{"id":105,"date":"2026-05-28T09:13:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=105"},"modified":"2026-05-28T09:13:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:13:37","slug":"bowe-bergdahl-and-the-honorable-history-of-war-deserters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=105","title":{"rendered":"Bowe Bergdahl and the Honorable History of War Deserters"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<div>\n<article>\n<header>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Activism<\/li>\n<li>June 5, 2014<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Bowe Bergdahl and the Honorable History of War Deserters<\/h1>\n<h1>Bowe Bergdahl and the Honorable History of War Deserters<\/h1>\n<h2>\n<p>The hateful commentary about the soldier\u2019s return is motivated by fear of what his so-called desertion reveals.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=103\">The (Not So) Secret (Anymore) US War in Pakistan<\/a><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section>\n<time>June 5, 2014<\/time><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cMyths abound about deserters.\u201d\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>So begins  of <em>The Nation.<\/em> Those who propagate such myths, the essay argued, \u201crely on World War II clich\u00e9s and stereotypes of the bad guy slinking away from his buddies under fire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Amid a debate about whether to offer amnesty to those who had dodged the Vietnam draft and, more controversially, to those who abandoned the military once in its ranks, the Nixon administration and its allies launched what the <em>Nation<\/em> article called \u201ca carefully orchestrated media campaign\u201d to disparage the patriotism and integrity (and, not always implicitly, the manhood) of the latter.<\/p>\n<p>The proliferation of such falsehoods and the denigration of so-called deserters, the essay argued, served very specific political purposes: \u201cBy portraying the number of deserters at large as insignificant, and impugning their motives as confused at best, but more likely as dishonorable and criminal, the Administration hopes in one blow to discredit its amnesty opposition, justify its war policies, and cover up long-standing abuses in the armed forces.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To acknowledge the political motivations of many of the deserters\u2014disbelief in the cause, disgust at fellow Americans\u2019 behavior, moral objections to war generally\u2014would be to undermine the foundations of the American project in Southeast Asia. It would, the <em>Nation <\/em>essayist concludes, \u201crequire an admission that massive numbers of ordinary, enlisted GIs rejected the war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One cannot help but glimpse evidence of precisely that fear behind the outpouring of truly vicious commentary about the return of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl from five years in Taliban imprisonment. Bergdahl, if the accounts are correct, served on the front lines of the American imperial machine with the unenviable misfortune of doing so with eyes wide open. The obvious psychological duress evident in e-mails Bergdahl sent to his parents just before his July 2009 disappearance was the consequence of seeing reality all too clearly. Those who stop just short\u2014often not even that\u2014of calling for his execution betray in their almost uncontrollable vituperation a refusal to acknowledge the reality of this most recent American adventure in Asia, just as the Nixon administration stubbornly clung to the war in Vietnam.<\/p>\n<section>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h2>Popular<\/h2>\n<p><span><span>&#8220;swipe left below to view more authors&#8221;<\/span>Swipe \u2192<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h3>\n<span>The Rise of the Sensitivity Reader<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                The Rise of the Sensitivity Reader<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<p>\nBooks &amp; the Arts<br \/>\n<span><br \/>\n                            \/<br \/>\n                        <\/span><br \/>\nKyle Paoletta <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h3>\n<span>GLP-1s and the Limits of Knowing Better<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                GLP-1s and the Limits of Knowing Better<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<p>\nGrace Ginsburg <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>It is true that if Bergdahl was struggling with issues of conscience at that remote outpost on the Afghan frontier, he did not need to abandon his post and crawl to the nearest town in search of an English speaker. James Branum, an Oklahoma-based lawyer for conscientious objectors and deserters, appeared on <em>Democracy Now!<\/em> Wednesday morning to explain what else Bergdahl could have done, and, more importantly, the likely reasons he instead acted as he did.