Bowe never wrote he wanted to defect or leave. He was expressing his disillusionment to his Dad in a letter written 2 days after his best friend in another unit was killed. (according to the Hastings Rolling Stone piece from which all this is coming from.) I've had 2 brothers in the Army, and have gotten these "bad day" letters myself. He is obviously troubled and depressed. Scarborough is deliberately twisting the facts.

From the article:

On June 27th, he sent what would be his final e-mai­l to his parents. It was a lengthy message documenting his complete disillusionment with the war effort. He opened it by addressing it simply to "mom, dad."

"The future is too good to waste on lies," Bowe wrote. "And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be american. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting."

The e-mail went on to list a series of complaints: Three good sergeants, Bowe said, had been forced to move to another company, and "one of the biggest shit bags is being put in charge of the team." His battalion commander was a "conceited old fool." The military system itself was broken: "In the US army you are cut down for being honest... but if you are a conceited brown nosing shit bag you will be allowed to do what ever you want, and you will be handed your higher rank... The system is wrong. I am ashamed to be an american. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools." The soldiers he actually admired were planning on leaving: "The US army is the biggest joke the world has to laugh at. It is the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies. The few good SGTs are getting out as soon as they can, and they are telling us privates to do the same."

In the second-to-last paragraph of the e-mail, Bowe wrote about his broader disgust with America's approach to the war – an effort, on the ground, that seemed to represent the exact opposite of the kind of concerted campaign to win the "hearts and minds" of average Afghans envisioned by counterinsurgency strategists. "I am sorry for everything here," Bowe told his parents. "These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live." He then referred to what his parents believe may have been a formative, possibly traumatic event: seeing an Afghan child run over by an MRAP. "We don't even care when we hear each other talk about running their children down in the dirt streets with our armored trucks... We make fun of them in front of their faces, and laugh at them for not understanding we are insulting them."

Bowe concluded his e-mail with what, in another context, might read as a suicide note. "I am sorry for everything," he wrote. "The horror that is america is disgusting." Then he signed off with a final message to his mother and father. "There are a few more boxes coming to you guys," he said, referring to his uniform and books, which he had already packed up and shipped off. "Feel free to open them, and use them."

On June 27th, at 10:43 p.m., Bob Bergdahl responded to his son's final message not long after he received it. His subject line was titled: OBEY YOUR CONSCIENCE!

"Dear Bowe," he wrote. "In matters of life and death, and especially at war, it is never safe to ignore ones' conscience. Ethics demands obedience to our conscience. It is best to also have a systematic oral defense of what our conscience demands. Stand with like minded men when possible." He signed it simply "dad."


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/americas-last-prisoner-of-war-20120607page=4#ixzz33mBpAMQM

death of his friend. And finally his pity for the people of the country who were caught in the war as much as they were.

I think he told his commanding officer that he would be gone for a bit and walked out into the village to see if he could help those people he felt so sorry for. But instead of being able to help anyone he is captured and held prisoner for all this time. This would have not happened had he not realized the war was not what he had been told and had he not been lost his friend. If that had not happened he would have been thinking right and he would have realized that he was in danger walking out alone into the war zone.

That is just my opinion and makes as much sense as the rethug one at least.

When I read this I see me in what I felt a few weeks after arriving incountry vietnam all those years ago.

There are very limited career options for young men in Idaho and I bet a tour of the hell in Afghanistan w affect the psyche of any 20 year old kid to walk off a post if he was suffering from PTSD which I think the young was experiencing.

Joe is just talking out of his ass with his right wing spew. I am so disgusted with Joe and Chris Matthew on this issue.

I'm glad I live on the west coast and miss this jerk in the am. Mika was so uncomfortable. I pity her though.

The powder blue pullover is a nice touch as well.

And there's Mika...saying in so many words, aren't you forgetting this is about attacking Obama?

And, with that circus clip, my June quota of Morning Joe has been filled.

[IMG][/IMG]

I don't watch "Morning Jerk" anymore, but it sounds like Scarborough is getting ruder by the day. Meanwhile, Chris Matthews is delivering spittle-flecked diatribes about Bergdahl---he sounds like he's auditioning for a position at Fox. Thank God for Rachel Maddow.......

He goes with conventional wisdom so that he keeps getting paid to go with the conventional wisdom.

between father/son at the Bergdahl household & camp Afghanistan?

Did the DOJ release emails and recordings to the media?

Scarborough must be crazy to think the VA & DOJ will respond to every concerned parent who's kid is in a war zone.

MF Asshole

www.americanpolitics.com/20010808Klausutis.htm

Aug 8, 2001 - Lori Klausutis, a 28-year-old office worker for Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fl), was found dead in the congressman's district office. .... And so, what we have here is the death of a healthy young woman who died of a blow to the ...



so Joe doesn't run again. he goes away, then gets a TV show.
total scum.

That level of guilt is hard to hide. In his actions quiet frequently it shows that he has something to hide.
I won't watch the show period

He is a constant embarrassment to you.

and standing up for his position.

Joe must go.....

Gang up on Dad. Just disgusting.

this morning. Scar need to quit with the fake outrage. if it was little Joey he would be screaming where is the Government just like the rest of them do when there is trouble

and this wouldn't even be an issue.

The Nation of Afghanistan did not attack us on 911. If the Nation of Afghanistan could even be considered to have been an organized state at the time. 911 was just an excuse for two ill-advised counterproductive wars.

either was for the purpose so Darth could get his war on. He was too chicken shit to actually be a pawn in a war when his number was up so he had to prove in his evil mind his manhood somehow so Afghanistan and Iraq was how he tried to do that.
I'd piss on his grave if I was to ever come up on to it.