Letter from the "last prisoner of war" from the USA: "I am ashamed to be an American"
In the United States, they wrote letters to the "last American POW" by Bowie Bergdal, an 26-year-old soldier from Idaho, captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2009. Rolling Stone magazine saw excerpts from Bergdal’s last letter. It turned out, shortly before his capture, the soldier experienced far from patriotic feelings.So, in a letter from 27 June 2009, sent shortly before the young man was captured, Bergdahl wrote that he was disappointed in the war and that he was “ashamed” of being an American. “The future is too good to spend on lies,” wrote Bowie. “And life is too short to condemn others and help fools with their wrong ideas. I saw what they turn into, I am even ashamed to be an American. Self-satisfied arrogance in which they bathe, terrible. Just disgusting. "
In the letter, Bergdal listed a number of things that had outraged him. According to him, three good sergeants were transferred to another battalion, and "a rare schmuck was put at their head." In turn, his boss was the "old conceited fool." The military system as a whole, according to the soldier, was broken.
"In the American army they humiliate you for honesty ... but if you are a vain bag of shit, you are allowed to do whatever you want, and even give you a high rank to boot ... it's wrong. I'm ashamed of being an American. And the title of American soldier is just a lie for fools, "wrote Bowie, noting that all worthy sergeants whom he respected were planning to leave and advised the rank and file to follow their example. "The US Army is just a big joke, over which the world should laugh. This is an army of liars who can drive a knife in the back, fools and hooligans," he said.
At the end of the letter, Bergdal turned to the condemnation of US military policy. According to him, the actions of the American troops in Afghanistan completely contradict the declared motto of the campaign "to conquer the hearts and minds" of the Afghans. "These people need help, but all they get from the most vain country in the world is the assurance that they are nothing, that they are stupid and do not know how to live," Bowie explained in a letter to parents.
In this case, the sergeant draws attention to the episode that turned his mind: he talks about how he witnessed how an Afghan child came under the armored vehicle MRAP. “We don’t even get hurt when we hear each other’s stories about Afghan children, crushed on the muddy streets by our armored trucks ... We laugh at them (the Afghans) right in their faces, and then we laugh at the fact that they don’t understand we insult them, "the sergeant resented.
At the end of the letter, Bowie attributed the fact that in a different context could be counted as a suicide note. “I’m sorry for everything. Because America is so terribly disgusting,” he wrote.
According to the magazine, the Pentagon “stopped all Bowie’s public discussions,” while all of the sergeant’s colleagues were “obligated to sign non-disclosure agreements that were part of the documents that they executed to leave Afghanistan.” The Pentagon and the White House also put pressure on large news agencies and publications such as The New York Times and AP, so that they avoid mentioning the name Bowie, thereby "without exposing him to additional risk."
At the same time, the US Department of Defense says that it is doing everything possible to free Bergdal, including holding talks with the Taliban on the exchange of the sergeant for five Taliban. Meanwhile, Bowie is still in captivity.
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