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate he did not know the full range of options he had under the law,\u201d Branum said, \u201cbut one of the problems is that the military does not inform soldiers of their rights under the law to seek a discharge on the grounds of conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>There\u2019s no obligation for the military to\u2014for commanders to inform service members of this right. Therefore, a right that you don\u2019t know about effectively doesn\u2019t exist. This is the logic of the Miranda decision and the Supreme Court said that the typical criminal defendant may not know they have the right to not talk to the police. In the same situation here a service member may not know they have the right to apply for this status unless this is told to them. Unfortunately that is not the case, and I think there is a very high likelihood that Sergeant Bergdahl may have struggled with issues of conscience, but did not know this process was there.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>What a depressing commentary it is to note that American soldiers faced the very same problems in Vietnam, as  makes clear:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>One instructor at the Army\u2019s Adjutant General\u2019s Corps School at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind., where personnel officers are trained, bragged that while stationed at Fort Sill, Okla. \u2018he had never let a single discharge get through his office.\u2019 His attitude\u2014that most GIs seeking discharge are merely shirkers\u2014is not atypical, despite regulations that provide for discharge in a number of clear-cut cases. But even these provisions are not publicized by the armed forces, and are often unknown to GIs.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The author of the 1973 essay, \u201cThe Truth About Deserters,\u201d was Robert K. Musil, a former Army captain discharged as a conscientious objector, who worked to advocate for the rights of resisters, objectors and deserters. He later became CEO of Physicians for Social Responsibility, which in 1985 won the Nobel Peace Prize. Since 1997, Musil has been a professor at the American University Nuclear Studies Institute, and has authored books about nuclear weapons and climate change. He is one of the leading American experts on public health, environmental sustainability and nuclear disarmament.<\/p>\n<p>I spoke with Musil today about how his <em>Nation<\/em> article relates to Bowe Bergdahl.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am shocked at the concerted effort led by pro-war elements to pillory this guy, rather than offer serious compassion,\u201d Musil says. \u201cWhere is all that rhetoric about \u2018we support our troops\u2019? He has suffered a lot, as have others. Where is the understanding, the compassion, the humanity? I frankly think that\u2019s the proper response to an American kid stranded in the middle of Afghanistan who feels he has no choice but to go away from his unit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In that sense, Musil told me, Bergdahl represents many thousands of other members of the US military who resort to desertion as the only possible escape: \u201cWhen you look at them as individuals, as I did in 1973, you discover that they are Americans who have been caught in a system in which they have very little recourse if they have serious problems. Despite rhetoric of \u2018support our boys,\u2019 the support networks are extremely thin. It\u2019s the only job in the world where if it gets intolerable you can\u2019t just up and quit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Musil notes that during both the Vietnam and the Afghan wars, the very rhetoric used to describe soldiers like Bergdahl has been fraught with jingoism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe response from the right wing has been to immediately attack Bergdahl and resort to old stereotypes that he is a deserter, the worst thing you could possibly be,\u201d Musil says. \u201cThe term \u2018deserter\u2019 is a classic stereotype and it is wildly derogatory. If it were a racial stereotype Twitter would be ablaze. But \u2018deserter,\u2019 that\u2019s okay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Myths survive because they are useful. As with Vietnam, Musil suggests, there is a clear reason military hawks need to demean so-called deserters: \u201cWe don\u2019t know why he walked away. There are many, many reasons, none of which reflect terribly well on our presence in Afghanistan or on military units. If you begin to say there are a lot of people who are concerned about our role in Afghanistan or how the military treats the enlisted or a lack of medical care, it begins to make people ask why we are doing this or why we aren\u2019t doing it differently.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though he has not been engaged in the struggle to defend conscientious objectors for many years, Musil says that the fundamental problems he wrote about in <em>The Nation<\/em> in 1973 have scarcely changed at all:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The process for being discharged as a conscientious objector has gotten easier, but it is by no means easy. You have to demonstrate an opposition to all wars based on deeply held religious, moral or philosophical beliefs. But that process, in the 1970s and today, is entirely class-based. I wrote the equivalent of a Master\u2019s thesis for my conscientious objector statement. You have to show psychiatrists you aren\u2019t crazy. It\u2019s like applying to graduate school. If you\u2019re a working class kid, can you articulate these extremely complicated opinions or emotions to a bunch of people who really want you to go to war? Can you do that when you\u2019re already in the field?