Retired Gen. Stanley McCrystal on Wednesday said it was too soon to "judge" Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and the Obama administration's decision to negotiate for his release from the Taliban.

"I think we're going to have to wait and talk to Sgt. Bergdahl now and get his side of the story," McCrystal told Yahoo News about the soldier, who has been characterized as a deserter by some of his platoon members. “One of the great things about America is we should not judge until we know the facts. And after we know the facts, then we should make a mature judgment on how we should handle it.”

The retired general defended efforts to return Bergdahl after he left his post in Afghanistan.

“We did a huge number of operations to try to stop the Taliban from being able to move him across the border into Pakistan,” McChrystal said. “And we made a great effort, and put a lot of people at risk in doing that, but that’s what you should do. That’s what soldiers do for each other.”

“We don’t leave Americans behind. That’s unequivocal," he said when asked if he would have authorized the prisoner swap. “There will be a lot of discussion on whether the mechanism for getting Sgt. Bergdahl back was right – and I’ll leave it to people to argue that."