Bowe Bergdahl, U.S. soldier held by Taliban, was "ashamed to be American," emails show

This image from a video released by a Taliban affiliated group on Nov. 24, 2010, shows captive U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl alongside his suspected captor, Mullah Sangeen Zadran. / CBS

(AP) WASHINGTON - Emails an American soldier reportedly sent to his parents before he was captured by the Taliban three years ago suggest he was disillusioned and considering deserting.

Bowe Bergdahl told his parents he was "ashamed to even be American" and was disgusted with the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and with the Army, according to emails quoted in Rolling Stone magazine.

Bergdahl, a 26-year-old Army sergeant from Hailey, Idaho, was taken prisoner on June 30, 2009, in Afghanistan.

The military has never detailed circumstances of his disappearance or capture, and he is not classified as a deserter. He was initially listed as "duty status unknown" and is now considered "missing-captured." He is the only U.S. prisoner of war from the Afghanistan conflict, and U.S. officials say they are actively trying to free him.

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The White House declined comment on the emails or Bergdahl's possible motivation for leaving his base in eastern Afghanistan in 2009.

Bergdahl is the subject of a proposed prisoner swap in which he would be traded for five Taliban adherents imprisoned by the United States at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Taliban have walked away from the deal and larger negotiations with the United States, but the Obama administration is still pushing a negotiated settlement between the Taliban and the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan.

The Rolling Stone article, to be published Friday, also quotes other soldiers and associates of Bergdahl's as saying that he had talked about walking to Pakistan if his deployment was "lame" and that shortly before his disappearance he had asked whether he should take his weapon if he left the base. Friends and other soldiers describe a survivalist mentality, and Bergdahl's father, Bob, told the magazine that his son was "living in a novel."

"The future is too good to waste on lies," one email reads. "And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong."

The emails were provided to the magazine by Bergdahl's family in Idaho, which has gone public with its own discontent with U.S. efforts to free their son. There is no way to authenticate the emails.

Some of Bergdahl's reported words read like a suicide note.

"I am sorry for everything," he wrote. "The horror that is America is disgusting."

He mailed home boxes containing his uniform and books.

[namcavalry]

we need to bring fellow american sgt bergdahl home....forget about all the little problems of life and get behind bergdahl...forget about the fact that the fox news military expert has called bergdahl a traitor....he deserves better than this....bring bowe home now...major, big red one, vietnam, retired

[idaholocal]

It is really sad to see the integrity of the CBS journalism sink so low as to cut and paste out of context quotes designed to blacken the reputation of a man who cannot defend himself. It is worse than the worst FOX news coverage, because the slimy right-leaning slant masquerades as honest reporting. It is not. It is shallow, unsupported, and amounts to no more than vicious gossip.

[Donni_Ray]

[It is worse than the worst FOX news coverage]

FOX, FOX, FOX... Why are liberals so afraid of Fox? They have NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, NPR, etc. Yet they crap their pants over FOX. Could it be they are afraid of the truth?

[Idahonative45]

Bottom line: Bowe volunteered. Draftees might have had a reason for opposing a war. Volunteers don't. Getting him back should be a low priority. He3 made a personal choice. Doesn't really surprise me. It always seemed weird him leaving the compound without his weapon. Also, Bowe is from Blaine County, Idaho.--the Sun Valley area--the liberal bastion of the state--often referred to by natives as "The State of Blaine."

[hawaiihypnosis]

I'm wondering if you have served before?

[Res_Ipsa_Loquitur]

There's a larger question here of personal responsibility. Somehow there's an expectation that the US government has an obligation to rescue him from the consequences of his own actions.

In the 1840's and 1850's, when prices for beaver pelts in Europe went over $10 each, men took a huge risk and went up into the Rocky Mountains to trap them because beaver were extinct east of the Rockies. They generally didn't survive the first year. But NONE of them in their wildest dreams expected that the American government was obligated to come and rescue them when they got in trouble.

Today, no matter what foolish thing you do -- backpacking into a remote wilderness area, attempting to sail alone around the world, kayaking over Niagara Falls, whatever it be, you have an absolute right to have the government spend hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars to save you, and the government is absolutely required to do so.

