Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Tie A Yellow Ribbon

Yellow ribbon. This is how we welcome our soldiers home. If I don't see that yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree, I'll get on the bus, forget about us, and so on. I wonder if Bowe Bergdahl isn't wondering if he should have stayed on that bus. Since he was released from captivity in Afghanistan, he and his family has been batted around by the media and politicos like a cat toy.  Sorry, son. You're not a hero. You're a political football with spit all over you. 
Okay, so maybe Bowe's not a hero. According to members of his platoon, when he went missing back in June of 2009, he was not captured. He was deserting. He was twenty-three years old at the time. Who among us hasn't made bad choices during our twenties? Who hasn't made those bad choices with things blowing up around you in a foreign country? Sergeant Bergdahl had become disillusioned with his country's mission in Afghanistan, and when he went missing, there were plenty of people both military and civilian who questioned his motives. He wasn't captured during some twilight raid while fending off bad guys who outnumbered him ten to one. He was captured.
Bergdahl has told people treating him at an American military medical facility in Germany that he was tortured, beaten and held in a cage by his Taliban captors. There are plenty of people who will shrug their shoulders and say that he somehow deserved this treatment. Most of them aren't soldiers. Still, there will be those who will suggest that being a soldier opens you up to experiences like that, and if he's a deserter, even more so. How about his dad, then?
Why would Bowe Bergdahl's dad be receiving death threats at his home in Idaho? The elder Bergdahl deserves to die because he waited patiently for five years for his son to come home? Because he grew a beard while his son was held captive? Bowe's hometown will not be hosting a Welcome Home celebration, primarily because Hailey, Idaho has a population of eight thousand and it would have tripled with the additon of supporters and protesters who want to express their opinions on the matter of Bowe's release. Some of those protesters are angry about soldiers who may have been killed while trying to find Bergdahl. So it makes sense that they would want to kill his father. With a yellow ribbon. Tied real tight. 
Nope. It doesn't make any sense at all. 

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