I should read The Nation more often. Why the cry for Bowe Bergdahl's blood?
“I am shocked at the concerted effort led by pro-war elements to pillory this guy, rather than offer serious compassion,” Robert Musil, who wrote an article on Vietnam deserters for The Nation in 1973, told me last year. “Where is all that rhetoric about ‘we support our troops’? He has suffered a lot, as have others. Where is the understanding, the compassion, the humanity? I frankly think that’s the proper response to an American kid stranded in the middle of Afghanistan who feels he has no choice but to go away from his unit.”I'm reminded of General George Patton, in a field hospital during World War II, slapping a pair of shell-shocked soldiers, an act that led to his being relieved of his command. Now America as a nation is slapping one of its own in a collective convulsive jerk. Bowe Bergdahl, after being held by the Taliban for 5 1/2 years, should be court-martialed? For what? To satisy our national honor?
We've long lost our national honor. That's the crime.
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