Bergdahl: I left my base in order to, uh, walk to another base and report wrongdoing « Hot Air

Bergdahl: I left my base in order to, uh, walk to another base and report wrongdoing « Hot Air: "I assume he chose the defense he chose because it gives him more political traction than a simple insanity defense would. If he says “I snapped,” the retort will be that that’s no excuse to desert. Most soldiers cope with severe mental strain and many, I’m sure, have complaints about various officers up the chain of command, and only rarely do any of them decide to choose their own adventure outside the wire. Also, none of the men from his unit who’ve accused him of desertion have said anything about obvious signs of insanity from Bergdahl before he left. How would he prove that he snapped when there’d be a dozen witnesses claiming they saw no evidence of it at the time? Claiming instead that he was headed to another base to report wrongdoing makes it seem like the Pentagon’s coming after him now to punish him for trying to speak out, which may swing anti-war activists and civil libertarians over to his side. It won’t spare him from a sentence but maybe political pressure will keep that sentence lighter than it otherwise would have been. The Army’s not really going to send a misguided but well meaning “whistleblower” away to prison for life, are they?

Exit question from Aaron MacLean: Why are senior defense officials leaking Bergdahl’s self-serving story to CNN? Is there any explanation apart from them wanting to cover Obama’s ass by making the subject of his disastrous prisoner swap look as good as they can?"



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