Soldier in Captivity Seen On Video

July 18, 2009 By CJ
Posted in Military News

UPDATE2: Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, of Ketchum, Idaho, was declared Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown (DUSTWUN) on July 1 and his status was changed to “Missing-Captured” on July 3. Pfc. Bergdahl is a member of 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.

UPDATE: The Soldier in the video is NOT a senior NCO or officer as I had opined. He is a Private First Class, E-3. So, now the question is how he got off the base.

Greyhawk has been doing a great job covering the story of the Soldier who was kidnapped in Afghanistan. I’d like to take a moment to quickly convey to readers what he may be going through and how you should interpret any news coming out of his capture. The first thing you should know is that regardless of HOW or WHY he left the base, the military is 100% dedicated to getting him back alive. We never leave a brother behind if there is ever hope. Part of our creed reads, “I will never leave a fallen comrade.” This includes captured troops.

There are different rules that kidnapped troops must live under depending upon the circumstances of their capture. As we know, those rules change drastically when the captors are not a state entity. In other words, it’s one thing to be a prisoner of North Korea, or Iran, or any other nation. It’s an entirely different thing to be the prisoner of a terrorist organization. One must conduct themselves differently.

In any capture situation, the goal is simple to stay alive. Terrorists have no compassion for human life. They are soulless human being devoid of any sense of humanity or respect. When you become a liability, it is easier to kill you than continue to hold out and negotiate. There is no such thing as diplomacy with terrorist organization, regardless of what the current administration thinks.

The AP released a story today that purports to have information about the captured US Soldier somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan. The Soldier has been missing for more than two weeks. Initially, the US military stated that he merely walked off the base with three Afghan nationals. With all the Embedded Training Teams (ETT) in Afghanistan, it’s not beyond the realm of the norm that the Soldier would be allowed to leave post without other troops. While the military hasn’t released any information about the captured Soldier, I would guess that he is probably a Staff Sergeant or higher or a CPT or Major.

Anyway, back to the AP story. According to the story, the captured story makes the following statement:

“To my fellow Americans who have loved ones over here, who know what it’s like to miss them, you have the power to make our government bring them home,” he said. “Please, please bring us home so that we can be back where we belong and not over here, wasting our time and our lives and our precious life that we could be using back in our own country. Please bring us home. It is America and American people who have that power.”

It is this statement that I want to draw some attention to. Remember first of all that the goal is to stay alive before we judge the statement. The fact is that we don’t know much of anything about this troop’s case. There is all sorts of speculation that ranges from AWOL to conspiracy to kidnapping. Regardless of his original intent, I’m sure he regrets his decision.

I can’t/won’t go into a lot of details, but I’ve been through the SERE course and can tell you that unless you’ve been through the training AT LEAST the training. Even that, though, doesn’t mean a darn thing unless you’ve been a prisoner to a hostile force. ALL Soldiers are trained on what information to give if they are captured by a foreign government. Only select troops are trained on being captured by non-state forces.

Until the truth comes out, I urge everyone not to judge anything this Soldier says as anything other than coerced and/or under duress. There comes a point where you will verbally give away your first born child if it means extending your life by one more day in order to buy some time for those looking for you. Most troops will not be held accountable for the things they say or do in captivity. Naturally, those that faulted McCain for his words in captivity simply don’t understand this concept and will probably fault this guy in the future for everything he says. Liberals are like that. They’re all about…never mind. I can’t go there. Gotta watch my blood pressure.

To prove that we mean business, the US military is grabbing, um, itself and taking the offensive. In a *cough *wheeze *hack CBS story, Mandy Clark reveals that coalition forces are releasing leaflets that threaten those holding the US troop.

Until this Soldier is returned, we need to keep him in our prayers and hope for his safe return. Unfortunately, the group that is believed to be holding him is notorious for beheadings and and suicide bombings. They hate Americans and can be much worse than the Taliban and even Al Qaeda at times. The group is called the Haqqani networked, after their head honcho, Siraj Haqqani. Siraj has been the primary threat in Afghanistan since at least 2007. It’s easy to assume that that Taliban, as brutal and repressive as they were, were actually holding Siraj back. Since we kicked their collective asses, Haqqani has only sunk further in deviancy and violence. Siraj is part of a younger, more aggressive generation of Taliban senior leadership that is pushing aside the formerly respected elders. And he’s doing it through some of the most violent means the region has ever seen.

Finally, remember not to believe, as Greyhawk mentions in his piece, the first stories you hear. I wouldn’t even believe the subsequent stories. The mainstream media has proven over and over again that it’s incapable of fact finding unless it will make troops or a former president doing everything possible to keep Americans alive look bad. Again, ask God to keep his watchful eye upon them and send His blessings when needed.

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