This is a quick post. Do you believe he should go to prison for his actions or do you believe he did nothing wrong and deserves to be free? What are your thoughts about Bergdahl and his situation?
Prison is wrong unless you're a rapist or murderer so no, he should not be incarcerated. He does however deserve some form of punishment I'd give him 1000 hrs community service
Jail??? As inverted as this bullshit nation and world are, he'll probably be given a medal of honor (or maybe a Nobel Peace prize ).
Give the guy a break, send him back to Afghanistan and take his US citizenship. There's no need for jail.
What he did was harmless in the grand scale of things. The chap does not seem to be the brightest of sparks so I doubt there was any sinister motive behind his "going native". He lost it, flipped out and went mad. The Taliban must have done some head scratching over that lad though.
His "punishment" should be to write a book or make a movie about his experiences. I for one would be fascinated to hear about what he went through.
Tell that to the people who died looking for him. He's a coward and a scumbag and he deserves whatever fate he gets. I agree just send his stupid as back and forget about him
How can be held responsible for anyone killed looking for him? Any soldier/mercenary/spook killed in Afghanistan have only themselves to blame, they are after all part of an invading/occupying military.
... they went looking for him because they didn't know what happened to him. If you don't wanna be there I'm sure there are other Avenues he could have gone down other than just up and leaving. It was the worst thing he could have done. If your buddy was lost would you go out and look for him?
Probably, but I would also be well aware that I am part of an invading occupying force that has brought nothing but death and destruction to that country. Soldiers/mercenaries/spooks are there by choice. They are well aware of the risks involved yet choose to partake. This chap flipped out, had a mental breakdown, call it what you want but he lost it.
sort of a moral grey zone. should we punish ppl for making honest mistakes? if you forget to pull your parking break and your car rolls down a hill and kills 3 kids, should you be physically punished or is it enough of a punishment living with the fact tht you've taken someone's life? When suggesting Berghdal be punished I'm mostly thinking about the soldiers who lost their lives trying to save him then again they were just doing their job3 frankly I don't know what stance to take on the matter
Would probably be considered wreck less or negligent manslaughter at the very least since you knew that not putting a parking break on could cause harm to others property and health. That being said if there was some extenuating circumstance like the break failed then you wouldn't be at fault. I'm no expert though just based on what I've learned in an intro to criminal justice class and probably depends on what jurisdiction you are in. At the end of the day I would say you should deserve some punishment since you directly caused the tragedy through your negligence. Of course it's not cut dry but I think there's an argument to be made for some form of punishment.
you could pull the lever a thousand times and still forget on the 1001st. it could happen to any of us the court would want to see some form of justice, as you pointed out. but philosophically speaking, does tht person deserve to be punished?
Like I said there's no easy answer but I would argue yes in this case because the negligence lead to such a tragedy in a direct fashion. I understand the philosophical idea you're getting at that we all make mistakes but some are clearly worse than others and deserving of punishment. Say for example if I don't cover my hands well sneezing and give you some disease which kills you I would be responsible on a personal level but not enough to be punished because I can't reasonably expect that sneezing improperly could kill someone. I would argue that in the case of the parking brake we all know the very real risk of the car causing damage to people and property which is why it's our societal obligation to do so. It's unfortunate and on a personal level if it was an isolated incident I would say maybe it would be better to do nothing but the simple fact is it's not an isolated system. If you punish people for wreckless/negligent behavior I think it definitely has impact on others to be more careful. I don't think it has as much of a deterrent effect as people make it out to be but I definitely think it's a factor. At the end of the day with criminal justice there is no overarching answer, things have to be taken on a case by case basis. On an unrelated note there should be other options like community service or wage forfeiture for people who can't afford fines before throwing them in jail where they will rot and cost the taxpayers a shitload of money for a virtually victimless crime. I also believe bail should be almost nonexistent for nonviolent property crimes because bail creates a system where many innocent poor people are locked in jail and lose their job/apartments as a result creating a vicious cycle of recidivism.
I understand what you're saying smokinp so using your logic wasn't Bergdahl also there by choice? He was well aware of the punishment for desertion and still chose to leave so what would be the problem with punishing him in the traditional method?
He wasn't of sound mind. Insanity. It's a miracle that he survived a day, that he made it back to the US is incredulous. He should have met a grizzly end but somehow they let him live. I would imagine that he was a curiosity to them, a play thing of sorts and also a possible cash cow. The Taliban won this hand...