A former POW writes of a famous POW and injustice being leveled upon him.

Robert Bodrie “Bowe” Bergdahl was held as a POW by the Taliban and now for over a year by the U.S. Army at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. He has received constant treatment from an Army psychiatrist but he has not been returned to his family and home in Hailey, Idaho. Thus, in my opinion, his recovery and reintegration process has probably done more harm than good by continuing his isolation. His treatment after repatriation is more about politics than his service or U.S. Army procedures. Consequently, he should be freed with an honorable discharge and all his pay and benefits. Anything less would be injustice.

Bowe was born in 1986 to Robert and Jani Bergdahl. He and his sister Jani were home-schooled. He received a GED certificate from the College of Southern Idaho when he was in his early 20s. He studied and practiced ballet, fencing and martial arts. He has never owned a car and has ridden his bicycle everywhere. In 2006, he entered basic training in the U.S. Coast Guard, but was discharged after 26 days for psychological reasons and received an “uncharacterized discharge.” In 2008, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and graduated from infantry school at Fort Benning. He was then assigned to the 4th Brigade Combat Team.

So why was he enlisted in the Army and assigned to combat after being released from the Coast Guard for psychological reasons?

Bergdahl was known to be a quiet loner but not a troublemaker. He studied maps of Afghanistan and was learning to speak Pashto according to other soldiers. His unit was sent to Mest-Malak, an outpost in Afghanistan, to conduct counterinsurgency operations. On June 30, 2009, only a year after enlisting, Pfc. Bergdahl went missing from his unit. The exact circumstances of his disappearance and capture are unknown. What is known is that Bergdahl was a prisoner of war of the Taliban in Afghanistan for five years.

Bergdahl said he was tortured, beaten and held in a cage by his Taliban captors after an escape attempt. He also told medical officials he was locked in a metal cage in total darkness for weeks at a time as punishment for trying to escape. He was by himself with no other Americans, and no prior training on how to conduct himself or resist as a POW.

I was held for eight years as a POW in Vietnam, along with hundreds of other American airmen. I was trained prior in a Navy survival school. And I was a Navy lieutenant, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. Unlike Bergdahl, not only did I have training for the possibility of capture, but I was also with fellow Americans. We were able to support each other and resist as an organized military team. What a difference in circumstance. What a difference we experienced upon repatriation, welcomed as returning heroes. Bergdahl, meanwhile, is being court-martialed and faces a possible sentence of life in prison.

When a recommendation for non-judicial punishment was first made public, U.S. Sen. John McCain (editor’s note: McCain was also a POW in Vietnam) let it be known that the Senate Armed Services Committee, which McCain chairs, was ready to hold a hearing. “I am not pre-judging, but it is well known that in the searches for Bergdahl, after we know now he deserted, there are allegations that some American soldiers were killed or wounded or at the very least put their lives in danger, searching for what is clearly a deserter. We need to have a hearing on that,” he said, ignoring the fact that no soldiers were killed or wounded while searching for Bergdahl.

This is what always happens when very junior military people are made to suffer for much greater transgressions. The greater questions are being ignored: Why and how did our military come to be fighting in Afghanistan in the first place? What president and administration got us in illegally and immorally from the beginning? Why aren’t they being punished?

We all need to examine what is really going on here. The upcoming court-martial of Bowe Bergdahl is just a signpost of a much deeper, cancerous infection. And punishing this low-ranking man who never should have been in the Army in the first place is anathema to justice.

Phil Butler, Ph.D., is a retired U.S. Navy commander and president of Veterans for Peace, Chapter 46.