Originally posted by whodeyIf Obama has gained that much power, perhaps the rumor that Obama will remain President by declaring martial law is now possible.
I think the Obama administration has postponed this and will find a way to side step it.
It's not about right and wrong, it's about abject and unlimited power.
Too bad they could not coerce the soldiers to remain quiet with their silly legal statements they were forced to sign.
Martial Law in USA! - Army Admits Plan To Execute Americans En Masse
Originally posted by RJHindsBowe Bergdahl's platoon mates (and only a few have come forward) have no idea if he deserted or not. Desertion requires elements that they simply do not know.
Are you actually saying Bowe Bergdahl's platoon members had the right wing mindset by stating he deserted his post? I suppose the left-wing mindset would be that he was just going out sight seeing and had no obligation to tell anyone anything.
After getting released Bergdahl claimed he fell behind while on patrol and was captured. His platoon members sa ...[text shortened]... his computer and other personal items just before this happened as if he had planned to desert.
I don't know where you get your misinformation, but what Bergdahl told Army investigators has not been released. So basically some right wing web site made up a story and you believed it hook, line and sinker.
In other threads, there has been a lot of talk from certain right wingers about the "presumption of innocence" in the case of accused rapes. Apparently according to those of a certain ideology that applies only to crimes like rape while they are free to pass certain judgment on other accused even before one scrap of evidence has been presented in open court.
I await the presentation of evidence in legal proceedings in the Bergdahl case and won't make up my mind based on scuttlebutt, gossip and misinformation as you, whodey and so many others here have already done.
Originally posted by no1marauderBelief in a presumption of innocence doesn't mean anyone can't have an opinion about the relative chances of guilt. Ultimately, that is decided in a court of law, and even then not always accurately.
Bowe Bergdahl's platoon mates (and only a few have come forward) have no idea if he deserted or not. Desertion requires elements that they simply do not know.
I don't know where you get your misinformation, but what Bergdahl told Army investigators has not been released. So basically some right wing web site made up a story and you believed it hook, l ...[text shortened]... scuttlebutt, gossip and misinformation as you, whodey and so many others here have already done.
Originally posted by normbenignAn opinion should be based on some evidence and only arrived at after hearing both sides of the story. The right wing adjudged Bergdahl guilty as soon as Obama negotiated his release for purely rabidly partisan reasons. This is disgusting.
Belief in a presumption of innocence doesn't mean anyone can't have an opinion about the relative chances of guilt. Ultimately, that is decided in a court of law, and even then not always accurately.
Naturally the leading Republican contender for President has taken it to the next level:
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s defense attorney is firing back after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called the soldier a “dirty, rotten traitor.”
Trump made the remarks during a town hall meeting Wednesday in New Hampshire, according to a video posted by the Wall Street Journal.
“We get a traitor named Bergdahl, a dirty, rotten traitor, who, by the way, when he deserted, six young, beautiful people were killed trying to find him,” Trump said.
In exchange, Trump said, the enemy got “five of the people they wanted, five killers back on the battlefield. That’s the kind of deals we make.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has made such remarks about Bergdahl, said Eugene Fidell, the soldier’s defense attorney, in a statement Thursday. He made a similar remark at the first Republican candidates’ debate as well, Fidell said.
“This is the lowest kind of demagoguery,” he said. “Mr. Trump’s comments are contemptible and un-American. They are a call for mob justice.”
Bergdahl disappeared from Combat Outpost Mest-Lalak in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 30, 2009. He has been accused of leaving his patrol base alone and intentionally before he was captured by Taliban insurgents.
He spent five years as a captive under the Taliban before he was freed in a controversial May 31, 2014, prisoner swap that also freed five Taliban leaders from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Bergdahl is now assigned to a desk job at U.S. Army North at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
He was charged March 25 with one count of desertion with intent to shirk important or hazardous duty, and one count of misbehavior before the enemy by endangering the safety of a command, unit or place.
The Article 32 investigation into his case is scheduled to start Sept. 17. The Article 32 will determine if there is enough evidence to merit a court-martial and is often compared to a civilian grand jury inquiry.
Bergdahl cannot speak out in his own defense as he is pending the Article 32, Fidell said.
“Nor, as a practical matter, is he in a position, for the moment, to bring the defamation lawsuit Mr. Trump richly deserves,” he said.
Trump’s remarks “directly threaten” Bergdahl’s right to a fair trial, Fidell said.
In addition, Bergdahl is not charged with treason or anything like it, the lawyer said.
“Treason – the only crime described in the Constitution – has a unique stigma,” Fidell said. “I condemn Mr. Trump’s reckless disregard for the truth. He should be ashamed of himself.”
Fidell also disputed Trump’s claim that six soldiers died searching for Bergdahl.
“The Army’s prosecutors, who have the vast resources of the government at their disposal, have informed us that they will not be offering evidence that anyone died searching for my client,” Fidell said. “I call on the Secretary of the Army to put this false and damaging rumor to rest once and for all.”
Fidell, who described Trump’s comments as “outrageous,” said Bergdahl’s defense team will continue to monitor the presidential candidate’s remarks.
“No American should have to put up with this kind of unprincipled behavior, especially from a person seeking public office,” Fidell said. “Mr. Trump must stop vilifying this young man, who suffered five years of brutal captivity at the hands of the Taliban and deserves to be judged on the basis of evidence rather than slander from someone who has never worn our country’s uniform".
http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/crime/2015/08/20/lawyer-fires-back-after-trump-calls-bergdahl-traitor/32072189/
More evidence, if any was needed, of the total unfitness of this candidate for any public office, never mind one that carries the responsibility of Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States.
Originally posted by no1marauderDo you believe CNN is right-wing?
