{"id":442,"date":"2014-06-07T09:18:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-07T09:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/06\/the-new-manchurian-candidate-with-bonus-commentary.html"},"modified":"2014-06-07T09:18:00","modified_gmt":"2014-06-07T09:18:00","slug":"the-new-manchurian-candidate-with-bonus-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/06\/the-new-manchurian-candidate-with-bonus-commentary.html","title":{"rendered":"The New Manchurian Candidate? (with bonus commentary)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019m afraid the anti-Bergdahl crowd may have jumped the shark. \u00a0Current claims are that (a) he converted to Islam in 2010 and declared himself to be a mujahid<\/a>, (b) seemed reluctant to leave his captors, and was even tearful and comforted by them<\/a>, and (c) was shaved completely in accordance with Islamic practice for suicide bomber (OK, this last connection was suggested by a commenter on a blog post I read this morning).<\/p>\n

Which all starts to remind of the plot of The Manchurian Candidate. \u00a0No, not the bad remake in which the returned soldier was brainwashed to serve a right-wing plotter, but the original, in which the Commies brainwashed him for their own purposes. \u00a0Of course, in that movie, the character didn\u2019t know that he was brainwashed, and these accusations all center on the notion that Bergdahl knowingly and intentionally switched sides, either before or during his captivity \u2014 with further claims that claims of his mistreatment were an elaborate deception and he was relaxing comfortably the whole time.<\/p>\n

Guys, really, how likely is this? \u00a0Let\u2019s not get carried away and turn into the equivalent to Truthers, please. \u00a0Yes, Bergdahl didn\u2019t have his head on straight \u2014 but let\u2019s not turn this into a Hollywood plotline.<\/p>\n

MORE THOUGHTS:<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to write the following without links, since it\u2019s based on things I read yesterday or the day before, but:<\/p>\n

Apparently, there\u2019s a duration distinction between being AWOL and desertion: \u00a0AWOL refers to leaving your unit without authorization, and desertion to being gone for 30 days or more. <\/p>\n

The Pentagon, or at least the administration, is saying, \u201cwe don\u2019t know if he is a deserter\u201d and everyone is flying off the handle because of the testimony of his fellow soldiers that he left his post voluntarily. \u00a0But if he was captured by the Taliban \u2014 and genuinely captured, rather than turning himself in to them \u2014 within the first 30 days, then he has a somewhat ambiguous status. \u00a0He didn\u2019t intentionally desert, in that case, but he wasn\u2019t a POW, necessarily, either. \u00a0And if he in some manner reached out to the Taliban, then rather quickly discovered that his imagined notions of what the Taliban are all about were just fantasy, and at that point became a captive, well, that\u2019s even less clear.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s likely that we\u2019ll never know \u2014 because even in the extreme case that Bergdahl was a collaborator from start to finish, of course, he\u2019d have a story that says otherwise, and only if he makes the mistake of providing details which are readily disproven by known facts, can we actually know that he\u2019s fibbing.<\/p>\n

(And, yes, there is the chance that the Pentagon and the administration could know, or discover some facts that discredit their assertion that Bergdahl\u2019s life was worth releasing 5 top Taliban, and keep that hidden. \u00a0And, yes, it is looking more and more like my guess that the ultimate goal was releasing the Taliban, and Bergdahl was just cover, is the explanation.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m afraid the anti-Bergdahl crowd may have jumped the shark. \u00a0Current claims are that (a) he converted to Islam in 2010 and declared himself to be a mujahid, (b) seemed reluctant to leave his captors, and was even tearful and comforted by them, and (c) was shaved completely in accordance with Islamic practice for suicide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe New Manchurian Candidate? 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