Liberty Minute June 6 2014

Bowe Bergdahl?s detractors have depicted him as a coward, a shirker, a deserter, and a traitor. They claim that Bowe?s desertion cost the lives of U.S. soldiers sent to rescue him.

The claim that Americans lost their lives trying to find Bowe cannot be substantiated in US military records: Those casualties appear to have occurred after search and rescue operations were suspended.

Furthermore, one reason Bowe abandoned his post was his growing frustration over serving in a platoon that had lost all unit cohesion and military discipline. He also protested that the unit was being used to carry out pointless missions that entailed unnecessary risks to American lives, and inflicted a huge toll on Afghan civilians.

In an e-mail to his parents just before disappearing, Bowe reported that ?The few good [sergeants] are getting out as soon as they can, and they are telling us privates to do the same.? He decided to act on that advice immediately, explaining to his parents that ?The future is too good to waste on lies.?

In his reply to his son, Bob Bergdahl advised Bowe, ?Obey your conscience.? For doing so, Bowe spent five years in Taliban captivity, which may be a prelude to years or decades in a US military prison.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.