions throughout frame the case completely but are not mentioned.  President Trump is Colonel Jeffery Nance's actual employer, Colonel Jeffery is Trump employee, yet Jeffery Nance's loyalty is to one-time president Obama and not to his country. The judge is telling us, Trump, my employer, signaled how he wants this trial to conclude, and just for that, I'm not doing it. Servicemen are speaking out in comments to every single post that I've read on this sentencing, talking about the politicized misapplication of military justice by drawing comparisons between much harsher sentences delivered for much lesser crimes. And that politicization is done by Obama and by Nance and not by Trump simply stating his opinion. This is so very clearly the result of Colonel Jeffery Nance's political motivations and it proves the destruction and the poison that Obama has done to our military.