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| Staff Sgt. Mark Allen before he was wounded |
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| Staff Sgt. Mark Allen with one of his therapists |
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| The Allen Family |
...Soldiers from Georgia, from the National Guard's 48th Infantry Brigade, risked their lives searching for Bergdahl when they thought he was an unwilling captive of the Taliban in Afghanistan.Read the rest and watch the video HERE.
Master Sgt. Mark Allen of Loganville was among them; he risked his life during the search and he will never be the same.
He cannot speak for himself now. He is paralyzed and needs constant care because he was shot in the head by an enemy sniper in Afghanistan.
Allen was wounded while he and his fellow Georgia National Guard soldiers were trying to find and rescue Bergdahl soon after he disappeared in 2009....
The Army says there is no truth to media reports claiming a decision has been made to charge Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl with desertion.
The Army continues to review the case against Bergdahl, said Paul Boyce, a spokesman for Forces Command, on Tuesday morning.
"Sgt. Bergdahl has not been charged with any crime," said Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby during a press briefing Tuesday afternoon.
"No decision has been made with respect to the case of Sgt. Bergdahl," Kirby said. "None. There is no timeline to make that decision, and Gen. [Mark] Milley is being put under no pressure to make a decision."...
See The incomprehensible booty for a military deserter by Tammy Swofford, who writes for the Daily Times Pakistan. Excerpt:Here is the real question. Who benefits from this deal? The United States military does not benefit. This eviscerates morale within the ranks. There are no yellow ribbons tied around the old oak tree, no veterans clamouring to line up and shake Bergdahl’s handRead the rest HERE.
Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl is in Germany. Rejoice not, America.
A man who deserted his military post in Afghanistan crawled through the bushes into the waiting arms of the enemy. He now emerges from the shadows five years later. The posture he exhibited in the limited-release videos after his capture put the meat on the bone of this matter. Lil’ Bowe preached an anti-West message while filling his belly with a lovely feast. He appeared in a second propaganda video wearing his uniform and practicing karate kicks. The whole thing was surreal and the venue was definitely vaudeville. Lil’ Bowe made a final, brief appearance in a video in which he was not paraded about like prize livestock. The still image from the video is one with which we are all familiar. He looks gaunt, like someone who had fallen out of favour with his captors. When viewing the final video with the stumble-across glimpse of Bowe Bergdahl, I did not feel any sense of empathy. This man is not a kindred spirit. I kept my military oath. Mr Bergdahl walked away from his and toward individuals harbouring intent and will to kill American soldiers and citizens....
...While it is almost universal for the media to describe this deal as a prisoner swap with the Taliban, the Washington Post article on the five released detainees very gingerly brushes past an important fact, about fifteen paragraphs in: Sgt. Bergdahl was not a prisoner of the Taliban. He was captured and held by the Haqqani terrorist network...More at the above link. Read it!
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Which makes the content of this prisoner swap even more suspicious, because only one of the five released detainees, Mohammed Nabi Omari, had strong ties to the Haqqani network (and also to al-Qaeda.) Thor wonders if the White House is breaking the law not only to grab a front-page “Obama saves captive American all by himself” media coup, but to conceal other aspects of the deal, such as a cash payment to the money-obsessed Haqqanis...
