Bergdahl requests pardon from President Obama, US officials

I have never served in direct or indirect combat on the front lines (or even in the rear with the gear) nor have I ever had a shot fired at me in anger so I feel I'm not able to provide any input from the "Fighting" side of this issue. On the "Military" side, I will say if he is convicted by Court Martial, then he gets what he deserves, although I'm not sure if his actions may warrant the Death Penalty or Life in the Stockade as I just do not have enough viable information. As far as receiving a pre-court martial Pardon from Pres. Obama; if that happens we might as well stop holding Military Personnel accountable for their actions. I do not believe Pres. Obama would want this extreme level of meddling to be attached to his legacy (or what remains of it anyway) nor could anyone in his Administration seriously be this ignorant. I will be watching this as well.

I will be watching this to see how it turns out.

I don't know why this continues to roil and drag on. The answer clearly needs to be not only no, but hell no. A pardon would undermine the entire UCMJ and Command authority. Everything that the government has charged him with, has been confirmed by his own words on the Serial Podcast, Season 2. He admits he deserted with the intent to cause a DUSTWON specifically. It wasn't an oops. It wasn't I meant well. His selfish goals caused that and more. Just because he was a naive , Don Quixote type person, and got captured doesn't change that (if you haven't listened to Serial, Season 2, you need to even though it has a liberal slant. Those with real military experience will read right through it). The second and third order consequences caused the POTUS, for better or worse, to be put in the situation to release 5 bad people to recover him. I actually believe we needed to recover Bergdahl, it was our national responsibility, even though I believe investigating him and trying him would be the result. I would have preferred an Allied or unilateral raid with dead Tangoes, vice this COA but it is what it is.

It boils down to sentencing in my mind. The sentence where justice is done, is a conviction with credit for time served in Taliban captivity, reduction to E-1, and a BCD. Done, out you go. Justice and accountability is served. He'll slide into anynomity where he likely wants to be, the VA will take care of him for life because he was a POW, and the Army goes rolling along. Leaving only a complicated footnote in history.

Some would choose to trawl history for a counter example. The only one I know of, is for LT William Calley, convicted in the My Lai massacre. President Nixon issued a partial pardon, I believe to simply be done with it, getting rid of the event it self, and the theories swirling around his entire chain of command all the way up and above the two star level (true or false, that is another conversation). I don't think that will be the case here. Current POTUS has nothing significant to gain here. I don't know how he will react to this with regard to his "legacy" or impact to his legacy if he does. It works better for the annals of history that he made a tough call to recover a POW, vice giving up 5 HVTs to get back and pardon a deserter. Nixon upheld the courts martial conviction in the pardon. He really just commuted the sentence to time served, and he was rid of Calley and My Lai, at least in Theory.