Bowe Bergdahl got away with it.
America’s most notorious military deserter, whose freedom was bought in exchange for five high-ranking Taliban terrorists, won’t have to spend a day in prison.
This despite pleading guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, which could’ve landed him behind bars for life. (It did put the lie to the Obama administration’s claim that he’d served “with honor and distinction.”)
His only punishment: A dishonorable discharge, reduction in rank from sergeant to private and a $10,000 fine, with payment spread out over 10 months.
So ruled the military judge, Col. Jeffrey Nance — rejecting, without explanation, the Army’s call for a 14-year sentence. And even that punishment could be reduced (but not increased) on official review.
It’s a slap in the face to every American, most particularly those who were grievously wounded while searching for him.
Like Sgt. 1st Class Mark Allen, who lost the ability to walk, talk and even take care of himself after being shot in the head.
Little wonder that members of Bergdahl’s own platoon later said they wanted to get him alone in a room and “short of killing him we could do what we want.”
Bergdahl, after all, deserted his base in a combat zone — because, he later claimed, he hoped to cause a stir that would let him air some grievances against his superior officers.
Instead, he was quickly captured by the Taliban, who kept him captive for five years and treated him brutally. His lawyers insisted that meant he’d already “paid a bitter price for the decision he made.”
Except that his decision endangered many lives beyond his own.
Indeed, it still does — since the Taliban leaders freed by President Barack Obama in that shameful trade-off will eventually return to the battlefield and may well shed more American blood.
As the chief prosecutor said, what Bowe Bergdahl did “was not a mistake — it was a crime.” And the court should have held him accountable for it.