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We witnessed Barack Obama’s parting gift to the men and women of the U.S. military, the commutation of the sentence of a traitor, Bradley Manning. Let’s remember that Obama abandoned Americans to die in a faraway place called Benghazi.
The progressive socialist left will tell us, “what difference at this point does it make” — well, a lot to those who lost their loved ones or are scarred for life as a result of those 13 hours. And do not forget Obama left office with the official designation of the Ft. Hood Islamic jihadist attack as “workplace violence.” Obama never referred to that horrific day as anything else, and these are just a few examples of what shall define him to our military…forever.
There’s one more case still unresolved — that of the person Obama’s national security advisor described as having served with honor and distinction. He was the person whose parents Obama went all out with a Rose Garden press conference. Sadly, neither Pat Smith, mother of Sean Smith, nor the widow and orphaned son of U.S. Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods were ever invited to the White House of Barack Obama. This is the wide chasm of how the left, and everyone else, sees heroism and being a traitor.
And here is perhaps the final insult.
As reported by Military.com, “Minutes after President Donald Trump took the oath of office Friday, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s defense lawyers filed a motion to dismiss court martial charges based on Trump’s repeated statements as a candidate calling him a “dirty rotten traitor” and a “no good traitor.” “It’s inimical to the administration of justice” and a denial of Bergdahl’s due process rights to a fair trial to allow the case of U.S. v Bergdahl to proceed on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy under Articles 85 and 99 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, said Eugene Fidell, a civilian defense counsel for Bergdahl. Fidell said Trump’s statements amounted to “apparent unlawful command influence” that could prejudice any potential military jury panel called to decide Bergdahl’s fate, although Trump made the statements as private citizen and candidate and not as commander in chief. The motion said that “Sergeant Bergdahl has never been charged with, indicted for, or convicted of treason. Nonetheless, President Trump referred to him as ‘traitor Bergdahl’ and repeatedly described him as, variously, a traitor, a ‘dirty, rotten traitor,’ a ‘no-good traitor,’ a ‘dirty, no good traitor,’ and ‘a horrible traitor.’ He did this at rally after rally across the country.” At a 2015 rally in Las Vegas, Trump said “We’re tired of Sgt. Bergdahl, who’s a traitor, a no-good traitor, who should have been executed. Thirty years ago, he would have been shot.”
This was the plan all along; stall this out and rely on having the case dismissed. The other alternative, if Hillary Clinton had won, was to just pardon Bergdahl and let that be that.
As stated, the words of Donald Trump were spoken as a private citizen who has a right to free speech. Donald Trump’s words as candidate Trump have no bearing on what Bowe Bergdahl did, which cannot be debated or challenged. Trump’s words have nothing to do with undue command influence, being that he was not in a command chain.
As a matter of fact, one can make the case that Obama’s actions, as commander in chief, and the words of his national security advisor were indeed representative of “undue command influence”…after all, who’s going to bring charges and prosecute someone whose parents got a Rose Garden ceremony and has supposedly served with “honor and distinction?”
And why is it that the Army was so quick to charge, try, convict, and sentence someone who faced the enemy like Army 1LT Clint Lorance, but cannot get its act together with the case of Bowe Bergdahl? Also, why did the Army so viciously pursue the case against Clint Lorance, even after learning there was evidence that those Taliban operatives killed had gun residue on their hands?
If there’s anything that the departure of Barack Obama and the new commander in chief, Donald Trump, can do for our military, it’s to return the real definition of heroic actions. This was something Obama and the left struggle with incessantly as they define heroism in terms of their ideological agenda, like wanting to be a woman, after you’ve leaked some 700,000 classified documents. Or deserting your post in a combat zone because you, well… who knows?
There was a time when actions such as those of Bradley Manning and Bowe Bergdahl would have resulted in swift trial and the condemnation of death. Now, they’re allowed to walk free…while we incarcerate and denigrate those who fight. And that folks is FUBAR.
