Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl can expect a fair shake when he returns to the U.S. - which is more than the recently released soldier will find if he goes back to Afghanistan.
A video released Wednesday by the Taliban showed machine gun-toting fighters turning Bergdahl over to U.S. forces with a terse warning to get out and stay out.
'Don't come back to Afghanistan,' announces one gunman, his face obscured by a head scarf. 'You won't make it out alive the next time.'
Hours later, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said judgments about Bergdahl's behavior when he disappeared five years ago were premature and unfair to his family.
'We don't do that in the United States,' said Hagel. 'We rely on facts.'
Hagel, asked specifically if any Americans were killed in efforts to locate the missing Bergdahl, denied that was the case.
'I don't know of any circumstances or details of U.S. soldiers dying as a result of efforts to get Bergdahl,' he said in Brussels at a NATO defense ministers meeting.
The Taliban video captured the Afghanistan end of the deal that freed five hardened terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in return for the release of Bergdahl.
Fighters in the sergeant's unit charged that he was an apparent deserter when he disappeared in 2009 and that a half-dozen soldiers were killed as they attempted to locate Bergdahl.
The 17-minute video - emailed to the media by the Taliban - opens with Bergdahl, his head shaved, sitting inside a silver pickup truck while surrounded by armed Taliban fighters.
They are waiting for the arrival of the U.S. Black Hawk helicopter that will take the sergeant away. A nervous Bergdahl, dressed in traditional white Afghan garb, is seen licking his lips and wiping dust away from his eyes.
As the chopper emerges from the skies, the Taliban fighter delivers his warning to Bergdahl as armed colleagues chuckle in the background.
'Long life to Mujahedeen!' several of the fighters later shouted as the copter descended.
Two Afghani men, one waving a white flag, then lead Bergdahl toward the helicopter as three men exit the aircraft and walk toward them.
After a few quick handshakes, Bergdahl is unceremoniously turned over.
The sergeant is patted down for weapons or any possible booby trap before climbing into the helicopter and heading for freedom.
The 28-year-old from Hailey, Idaho, was at a military hospital in Germany pending his return to the United States.
Several of his Army colleagues said Bergdahl deserves to face legal action for his disappearance and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said desertion charges were possible against the sergeant.
With News Wire Services
lmcshane@nydailynews.com
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Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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