re: #273 Justanotherhuman

All this hoopla over Sgt Bergdahl boils down, essentially, to this, IMHO:

Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution.

“The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.”

Now, if you ask me, the Constitution clearly states that as CiC, Pres Obama has the authority to arrange an exchange of prisoners as well as granting a reprieve or a pardon for any offenses which Sgt Bergdahl might have committed.

So everything else is purely political.

Am I being too literal here?

MAybe a little bit. There’s the technicality of 30 days notice to congress but that seems a minor infraction. The possibility of a prisoner swap had been discussed publicly months ago, so it’s not like this was a secret. From what I’ve seen the White House can influence the military to forgo court martial but I think that’s unwise. Let the military do their thing, they aren’t going to throw him in prison but it’s likely they’ll give him short term care to help him readjust but if he’s guilty of desertion (or worse) it would be unfair to give him lifetime benefits, etc. I’d let the military handle the disciplinary issues.