Analysis Of Bowe Bergdahl Home

Time Life Magazine recently printed an excellent article covering the Bowe Bergdahl story (Von Drehle, 16 June 2014). The article is titled, Was He Worth It? The Cost of Bring Sgt. Bergdahl Home. The article discusses how this was a political move by President Obama. The Veteran’s Affairs Office was heavily under fire as of recently and the rescue of Bowe Bergdahl was used to show his dedication to the troop’s needs. Throughout the article, many of his fellow soldiers discussed how all Bowe Bergdahl’s actions were pointing at him either going home early or wandering off the base. He would do things like leave farewell notes with all his personal and military belongings stacked up in a pile. He would then disappear for long periods of time

In the article, his team leader also mentions he intercepted a radio message saying Bergdahl may have defected to the Taliban. At one point, Bowe Bergdahl’s father grew a long beard, learned Pashto, and started to learn the muslim religion. During the announcement of Bowe Bergdahl’s rescue at the white house, his father also spoke some words in Pashto thanking the Taliban for releasing his son. I personally felt it was a smack in the face to America to do any of this. We are Americans and we do not give into their ways. At this point, the enemy has won the fight. The father also tweeted the following, “Working to free all Guantanamo prisoners. God will repay for the death of every Afghan child”. Again, another smack in the face to a country who will risk everything to save his son. Another win for the Taliban. The article discusses the five detainees which were swapped out from Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl’s release. These individuals were not good people. They were responsible for horrific war crimes and the killings of 1000’s of people. They will be released and be responsible for more deaths in the future. What happened to America not negotiating with

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been a very large topic of discussion in the news as of lately with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars coming to an end. We need to give Bowe Bergdahl the benefit of the doubt and investigate the possibility his actions of possible desertion were caused by internal psychological issues he was battling day to day during deployment. PTSD is caused by different types of trauma like war, terrorism, disasters, violence, and abuse (National Center for PTSD, website). Symptoms of PTSD are as follows: Difficulty concentrating, lack of interest/apathy, feelings of detachment, loss of appetite, hyper vigilance, exaggerated startle response, sleep disturbances (lack of sleep, oversleeping), irritability, and random bursts of anger (IAVA, website). After reviewing the symptoms of PTSD, I fall into a lot of these categories. I’m a recent cancer survivor and have been clean for two years, but the experience was very traumatic physically and emotionally for me. I was exposed to a lot of cancer patients which were my friends and have passed away since. You can say I have this guilt inside of me for living. I’ve also been in the military for 18 years and have been working in a very fast paced environment with special operations for the last 13 years. I think the combination of both cancer and this fast paced environment has pushed upon me symptoms of PTSD. I retire in around two years and plan on going to