Heres a small sample of a new column providing a bit of an alternative perspective. Hope you enjoy something a bit different! Bryan is a Zwolle/Ebarb native and has served his country for over 20 years in the armed forces. Left...Face By Bryan Feldhiser The Soldiers Creed “I will never leave a fallen comrade.” These words are drilled into every American soldier from day one in recruit training! Memorized under the threat of pain, discomfort and sweat, these words form the cornerstone of American military tradition and long standing U.S. policy, a promise that we will leave no one behind! This belief is so much a part of military service that the DoD maintains a unit known as the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command whose responsibility it is to identify the remains of missing American service members around the globe and return them home. Many generations of my family have served in uniform and we have all enjoyed the knowledge that if we were to be captured on a foreign battlefield, our country would bring us home. To listen to our politicians and pundits talk today, I worry that promise is under threat and what that means to our sons and daughters who serve. I understand the frustration of those who hear the trumpets of confusion and misinformation blasting from their TVs and radios, all telling us that our President is bad because of Bergdahl or Benghazi or the IRS or any other buzz word scandal drummed up in the halls of Congress. However, this is not about whether you like or dislike President Obama. This is about our identity as a nation and our promise to all those in uniform. The Soldier’s Creed is simple in its promise, “I will never leave a fallen comrade.” There is no criteria which must be meet for that promise to be true, no fine print, and no ability to misinterpret its meaning. So let’s cut through the political chatter and support the return of an American captured on the battlefield, held captive and tortured in a foreign land by America’s enemy. We did not “negotiate with terrorists”, we negotiated with emissaries of Qatar. The circumstances of SGT Bergdahl’s capture are irrelevant as well. A full military and civilian investigation is certainly under way. If, after a full investigation, it is found that SGT Bergdahl violated any articles of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, the US military courts are fully capable of administering justice. As an American citizen, SGT Bergdahl is innocent until proven guilty, so until an investigation is concluded, he is a returned American POW and his release should be celebrated!
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 14:58:08 +0000
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