I agree with Ralph Peters that Susan Rice should not have said that Bowe Bergdahl served with “honor and distinction.” The rest of what Mr. Peters says is rather appalling.
Too many people want to pre-judge this case, but let’s assume that Bengdahl grew disillusioned with the war effort in Afghanistan, wandered off the base, got captured, and caused the death of several American soldiers who had been tasked with trying to find him. He made a terrible mistake, not necessarily in his assessment of the war, but in how he reacted and how his decision put other people in harm’s way. Even Mr. Peters acknowledges that Mr. Bergdahl payed a terrible price and doesn’t want to see him further punished. Well, he doesn’t want to see him imprisoned anyway.
I understand why saying that Bengdahl served with honor and distinction struck a nerve, but just as we forgive inaccuracies in eulogies we ought to be forgiving of them in descriptions of people who have suffered for five years as a prisoner of war. If Mr. Peters is correct that Bengdahl is “quite possibly the most-hated individual soldier in the history of our military,” that is partly the fault of people like Mr. Peters who have seized on this issue for maximum political advantage. Decent people know that this man has suffered tremendously and don’t want to cause him any more harm. But Mr. Peters is not a decent man.
He revels in giving personal offense and harbors deep feelings of inadequacy:
Both President Obama and Ms. Rice seem to think that the crime of desertion in wartime is kind of like skipping class. They have no idea of how great a sin desertion in the face of the enemy is to those in our military. The only worse sin is to side actively with the enemy and kill your brothers in arms. This is not sleeping in on Monday morning and ducking Gender Studies 101.
But compassion, please!
This is a fundamental culture clash. Team Obama and its base cannot comprehend the values still cherished by those young Americans “so dumb” they joined the Army instead of going to prep school and then to Harvard. Values such as duty, honor, country, physical courage, and loyalty to your brothers and sisters in arms have no place in Obama World. (Military people don’t necessarily all like each other, but they know they can depend on each other in battle — the sacred trust Bergdahl violated.)
President Obama did this to himself (and to Bergdahl). This beautifully educated man, who never tires of letting us know how much smarter he is than the rest of us, never stopped to consider that our troops and their families might have been offended by their commander-in-chief staging a love-fest at the White House to celebrate trading five top terrorists for one deserter and featuring not the families of those soldiers (at least six of them) who died in the efforts to find and free Bergdahl, but, instead, giving a starring role on the international stage to Pa Taliban, parent of a deserter and a creature of dubious sympathies (that beard on pops ain’t a tribute to ZZ Top). How do you say “outrageous insult to our vets” in Pashto?
Mr. Peters is correct that previous generations would have shot or hanged Mr. Bengdahl rather than securing his freedom. He doesn’t seem to think that should have changed.
Or, if we were in good spirits, we merely used a branding iron to burn a large D into their cheeks or foreheads. Even as we grew more enlightened, desertion brought serious time in a military prison. At hard labor.
All this heat and hyperbole in the service of what?
If he is convicted, I for one do not want him to go to prison. I’m sure he’s paid and paid for betraying his comrades, quite possibly suffering brutal sexual violence. But if he is found guilty, he needs to be formally reduced to the rank of private, stripped of all privileges and entitlements (the taxpayer should not pay for a deserter’s lifelong health care — Bergdahl’s book and film deals can cover that), and he should be given the appropriate prison sentence, which would then be commuted by the president. Thereafter, let Mr. Bergdahl go home and live with himself.
I probably agree that Bengdahl should be court-martialed, reduced in rank to a private and stripped of all privileges and entitlements. But I also know that the moment that the president commutes his sentence, Mr. Peters will be back attacking the president for doing the wrong thing. Because this isn’t about doing the right thing. Clearly, the president did the right thing here. This is just about politics.
