I’ve written two previous posts on the right-wing and general political feeding frenzy surrounding Sgt. Bergdahl’s release. (You can read them
here and
here). I’ve been very pleased to see a rational and sympathetic response to my posts. But the other day, I got a tweet that captured a lot of the controversy–in a negative way. Someone asked if I thought Sgt. Bergdahl was a hero. Of course I don’t know.
In the context of a brutal war of choice, the longest in American history where civilians are targets; what is a hero? I saw a very well researched and documented article that castigated his unit and had an anti-poor or anti-working class bias to it.
I strongly believe that it is up to us who oppose any war of choice, gratuitous militarization, and aggression to not point fingers right now. Instead we should say over and over as William Sherman said, “War is all hell.” It always has been and always will be. You cannot go to war and kill fellow human beings unless you’ve been taught they are less than you. And when you dehumanize other human beings, some of us commit atrocities. Atrocities are an everyday occurrence in war. They are inevitable.
I neither know nor care whether Sgt. Bergdahl was captured while taking a shit at the base latrine or walking away for reasons of principle. Union General Philip Sheridan burned all the Shenandoah Valley to starve Confederate forces. That’s why Sherman marched across Georgia to the sea, then turned north and destroyed almost all of South Carolina. Given the necessity of the Civil War to destroy slavery, it had to be done. And please no shit about that war had nothing to do with slavery.
All wars all the time are horrific. Whatever happened with Sgt. Bergdahl is on all of us. Iraq and Afghanistan were done in our name. This is our country and we sent 18 and 19 year old privates and lance corporals and 25 year old sergeants to kill and maim and destroy in our name.
Bowe Bergdahl is us.
He is one of you and me.
For those of us who didn’t go, to judge him now is its own atrocity.
And to condemn his unit of poor and working class kids who never had a chance and never will have a chance is wrong too.
We had a national policy of torture, which Dick Cheney still supports. The whole Bush Administration lied about both wars. What do you expect 18 year olds to do?
The whole damn mess is on all of us.
Don’t look for Jack. Jack’s done gone. Every American including me should be looking in the damn mirror right now.
War, indeed, is all hell.
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