Following Wednesday’s announcement that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 28, will face charges that he deserted his post in Afghanistan in 2009, most U.S. newsrooms either downplayed or ignored long-standing reports that six U.S. soldiers died in efforts to locate the former Taliban captive.
USA Today blared at the top of its front-page Thursday, “Bergdahl charged with desertion.”
“Ex-POW to face desertion charges,” the Wall Street Journal said in a below-the-fold report.
Bergdahl, who spent five years in Taliban captivity after he went missing from his base, could face life imprisonment if he is found guilty of desertion. The U.S. Army sergeant was released in 2014 after the Obama administration agreed to release five veteran Taliban officers held at Guantanamo Bay.
The Washington Post reported Thursday on its front page, “Desertion charge for onetime POW.”
“Soldier released by Taliban is Charged by U.S. as a deserter,” The New York Times reported on its front page.
These reports were careful to note the severity of the charges brought against Bergdahl and the punishment he may face if convicted. But missing from these accounts are details regarding reports that allege six U.S. soldiers were killed in efforts to locate and rescue the missing Army sergeant.
Although Bergdahl’s lawyer alleged no lives were lost as a result of his client’s disappearance, there appears to be more to this story.
It is a fact that six service members died in Paktika Province after Bergdahl went missing, “during a period in which every mission, even if not directly aimed at finding Bergdahl, included some element of a search,” CNN reported Wednesday.
Further, a former member if Bergdahl’s unit told CNN, “when those soldiers were killed, they would not have been where they were if Bergdahl had not left.”
The only mention that the Post had for soldiers who allegedly died searching for Bergdahl is a line that notes his disappearance prompted “a search that put lives in danger.”
The only reference in the Journal report came from former Army sergeant Josh Korder, who served at the same base as Bergdahl when the 28-year-old went missing, who said Bergdahl “put soldiers’ lives at risk.”
USA Today doesn’t lay out exactly who may have been killed in the searches for Bergdahl, but the front-page report does note that his former unit members say he put “other troops at risk and diverted resources from other units.”
USA Today also reports that one of the charges brought against Bergdahl alleges he “endangered the safety of troops at Observation Post Mest in Paktika Province by walking away and causing the military to launch ‘search and recovery operations.'”
The Times’ only mention of soldiers who may have died looking for Bergdahl appears in a quote from his lawyer, Eugene R. Fidell.
“No, there is no evidence that any soldier died searching for him,” Fidell said, citing an unreleased report by Maj. Gen. Kenneth R. Dahl, who conducted the investigation into Bergdah’s disappearance.
Separately, on Thursday, ABC News and CBS News both ignored reports that six soldiers died searching for Bergdahl.
Former members of Bergdahl’s unit, who allege he intentionally abandoned his post, putting the entire outfit into harm’s way, praised the charges brought against the 28-year-old Idahoan.
“The Army did the right thing here,” former platoon mate of Bergdahl’s, Cody Full, 26, told the Post. “You give an oath. You sign your name to serve your country. No matter what you’re supposed to fill that oath.”
Former sergeant and team leader of Bergdahl’s unit Evan Buetow said he believed the charges are justified.
“The whole reason we came forward last year when they released Bowe, we knew he needed to answer for what he did,” he said. “We knew he was not a hero. … He had to answer for why he deserted, and that’s what happened.”
