Essay about prisoner exchange

Submitted By Kyle-Moody
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Prisoner exchange

Bowe Bergdahl was held in Afghanistan as a prisoner by an Islamic insurgent group since june 2009 when he reportedly walked away from his platoon. Shortly after allegedly leaving his fellow soldiers he was captured. Before the trade, Bergdahl was last seen in a Taliban video that they released to the US in decemeber of 2013 and his condition after the video was not know, though it was apparent that his hygiene, health, and mental stability all looked very poor. It is not clear whether he actually walked away, but recovered radio transmissions from the insurgent group reported that he was captured alone without any weapons, with no fellow soldiers in sight. Some sources state that before his decision to leave his unit, he wrote his parents saying how un-american he felt, and how he simply could not live the way he was any longer.
Many people are now arguing the case of desertation during a time of war, which holds a maximum penalty of death. Now the debate has begun to whether it can be considered desertation when neither president bush, nor president Obama has ever declared a “time of war” which upholds military code and justice. Congress also has never passed any declaration of war for Afghanistan.
A military law professor at yale said (3)"The command can say 'This fellow has been living in terrible conditions. We don't approve of what he did but we're not going to prosecute him,'" he said. "Or, the military could prosecute him as a way of signaling to others that 'Look, you can't simply go over the hill.' ... It's quite an interesting set of issues that will have to be addressed as a matter of both policy and law."
Bergdahls fate is now sitting on a very thin line and is resting soley on peoples biases, and what they have heard from the media. Every source has a slightly different view to the story. Some lean towards the fact that he’s been held in terrible conditions by people who hate americans for over 5 years, and others hold very tightly to military rules which not only legaly, but moraly forbid abandoning your fellow soldirs.
Exchanging 5 prisoners for Bergdahls return was excessive. Although he was thought to be the last Living POW, Dangerous terrorists back in the Middle East is exactly the opposite of what the United States has been working on since the war began in the first place. To me it seems like steps in the wrong direction were taken. The president always makes a point to say “we do not negotiate with terrorists”, but this exchange was clearly negotiated between the two parties. Forcefully retrieving him would have eliminated the exchange altogether, and kept the dangerous people from being freed back into their terrorist organization. Freeing a prisoner of war should be a top priority of the government and not organized as a trade, especially dealing with
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