The Bergdahl Story

A simple take on Bow Bergdahl....the Army guy who paid five Islamic terrorists for and some cash via the middle-guy....who yesterday was announced on the short list for court martial. Charges?  Desertion and misbehaving before the enemy.

If convicted on desertion....he gets five years max.

For misbehaving before the enemy?  This is an odd charge and rarely if ever used.  You'd basically have to have some evidence of a sort that indicates that he cooperated with the enemy and helped them in some fashion. For this....you get life in an Army prison as the max.

For those who might think this is like the OJ case and the court episode will take weeks and months....no.  This entire court case will likely wrap up in seven to ten court-session days (two weeks or less).

The prosecution merely needs to show that on X-day....Bergdahl is reported missing, and indications are that he walked out....leaving his weapon behind.  Enough bits of evidence exist (mailing his gear back to the state the week or two prior was the big hint with months left to go on the tour) to show his intention.

Around twenty members of his unit will testify and it'll go fairly negative for the defense.  There are few questions that can trip these guys up.

Then we come to the defense moments....Bergdahl was crazy.  He was crazy when the Coast Guard discharged him from boot camp.  He was crazy in high school.  He was crazy when the Army granted him a waiver to join after the mental issues were noted on the Coast Guard paperwork.  He was crazy when he deployed and he was crazy for the whole time that the Taliban guys were holding him.

The Army response will be that they have 500,000 crazy folks and none of them ran off to the Taliban.

For the jury, the crazy factor will help on the one charge of misbehavior with the enemy.  If he was nuts....he couldn't be held responsible for his actions.  The desertion thing?  Oh, that's acceptable and he'll do the five years for that.  At that point, the jury will wrap things up....convict him on one charge and he quietly does four to five years.

Upon release? Well....it's just me talking here.....but I'm of the mind he'll board a plane and make his way to the Pakistan, where he'll be captured again.  Yeah.....he IS that crazy and stupid enough to do something like that.

A movie on this?  Maybe....but it's going to be hard to make him look anyway....but plain stupid and crazy.