How did we get here? How did we get from being responsible for your own life to the government having an absolute obligation to rescue you from your own stupidity, no matter how dumb your actions? Sgt. Bergdahl decided (and I know this from before this article, the military knows a LOT more than what is being said publicly) to abandon his post and go visit Pakistan and have a group hug with the people. Why are we obliged to rescue him?

[pbaird2]

Those who are drafted into service have the option to claim an opposition to war; this man enlisted into the military knowing what that job would entail. That said, he should be returned to the U.S. and it should be determined if his actions were due to stress or a change in ideals. One American life is worth hundreds of Taliban. The Taliban and alQueda should be exterminated or isolated to live in the stone age they prefer.

[aannggell]

When you say that one American life is worth hundreds of Taliban, maybe you are not considering the Americans who died to capture those Taliban members that we hold. Turning them over makes their deaths in vain. The big picture has to be considered. How many should be sacrificed for him?

[Smith_Citizen]

The comments are as informative as the content. First off, God help this guy and the mental and physical pain he has been through, but seemingly he is not blameless. Guess what, no one is! Eisenhower's warning about the MIC seems prescient, but historically look at the US wars, a combination of evangelism, greed, and even hope to help someone out. The pendulum swings wide at various speeds; good wars, bad wars, just wars, illegal wars. There is a human gene from the fall of Adam which predisposes us whether we be Taliban or do gooders. Time to finish this one up and reflect, not blame unless we are looking in the mirrow. I am a veteran and son, grandson, and greatgrandson(Civil War, both sides) of veterans. Go figure.

[AOCGUY]

Eisenhowers comments about the Ilitary Industrial Complex have nothing to do with this story. I nor anyone else posting here really knows wtaht happened to this SGT nor odes, I suspect, the author of this article. I do not support prisoner swaps, especially when the prisoners we hold will most likely go back to killing Americans. I do belive that since the USG put this soldier in a combat zone that the USG has the resposnibility to get him back. Once hoe then the Army can investigate the circumstances of his capture and if it is found that he was complicit then they can deal appropriately with him. Until then he is considered a POW and we should do what we can within reason to bring him home.

[Choons]

Everything about Afghanistan and Pakistan is shadowy. So much "foreign aid" flows through CIA fronts like USAID and just drops off the radar. There may be valid objectives, but it's now become very difficult to distinguish them from those of the people who profit from unending warfare. Eisenhower warned of this very scenario arising over 50 years ago, but the scales had already been tipped by power. The fact that there aren't more stories like this soldier's is the truly surprising thing. Perhaps it's just because the region is so unappealing in general.

[APatriot1]

As an American. I refuse to judge if there's the smallest chance of coersion or Stockholm Syndrome. We should do everything possible to get this POW back.

[Res_Ipsa_Loquitur]

He's not a POW. He's a deserter. A POW is taken prisoner against his will. Bergdahl decided to join the enemy of his own free will. I see no reason to make any effort to get him back, and certainly no reason to trade five tob Taliban leaders for him, so they can all go back to killing more American soldiers.

[nohater]

bottom line, he volunteered for military service since the draft ended years ago. have no empathy for him. if he was a draftee, like in the old days, would have empathy because it wasn't his choice to be in the military. you volunteer, you deal with it. you make the military your career, you deal with it. done my time. anyone in the military is subject to the whims of the sitting potus as well as superiors in any branch of the military whether there is war, of any size, or peace.

[YoosAir]

Too much to even speculate upon to judge the guy, even if he did desert. Maybe he just saw that the entire mission in Afghanistan was immoral and against international law, and the "rules of war." Plenty of returning vets seem to feel that way about it.

Of course, knowing what some little, teeny, closed minds will think, let me say;

"Let the Two Minutes of Hate" begin...

[Res_Ipsa_Loquitur]

I don't hate him. I just don't think the US government is obliged to take any action to get him back. He wasn't captured in a firefight or kidnapped. He chose his course of action. I don't think American citizens have a right to, or any reasonable expectation of, their government rescuing them from their own bad choices. He was a soldier, he deserted, they can keep him.

[aannggell]

"Returning vets" They served their time and did their duty. They did not endanger countless others for their own self-serving purpose. Regardless of their feeling about the war, they have HONOR and LOYALTY and have earned respect. You do not walk out on your company, or your country.