What I find strange is that so much emphasis is being put on Bergdahl himself by most of the posters in this thread. From my last two American Legion meetings and a VFW one, the emphasis is on whom was released and not on Bergdahl. Among these retired and active duty veterans, the fate of Bergdahl is divided between those who want a court martial to either clear him or convict him, those who want him just discharged thinking he has suffered enough and those who go along with the discharge as long as it is a dishonorable one.
But most vets at all three meetings were against the swap, one does not increase the risks, the dangers to your fellow soldiers, to our allies, to the Afghan people the military was charged with protecting by releasing and swapping 5 hard core Taliban leaders which will surely come back and bite us and our allies in the butt. The focus is on these 5 by the American Legion and the VFW members, not Bergdahl. The name of the soldier is irrelevant. This is viewed akin to having Himmler and Goering in our POW camp and releasing/swapping them for the release of a single enlisted man. It is against military protocol and the standards ingrained in the military to do something like this regardless of how much you want our man back. It all goes to what these 5 released hard core Taliban leaders will likely do, the fact their released has increased the dangers to American military, their allies, to the Afghan people of having more of them die, being wounded, being kidnapped for more prisoner releases.
Perhaps the focus is on Bergdahl for the civilian sector, not he is just a minor player in the military one, it is the release of the 5 hard core Taliban leaders that worry us. Then too what hasn’t been addressed is how soldiers lost their lives or were wounded, how many Afghan military were killed in apprehending these 5 to begin with. Apparently they do not count as soon those still over in Afghanistan will have to go capture these 5 once again or kill them. I suspect it will be kill them, capturing them seems not to work too good.