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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums13 Things You Need to Know About Bowe Bergdahl
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/13-things-you-need-to-know-about-bowe-bergdahl-201406021) Bowe grew up near Hailey, Idaho, the son of California expats and ski bums Jani and Bob Bergdahl, who lived "nearly off the grid" on 40 acres, home-schooling Bowe and his sister Sky in a demanding curriculum:
Devout Calvinists, they taught the children for six hours a day, instructing them in religious thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine. "Ethics and morality would be constant verbiage in our conversations," his father recalls. "Bowe was definitely instilled with truth. He was very philosophical about perceiving ethics."
2) Obsessed with Bear Grylls and Man vs. Wild, Bowe sought at age 20 to join the French Foreign Legion.
He traveled to Paris and started to learn French, but his application was rejected. "He was absolutely devastated when the French Foreign Legion didn't take him," Bob says.
3) Seeking adventure, instead, in American uniform, Bergdahl enlisted in the Army in 2008. His intensity alienated fellow soldiers. A friend from his unit, Jason Fry, recalled Bowe's fierce independence and his prophetic warning:
"He wanted to be a mercenary, wanted to be a free gun," says Fry. "He had a notion he was a survivalist, claimed he knew how to survive with nothing because he grew up in Idaho . Before we deployed him and I were talking about what it would be like," Fry recalls. Bowe looked at his friend and made no bones about his plans. "If this deployment is lame," Bowe said, "I'm just going to walk off into the mountains of Pakistan."
4) Bergdahl's unit in Afghanistan part of the Obama surge was beset by deficits of leadership, "a collapse in unit morale and an almost complete breakdown of authority."
The unruly situation was captured by a British documentary filmmaker [whose] footage shows a bunch of soldiers who no longer give a shit: breaking even the most basic rules of combat, like wearing baseball caps on patrol instead of helmets.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/13-things-you-need-to-know-about-bowe-bergdahl-20140602#ixzz33ZUbit1I
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underpants
(182,271 posts)Thanks
Cotopaxi
(4 posts)Thanks for posting this. I for one am glad Bowe is coming back home. The President did the right thing. Only wish we could have traded John McCain for Bowe.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)but, it's long so, bookmarked for later.
Recommend...
Red State Rebel
(2,903 posts)Regardless of the excuses of a "deficit of leadership", etc. you take an oath when you join and you abide by that oath. He joined knowing he was going into war - I guess he didn't understand it wasn't like a Hollywood movie.
To have 5 dangerous terrorists returned to continue their work in exchange for this guy doesn't make me happy.
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)octoberlib
(14,971 posts)1) But the swap didn't have the backing of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or Pentagon chief Leon Panetta, who weren't ready to negotiate an end to the war, preferring the bloody path of counterinsurgency operations.
...Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are very wary about making a swap for Bowe. "Panetta and Hillary don't give a shit about getting him home," says one senior U.S. official involved in the negotiations. "They want to be able to say they COINed their way out of Afghanistan, or whatever, so it doesn't look like they are cutting and running."
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/13-things-you-need-to-know-about-bowe-bergdahl-20140602#ixzz33aLOEAsh
warrior1
(12,325 posts)that he had escaped and was recaptured. That doesn't sound like someone who just walked away.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)frylock
(34,825 posts)a kennedy
(29,458 posts)I just don't have an opinion....