Nation's honor required Bergdahl's safe return

Amidst the debate on freeing Idaho’s Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, critics lambasting him, his family and President Barack Obama should ask themselves how would they feel if he had died in captivity with no effort to retrieve him?

As a veteran who risked his life for our country, I feel that would betray a sacred trust to bring our service members back. As Commander in Chief, President Obama honored that obligation. If Bergdahl’s life was in danger, he could not wait for a politically-charged Congress to act.

Some maintain the five Taliban prisoners released pose an immediate threat to our troops in Afghanistan. But they will be held in Qatar — which acted as a go-between in the negotiations — for a year and will be closely monitored by U.S. intelligence. By then, few U.S.  forces will remain in combat roles in Afghanistan.

And are they really high-level terrorists? Not according to former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay, Col. Morris Davis. “I wasn’t familiar with any of these names,” he said.  In more than 12 years “if we could have proven they had done something wrong that we could prosecute them for, we would have done it.”

Bergdahl’s actions prior to his capture will be investigated by the Army. But as Gen. Martin Dempsey said, “The questions about this particular soldier’s conduct are separate from our effort to recover any U.S. service member in enemy captivity.”

JAMES W. RAMSEY

Kootenai