Bowe Bergdahl's platoon mates (and only a few have come forward) have no idea if he deserted or not. Desertion requires elements that they simply do not know.
I don't know where you get your misinformation, but what Bergdahl told Army investigators has not been released. So basically some right wing web site made up a story and you believed it hook, l ...[text shortened]... scuttlebutt, gossip and misinformation as you, whodey and so many others here have already done.
Originally posted by no1marauderI know quite a few left wingers who think Bergdahl is a deserter, so can the right wing references. Be disgusted if you must, but most of us think the "justice" system could and should work more efficiently and accurately.
An opinion should be based on some evidence and only arrived at after hearing both sides of the story. The right wing adjudged Bergdahl guilty as soon as Obama negotiated his release for purely rabidly partisan reasons. This is disgusting.
Accounts of his capture differ. In a video, Bergdahl stated that he was captured when he fell behind on a patrol.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowe_Bergdahl
Pamela Hess, Lolita Baldur (19 July 2009). "Bowe Bergdahl: Soldier Captured In Afghanistan Identified As 23-Year-Old Idahoan". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
In the 28-minute video, Bergdahl said he was "scared I won't be able to go home." He said he was lagging behind a patrol when he was captured, which conflicts with earlier military accounts that indicated he walked off the base with three Afghans.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/19/bowe-bergdahl-soldier-cap_n_239930.html
Taliban Video Shows Captive US Soldier In Afghanistan
US soldier Bowe Bergdahl freed after imprisoned by Taliban for five years
While some early descriptions of Bergdahl’s disappearance suggested he was captured when he fell behind on patrol — a version he told in the first of a handful of videos his captors released over the years — soldiers who were there and an Army investigation in 2009 offered a different story.
They say that on June 30, 2009, Bergdahl abandoned his unit, leaving behind his weapon and body armor as he walked into the dead of night. His disappearance wasn’t discovered until the next morning.
Hundreds of soldiers and Special Forces troops fanned out to scour the countryside. According to soldiers involved in the months-long search, at least six military personnel were killed looking for Bergdahl, though the Pentagon has said it’s impossible to attribute the deaths directly to the search effort. The hunt for Bergdahl often piggybacked on regular operations.
http://www.stripes.com/promotions/2.1066/bergdahl-was-released-after-5-years-military-fate-uncertain-1.321038
SEAL's autobiography tells of failed attempt to rescue Idaho's Bergdahl
Army lays out charges against Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
Originally posted by RJHindsI don't watch anything from YouTube, so you are wasting your time posting links to it. I don't really care what Bergdahl said in videos while captured; all those statements are coerced. Early military accounts appear wrong too, so you are simply repeating misinformed gossip and scuttlebutt.
[b]Accounts of his capture differ. In a video, Bergdahl stated that he was captured when he fell behind on a patrol.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowe_Bergdahl
Pamela Hess, Lolita Baldur (19 July 2009). "Bowe Bergdahl: Soldier Captured In Afghanistan Identified As 23-Year-Old Idahoan". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
In the 28-minu ...[text shortened]... e]
Army lays out charges against Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
[youtube]Fb_cGRTgcys[/youtube][/b]
His lawyer says he claims he was going to another base to report misconduct on the base he was on:
Former Taliban prisoner and U.S. Army soldier Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl told military investigators that he left his base in June 2009 to report on misconduct in his unit and always intended to come right back. That will also be his defense if and when he faces a court martial for desertion, according to his lawyer.
“He had concerns about certain conditions in the unit and things that happened in the unit, and he figured that the only way to get any attention to them would be to get that information to a general officer,” Bergdahl’s lawyer, Eugene Fidell, told me Thursday. Fidell plans to argue that Bergdahl was thus technically “absent without official leave” (AWOL), rather than a deserter.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2015/03/27/3721033/bowe-bergdahls-defense-he-planned.html
Michael Hasting's Rolling Stone article on Bergdahl several years ago reported that the unit he was in was undisciplined and lacking in morale:
The discipline problems that had plagued Bowe's unit back home only got worse when immersed in the fog of war. From the start, everything seemed to go wrong. In April, Lt. Fancey was removed from his post for clashing with a superior officer. He was replaced by Sgt. 1st Class Larry Hein, who had never held such a command – a move that left the remote outpost with no officers. According to four soldiers in the battalion, the removal of Fancey was quickly followed by a collapse in unit morale and an almost complete breakdown of authority.
The unruly situation was captured by Sean Smith, a British documentary filmmaker with The Guardian who spent a month embedded with Bowe's unit. His footage shows a bunch of soldiers who no longer give a s**t: breaking even the most basic rules of combat, like wearing baseball caps on patrol instead of helmets.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/americas-last-prisoner-of-war-20120607
(Robomod wouldn't allow me to use the rest of that paragraph but it's worth a read as is the whole article)
That might also explain why some members of his platoon, with the help of Republican political operatives, were so quick to get on the news shows after his release; perhaps they wanted to get to the media before Bergdahl made negative comments about them (this is speculation, of course).
At any rate, the case will be going to an Article 32 hearing (which is public) in a few weeks and evidence will be presented either way. Perhaps you should try to keep an open mind until then.
Originally posted by no1marauderSo it appears you did not really want me to post the information for you were never open to accepting it anyway. Just what I suspected. That is why i asked the question you failed to answer. 😏
I don't watch anything from YouTube, so you are wasting your time posting links to it. I don't really care what Bergdahl said in videos while captured; all those statements are coerced. Early military accounts appear wrong too, so you are simply repeating misinformed gossip and scuttlebutt.
His lawyer says he claims he was going to another base to rep ...[text shortened]... d evidence will be presented either way. Perhaps you should try to keep an open mind until then.