New Update on Bowe Bergdahl

It’s been since the end of June when Bowe Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban; my note here.  For the past couple of weeks there’s been heavy hinting another video would surface that would supposedly show the latest ‘from’ Bowe.

The BBC online has a video snippet here; there doesn’t appear to be any audio.  The Idaho Statesman has screen shots from the video.

NATO has confirmed the man in the video – seen wearing sunglasses, a military helmet and uniform – is Pte Bergdahl.

Weird getup: Sunglasses, his helmet & uniform.  It’s propaganda at its finest, of course, as is whatever message Bowe recites.  We don’t know the intensity of the duress he is under and, I’ll be one giving him the benefit of doubt until I learn otherwise.

“Even though I am prisoner of war, however, I had a chance to rethink a lot of things and to ask myself questions that I never asked myself before,” he says.

“One of the biggest illusions that the Army gives us coming over here as a soldier, as a private in their army, is that we’re coming over here to fight a terrorist group of men.

“We are fighting a country and a people that are well organized and extremely smart of how to fight. I keep bringing up the point of history to people that I talk to. You simply need to look at their history to understand that the Afghan people know how to fight, and they have lived this way since the beginning of their people,” he says.

There are various constructs thrown into the video, pictures and video of President Obama, the effects of a Afghan home allegedly following an American bombing, along with some criticism of the “hired stooge” – Mr. Karzai – ending with the trade demand: Bowe Bergdahl for a “limited number of prisoners.”  No deal with the Taliban, according to the video, there will be further captures of soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

And Bowe Bergdahl is Still Being Held Hostage

Hailey held a vigil for Bowe well over a week ago now on the 23rd of July – here’s the photo gallery from The Idaho Statesman.  Some snippets of the vigil are interspersed with comments from Jim Spinelli  (Exec. Director, Hailey Chamber of Commerce), and  the Hailey police chief.

One of the speakers at the vigil was a former POW during the Vietnam War, Render Crayton.

Render Crayton: “They have no conception about what’s going through that poor guy’s mind right now. And if he wants to try to save his life by saying what he said, then all the power in the world to him. I do not fault him for that.”

Render Crayton lives in Ketchum, Idaho, about 15 miles north of Hailey. He says any pronouncements are premature.

Crayton is watching with special interest.

He, too, was a prisoner of war. He was held for seven years in north Vietnam with Senator John McCain and more than 500 other American servicemen.

While Bergdahl’s critics say he should never have given his captors more than his name, rank and serial number, Crayton scoffs.

The Oregonian reported on Bowe’s godmother who now lives in Portland and who spoke about how unlike Bowe the tape portrayed him to be.  Thus, one of the points Mr. Crayton made bears out.  You cannot take what anyone really says at face value when under severe duress.

“The only part that sounded like Bowe was when he said, ‘It’s very unnerving to be a prisoner,'” Kayla Harrison said.

A lot of the other stuff, about relatives and having a girlfriend back home he hoped to marry, sounded completely unnatural, the Harrisons say. Bergdahl doesn’t have a serious girlfriend, they say.

“I’m trying not to think about it,” Dellacorva said. “I know he’s stressed out.”

Bowe worked for Sue Martin in Ketchum at Zaney’ s Coffee House.  She was interviewed by Plum TV on Bowe’s role in their community – undoubtedly more familiar, more personal, whereas  Ed Lavandera at CNN also profiled Bowe which may be the corporate, MSM take.

So Now the Question is Desertion?

In the few days since the news about Bowe Bergdahl being taken hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan, an apparent shitstorm has hit the major wingnutters with a few holdouts for ‘calm.’

Here’s a bit from ABC News:

Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said that “the efforts continue to locate the soldier, but we’re not going to provide any details.”  The Pentagon yesterday announced that it took two days to determine that Bergdahl had been captured by enemy forces.

Officials at the Pentagon said they still believe Bergdahl is in Afghanistan.

Bergdahl was taken by Mullah Sangeen’s men from village near the U.S. military post in Paktika, where he was stationed, according to a senior Afghan Army official in the province. The captors “punched and hit the soldier after some resistance.  But than they were able to take the soldier and left all of his things: weapon, body armored and radios.”  The Afghan official says Bergdahl and the three Afghan National Army soldiers were moved from the near-by village and quickly vanished.

I was pretty disappointed and disgusted yesterday.   I have relatively little respect as it is for the likes of Michelle Malkin, Matt Drudge, Bill O’Reilly – anyone at Fox News – Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, et al.  I’m not even sure how to describe them without adding ‘fucking’ or ‘idiotic.’  I rarely watch or read because I only have so much energy to expend on fighting their determined ignorance.

I ran across this at Crooks & Liars,  someone named Ralph Peters.

Facebook – Bowe Bergdahl

Facebook page for Bowe Bergdahl ….. as noted here – on July 8th, “holding light” for Bowe.  Will probably be more of these until Bowe is released.