For this we gave up five enemy combatants!

As his mates have been saying along along, it seems that Private Bergdahl deserted his unit before he was picked up by the Taliban in 2009. (I don't know why the media insist on titling him "Sergeant." He was a private when he took off without leave, and since it seems unlikely he got any military training -- except possibly the wrong kind -- while he was gone, he no more deserves three-stripe rank than any recruit just out of basic training.... And he also got back pay! And his parents got a reception in the White House Rose Garden!)

Even stranger, it seems that all this was known to the Pentagon and the White House in 2010, a year after Mr Bergdahl bugged out and three years before we gave up five Gitmo detainees to obtain his release. Given the speed with which military justice moves in the age of political correctness, the Gitmo lads will be back on active duty in Afghanistan, doing their best to kill American servicemen, before Mr Bergdahl gets his trial.

What in God's name did we do this for?