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<h1 class="title">The US army is the biggest joke says soldier
Bowe Bergdahl released by the Taliban </h1>
<p class="meta"> Patrick Cockburn <time datetime="2014-06-03"
pubdate="">03 June 2014</time>. Posted in <a
href="http://stopwar.org.uk/news">News</a> </p>
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<h4>"These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited
country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that
they are stupid."</h4>
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<div style="float: none; width: 456px;" class="img_caption none"><img
src="cid:part6.04080900.09000108@comcast.net" alt="Bowe Begdahl"
class="caption size-auto" title="" style="margin-top:10px"></div>
<p>"I am sorry for everything here. These people need help, yet what
they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them
that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no
idea how to live."</p>
<p>It is a bitter indictment of an army in trouble. It was written
by the American soldier Bowe Bergdahl in his last email to his
parents sent just before he walked off his base in eastern
Afghanistan on 30 June 2009.</p>
<p>Within hours, he was picked by the Taliban who held him for five
years until his <a
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/sergeant-bowe-bergdahl-released-us-soldier-held-by-taliban-in-afghanistan-freed-after-five-years-barack-obama-confirms-9467018.html"
title="Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl released: US soldier held by
Taliban in Afghanistan freed after five years, Barack Obama
confirms">exchange for five senior Taliban leaders</a> held in
the US prison at Guantanamo Bay.</p>
<p>“The US army is the biggest joke the world has to laugh at,”
wrote Sergeant Bergdahl in an email later published by Rolling
Stone magazine. “It is the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and
bullies. The few good SGTs [sergeants] are getting out as soon as
they can, and they are telling us privates to do the same.”</p>
<p>Sgt Bergdahl had joined the army when it was short of soldiers to
send to Afghanistan as part of the “surge” in the number of combat
brigades there. With too few men, it had started to issue
“waivers” to recruits facing felony charges or drugs problems who
previously would have been turned down for the army. For Sgt
Bergdahl, a crack shot, well-educated and with a romantic vision
of what professional soldiering involved, disillusionment set in
fast.</p>
<p>His company was understrength and demoralised. He complained that
three good sergeants had been forced to move to another company
and “one of the biggest shit bags is being put in charge of the
team”. The commander of his battalion was a “conceited old fool”
and other officers were as bad: “In the US army you are cut down
for being honest... but if you are a conceited brown-nosing shit
bag you will be allowed to do whatever you want, and you will be
handed your higher rank.”</p>
<p>Sgt Bergdahl had taken seriously the counter-insurgency strategy
supposedly aimed at winning the “hearts and minds” of Afghans.
Instead, he found that US soldiers regarded Afghans with
aggressive contempt: “I am sorry for everything here. These people
need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the
world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid,
that they have no idea how to live.”</p>
<p>He spoke of seeing an Afghan child run over by an American
heavy-armoured truck, an event which his parents believe may have
led him to leave his base. His father responded to his last
message with an email in which the subject line was titled: “Obey
Your Conscience.”</p>
<p>The life stories of the six men – five Afghans and one American –
exchanged this weekend shows how quickly the mood of armies in
Afghanistan can switch from full confidence in victory to
frustration and defeat. In the summer of 2001 the Taliban rightly
believed they were close to taking over the whole of Afghanistan
as their enemies were penned into the mountains of the north-east.</p>
<p>But 9/11 changed all that and by November the Americans were
cock-a-hoop that they had won an easy success. Eight years later
Sgt Bergdahl’s reasons for going Awol illustrate how far
Afghanistan turned into a demoralising and unwinnable war for the
US.</p>
<p>The Taliban had also seen hopes of victory turn sour in a much
shorter period. Mullah Mohammed Fazl, also known as Mullah Fazel
Mazloom, was the leader of 10,000 Taliban fighters held
responsible for massacres of Hazara and Tajiks in northern
Afghanistan.</p>
<p>He surrendered to the opposition Northern Alliance in 2001. With
him was the governor of Balkh province, Mullah Norullah Noori.
They were taken to the battleship USS Bataan and then to
Guantanamo.</p>
<p>Ever since exploratory talks started between the US and the
Taliban, the first demand of the latter was for these two men to
be released. Other prisoners include Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa
who was a founding member of the Taliban in 1994. In these early
days after the fall of the Taliban, an over-confident US saw no
reason why former Taliban leaders should be conciliated. Among
those senior Taliban security official reported to have vainly
reached out to the Americans are the two remaining detainees.</p>
<p>Who could have imagined at the end of 2001 that 13 years later
the US would be exchanging prisoners with the Taliban? For the US,
getting back their only prisoner detaches them further from
Afghanistan, the handover of the five leaders is a sign of their
legitimacy and strength.</p>
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