Ralph Peters responds to Rep Marshall-deserting soldier captured by Taliban

July 24, 2009
Your folks may find the response below from Ralph Peters of interest.

COL Zygmunt Dembek, USAR
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Zyg,

Thanks for the feedback. No matter what it costs me--and it will cost me--I am sticking to my conviction that Bergdahl is not the heroic martyr portrayed by the media (in the inevitable film, I expect Shia Labouef to play Bergdahl, with Sean Penn as a wicked US general and George Clooney as Mullah Omar...). Before I spoke, I had unequivocal confirmation from a very high military level--on background--that Bergdahl deserted his post. The senior officer also took pains to insure that I understood that Bergdahl "is no hero" and that he lied about being on patrol on the videotape, etc.

I do hope he comes home safely--for his family's sake--and that the Army does not then succumb to leftwing cries that "The poor boy's suffered enough." If, under the provisions of the UCMJ, the evidence shows that we was AWOL in a combat zone, fine. If he is judged as a full-fledged deserter, fine (Articles 85 and 86 leave some gray area). But he must face charges.

I do believe, by the way, that the Taliban, who are very media savvy, may have learned from the backlash against the al Qaeda in Iraq atrocity videos. After another video or two, Bergdahl may be released "for humanitarian reasons," is a further propaganda coup.

At present, our military has diverted a wide array of assets from the fight in order to bring back this PFC (who I believe is in Pakistan, at this point). None of this is addressed by the adulatory media. The confirmed fact that Bergdahl just walked away from his post in the hours of darkness has been in the public domain for weeks. The media ignore that, too. Nor have the media "fact-checked" the Taliban video, in which even the mention of a girlfriend appears to be scripted (note that the reporters who've descended on his hometown have not surfaced this girlfriend for whom PFC Bergdahl pines...). Of course, the anti-American tirade and lies about the behavior of our troops are delicious to our media.

Most of all, I find it despicable that the media (and now some Congressmen) lionize PFC Bergdahl and his family, while largely ignoring those authentic heroes who are struggling on our military hospitals, while their families live with fear and doubt, or those who come home in flag-draped coffins (and their families), or those decorated for valor...who go ignored by the media. I keep asking media figures the same question: Why is it that we all know Bergdahl's name--the name of a soldier who deserted his post and collaborated with the enemy in clear violation of the Code of Conduct--while we don't know the names of a single soldier fighting for his or her life in a military hospital?

Feel free to share this note with anyone. I will not back down and join the Bergdahl lovefest. As for the Congressmen, when was the last time they all circulated and signed a letter praising one of our troops for heroism? I guarantee you that not one of them has bothered to look into the known facts of the Bergdahl matter. But, of course, facts don't matter. And, I suppose, desertion is no worse than calling in sick because you have a hangover...

Best regards,
Ralph

Biden: More 'Sacrifice' In Afghanistan

Biden Warns Of More 'Sacrifice' In Afghanistan

New York Times
July 24, 2009
By Alan Cowell

LONDON — Entering a debate that has stirred political tumult in Britain, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said in an interview broadcast Thursday that more coalition troops would die in Afghanistan but that the war was “worth the effort.”

Speaking during a tour of Ukraine and Georgia, Mr. Biden told the BBC that the lawless region along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border was “a place that, if it doesn’t get straightened out, will continue to wreak havoc on Europe and the United States.”

His remarks have a particular resonance in Britain at a time when the American-led coalition has recorded some of its worst casualties since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001.

Britain has some 9,000 soldiers in Afghanistan — the second biggest contingent after the United States — and so far this month alone has lost 19 soldiers. That brings Britain’s total since 2001 to 188, higher than its death toll in the Iraq war. The latest fatalities came Wednesday, when bombs killed two United States service members and one Briton in southern Afghanistan.

Before those deaths, July had already become the deadliest month for American service members in the country since the 2001 invasion.

With the newest fatalities, more than 30 Americans have died in the first three weeks of July, surpassing the highest previous monthly toll of 28, reached in June 2008.

The deaths coincide with a major American offensive, supported by British and other troops, in Helmand Province, a Taliban stronghold, in advance of presidential elections next month.

While some British newspaper columnists have questioned the reasons for fighting the war, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is locked in a dispute with the main opposition leader, David Cameron, over the government’s record on providing the right equipment — particularly helicopters — to shield British soldiers from the increasingly deadly roadside bombs planted by the Taliban.

In the interview, Mr. Biden said that in terms of the national interests of the United States, Britain and other European countries, the war “is worth the effort we are making and the sacrifice that is being felt.”

“And more will come,” he said, referring to the current phase of hostilities as “the fighting season.” He did not comment specifically on the debate over British equipment.

He said the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region was “the place from which the attacks of 9/11 and all those attacks in Europe that came from Al Qaeda have flowed, from that place between Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

He called British soldiers “among the best trained and bravest warriors in the world.”

The debate over British troops’ access to helicopters sharpened Wednesday when a Foreign Office minister, Lord Malloch Brown, told a newspaper interviewer that “we definitely don’t have enough helicopters.”

But he withdrew the comment, apparently under pressure from the prime minister, who has insisted that access to more helicopters would not have saved British lives in the latest wave of fatalities. Mr. Brown’s critics argue that lives would be saved if troops were transported by helicopter rather than by land vehicles, in which they are more vulnerable to attacks.

“In the operations we are doing at the moment, it is completely wrong to say that the loss of lives has been caused by the absence of helicopters,” Mr. Brown said Wednesday. “For the operations we are doing at the moment, we have the helicopters we need.”


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FOX Military Analyst Condemned by Repubs & Dems

Marshall: Fox News Analyst Crossed Line By Suggesting Taliban Should Kill U.S. Soldier

Political Insider
July 22, 2009
By Jim Galloway

U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Macon), a former Army ranger, has signed onto a bipartisan letter from members of Congress condemning Fox News for an analyst’s suggestion that a captured U.S. soldier should be killed by his Afghan captors.

This week, the Pentagon disclosed that Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl of Idaho had been captured, and that a video of the 23-year-old private was posted online by the Taliban.

On Fox News, Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, a military analyst for the network said the following:

Nobody that I’ve heard in the military is defending this guy. He is an apparent deserter. Reports are indeed that he abandoned his buddies, abandoned his post, and walked off. We’ll see what the ultimate truth of it is.

But if he did, if he’s a deserter at war time, well, as o of my old platoon sergeants used to say, he’s in beaucoup deep kinshee…

We know this private is a liar. We’re not sure that he is a deserter. But the media needs to hit the pause button, and not portray this guy as a hero….

I want to be clear. If, when the facts are in, we find out that through some convoluted chain of events, he really was captured by the Taliban, I’m with him.

But, if he walked away from his post and his buddies in wartime, I don’t care how hard it sounds, as far as I’m concerned, the Taliban can save us a lot of legal hassles and legal bills.

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Wrote Marshall and 22 other members of Congress, Republican and Democrat:

[Peters] implied suggestion that the Taliban should simply kill PFC Bergdahl to, “save us a lot of legal hassles and legal bills,” was repulsive and deserves to be repudiated by your news organization.

We recognize and credit anchor Julie Banderas’ efforts to make it clear that Mr. Peters’ positions were not that of Fox News. However, that does not remove the responsibility your network has for the statements of one of its own analysts; especially those that suggest a member of the United States Army should be killed by his captors.

We demand an apology to PFC Bergdahl’s family and to the thousands of soldiers who put their lives on the line for our country. As a member of the military family, Mr. Peters should measure his remarks and remember that the United States will never abandon one of its own.