<\/p>\n<p>People are intimidated. There is this little final prejudice that people in the military are considered volunteers\u2014you sign up, take an oath. So how can you possibly not want to participate in war? The very simple idea that either seeing war up close and personal or observing its effects and hearing about it from every buddy in your unit might turn you against the war, it\u2019s just not conceivable to some people.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The return of Bowe Bergdahl represents for the United States one of those most squandered and therefore hated things: a teachable moment. As far as I can tell, only two twitterers\u2014one of which was <em>The Weekly Standard<\/em>\u2019s literary editor, Philip Terzian\u2014have noted that the pronunciation of the surname of our latest Hester Prynne is the same as the pronunciation of that of an earlier one guilty of nearly the same \u201ccrime.\u201d Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, the son of a German immigrant and a wealthy playboy aviator in Philadelphia, evaded Wilson\u2019s draft before being nabbed by bounty hunters in 1920 and imprisoned on Governor\u2019s Island in New York Harbor. He soon escaped and fled to Germany and lived in peace for many years, before handing himself over to American authorities in 1939 rather than risk being drafted into the Nazi army. Released from prison in 1946, he was packed off to an asylum where he lived the rest of his days before dying in 1966, \u201cdemented and forgotten,\u201d as a Philadelphia history blog puts it. Surely, 100 years after the beginning of the war Bergdoll sought to avoid, we live in a civilization that can afford to be more creative in its ideas about what to do with those who do not wish to plug slugs into human flesh and call it the promotion of democracy. Some of us, at least, would like to think so.<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p><em>Curious how we covered something? E-mail me at <span>[email\u00a0protected]<\/span>. Subscribers to The Nation can access our fully searchable digital archive, which contains thousands of historic articles, essays and reviews, letters to the editor and editorials dating back to July 6, 1865.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=100\">Jim Crow Just Suffered a Temporary Setback\u2014in Alabama<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<footer>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>                Submit a correction<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>                Send a letter to the editor<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>                Reprints &amp; permissions<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h2><i><span>Your support makes stories like this possible<\/span><\/i><\/h2>\n<p><span>From illegal war on Iran to an inhumane fuel blockade of Cuba, from AI weapons to crypto corruption, this is a time of staggering chaos, cruelty, and violence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Unlike other publications that parrot the views of authoritarians, billionaires, and corporations, <\/span><i><span>The Nation <\/span><\/i><span>publishes stories that hold the powerful to account and center the communities too often denied a voice in the national media\u2014stories like the one you\u2019ve just read.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Each day, our journalism cuts through lies and distortions, contextualizes the developments reshaping politics around the globe, and advances progressive ideas that oxygenate our movements and instigate change in the halls of power.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This independent journalism is only possible with the support of our readers. If you want to see more urgent coverage like this, please donate to <\/span><i><span>The Nation<\/span><\/i><span> today.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span> Richard Kreitner<svg>\n<\/svg><br \/>\n<\/span>Richard Kreitner is a contributing writer and the author of <em>Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America\u2019s Imperfect Union<\/em>. His writings are at richardkreitner.com.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=98\">Why Does Pete Hegseth Have to Make His Desperate Need for Masculine Validation Our Problem?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n<\/div>\n<p><input\/><br \/>\n<input\/><br \/>\n<\/footer>\n<\/article>\n<p>Ad Policy<br \/>\n<!-- <a class=\"inifiniteLoader\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/new_infi_loader.gif\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a> -->\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bowe Bergdahl and the Honorable History of War Deserters - 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