God bless America
by digby
Hailey, Idaho, the hometown of freed U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, the joy at his release has turned for some into shock and fear — the fear of picking up the phone.
That’s because some town officials have been deluged with angry calls from people who think that Bergdahl is an Army deserter or traitor who doesn’t deserve a hero’s welcome.
Jane Drussel, the president of the Hailey Chamber of Commerce, has been fielding dozens of angry calls.
“Well, (I feel) disappointment number one, just absolutely total surprise at how bad some of them are,” she told NBC News on Tuesday.
When the news that Bergdahl had been freed from five years of captivity in Afghanistan in exchange for five Taliban commanders broke on Saturday, most reactions were happy, but the nebulous details of how he wound up in enemy hands in 2009 has caused some — both civilians and military — to turn against him and his family.
All of this anger is based on hearsay, of course. None of these people know the real facts. But they have been watching the media so they’re heard a lot of stuff. And it’s been at least a couple of weeks since they had something to get really mad about. Attacking the Bergdahl family should give them a much needed charge.
Lovely, lovely folks.
Update: Another phony soldier, I guess:
“I think we’re going to have to wait and talk to Sgt. Bergdahl now and get his side of the story,” [General]McCrystal told Yahoo News about the soldier, who has been characterized as a deserter by some of his platoon members. “One of the great things about America is we should not judge until we know the facts. And after we know the facts, then we should make a mature judgment on how we should handle it.”
Yeah, that would be one of the great things about America if it were true…
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