Debriefing Bowe Bergdahl

"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."
2009 email from Bowe Bergdahl to his parents

AFP/US Army - This U.S. army photo shows Pte. 1st Class Bowe Bergdahl before his capture by the Taliban under mysterious circumstances while serving in Afghanistan in 2009.

"These are the hardest of the hard core, these are the highest of the risk people [five released Guantanamo Bay Taliban]. It's disturbing that these individuals would have the ability to re-enter the fight."
Senator John McCain

"This is a guy who probably went through hell the last five years. Let's focus on getting him well and getting him back with his family."
"We found an opportunity, we took that opportunity. I'll stand by that decision."
U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel

The Obama administration bypassed consultation with Congress in undertaking a high-level, secret deal with the Taliban, to release five of their number from Guantanamo Bay, in exchange for a lone U.S. army soldier held in Afghanistan by the Taliban since 2009. Pte. 1st Class Bowe Berdahl is being feted as a hero in his home town of Idaho. He is celebrated as being the sole American prisoner of war in Afghanistan throughout the 14-year U.S. presence in that country.

This is a man who was not 'captured' in the traditional sense, while dispatching his duty as a member of the American Armed Forces. This is a man who was disillusioned by his country's military representatives in a foreign country fighting a foreign war, and who decided that he would simply walk away from the conflict he had signed up to represent his country in. He deserted his barracks, walked out into the great beyond.



Where he was speedily taken into custody, not by his own, but by those to whom he was deliberately walking toward; the Taliban. The 28-year-old was home-schooled in the family cabin located in a small mountain town, by his father. Along with his sister their father taught both to shoot and how to survive in their natural surroundings. And when his son was captured by the Taliban, their father, Bob Bergdahl moved heaven and earth to have him brought back.

He even taught himself the same foreign language that he knew his son was hearing every day and in all likelihood was becoming quite familiar with: Pashtu. Enabling the tireless campaigner for his son's release to address his son in Pashtu on his release in the infamous trade: "I'm your father, Bowe", he said to his son struggling to recall himself to English.

At 23, Pte. 1st Class Bowe Bergdahl walked off his base, taking with him a knife, his diary and a camera. He didn't have to walk too far before he was captured by the Taliban. With whom he was doubtless quite sympathetic that a foreign army had invaded their country,  unseating them from the position of power they had held.

During the time he was in captivity a number of videos were released by his captors. In one of which he pleads with US. authorities to agree to a deal with the Taliban to effect his release. The Taliban made it quite clear they were prepared to exchange this low-ranking American soldier for five high-value Afghan militants.

Taking a page out of the Palestinian instruction manual of manoeuvring hundreds of imprisoned Palestinians convicted of terrorism for the exchange of one captured Israeli soldier.

Of course, there is always that awkward little reality that after the mysterious disappearance of Pte. 1st Class Bergdahl, others of his peers were instructed to get out there in the wilds of Afghanistan and find him. Six Americans died in the effort. And then there is another substantiated reality; that the high-grade five Taliban that were released are dangerous, with plenty of blood on their hands.

Niggling little details like this makes one wonder what the Obama administration is all about, here. Leaving Afghanistan in the hands of a new administration hoping to be able to rescue the country from the renewed vigour and determination of the Taliban, reversing all the civil, social and political gains made in the dozen years since the invasion when foreign countries put down billions investing in schools, medical facilities, civil infrastructure and tutoring best democratic practises to Afghans.

Gifting the Taliban with the renewed presence of very valuably-seasoned fighters with the reputation and skills of having perpetrated crimes against their own countrymen, much less the troops of foreign nations, their diplomats, and personnel of humanitarian organizations.