PRESENT FOR DUTY

Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier was deployed in Afghanistan in May, 2004. He decided to walk off from his post at OP Mest and started his journey towards steep, deserted terrains in the middle of the night on June, 2004. He did not carry any weapons or adequate gadgets for self defense with him. When the army found out that Bowe was missing, they were ordered to find him. Unfortunately, before the army could get a hold of him, Taliban had already put him into their motors and taken him away. Bowe was held captive for five years until he was released to special forces in June 2014. The US government had to release five Guontanamo Bay detainess to Taliban in exchange of him. The US army had sacrificed soldiers and machines during their search for him. Additionally, The USA had negotiated with terrorists to get back their soldier, who had voluntarity stepped into hostile terrotory. The media, public, officials and the world wanted to know about Bowe Bergdahl. They wanted to know what had happened in that one month after his deployment in Afghanistan that made him risk his own life as well as his country's reputation. The world wanted to know Bowe's story.I wanted to know Bowe's story.

In the podcast, The Serial season 2, Sarah Koenig explained the whole scenario related to Bowe's case. Many primary and secondary ources were used to support the story and for insights. During my listening to the podcast, from episode 1 to 10, my idea about Bowe has completely changed. In the beginning, I thought he was just a crazy, naive, immature and impulsive kid in the body of a 23 year old. A kid who eagerly wanted to a hero of his own story and fight the bad ones. However, over the time, Bowe started sounding just as human as me but more ethical. It was his principles, ethics and idea of virtue that led him to act that way. He could not understand how people could be "okay" with things around them which are immoral or not right! He was mentally rigid and had strick moral values.While growing up, he was home schooled and mostly isolated. He read books about heroes and wanted to be one some day. Therefore, he joined the army. But his dream of being a warrior in a war country had shattered after coming to Afghnaistan. He was commanded to strictly follow the rules and made to live in a small hole in the middle of a desert in absence of basic facilities. There were no restrooms, beds, food, clean water or life. However, it was not these difficult surroundings that bothered him the most. It was his command who treated his soldiers miserably. When the devastated soldiers came back after a week from a mission, instead of appreciating, their command taunted them about their unshaved beards. More than anybody else, Bowe was bothered by this and was sacred about his life in the hands of such inhumane person. A day before Bowe walked off his post, his platoon mates were joking about their miserable lives and runing away from such mess. The next day, Bowe went missing. His platoon mates felt betrayed by his action and started hating on him. For many years people in the USA viewed Bowe as a betrayer who had risked his own country. The rumours about his mental health started coming around which also delayed the trade of Bowe's life in excahnge of five prisoners. In 2010, WikiLeaks published many classified documents concerning wars in Afghanistan and Iran. These classified documents also included the conversations among the army about Bowe. After this incident, Bowe was popularly known. In June 2014, when he was finally released, a legitimate cause for his actions were demanded. His five years of silence broke down into thousands of word constituting a 300 pages story. He explained his experience of torture, devastation, his failures to run away, the consequences of attempt to run away, mental harrasement, physical torture, loneliness, and constant struggle of being alive in those five years. He decribed what he was forced to eat, dress, sleep, and speak. His truggle with darkness was real. The people who hated Bowe because they had lost a family member during his search, his platoon mates who fel betrayed, people in congress(especially Republicans) were getiing little less enraged by his name after learning his side of the story. His story seemed genuine and he had no intention of hurting anyone or his country. All he wanted to do was to cause a DUSTWUN for 24 hours until he reached FOB Sharana, so that he could bring attention to the dysfuntional leadership in his platoon. He was not wrong, butu may be his way of doing a right thing was. So, after getting aware of the hell he has already survied, the militray decided to not put him in jail for the entire life. I was happy to hear that and I am sure millions of other people were too. His pictured and videos published by Taliban during the captivity were hearbreaking. I was not very empathized when I first looked at those but after learning his story, each of those pictures and videos came out to me. He seemes numbed in those but his eyes were creaming for help. He feels relatable and most of all, a human who made a mistake to be moral and attempted to a right thing in a wrong world.