This is the seventh in a series of posts about Serial 2, a podcast focused on the war in Afghanistan. It centered around Bowe Bergdahl, and I wrote responses to the podcast for my first semester International Relations major-required course, Introduction to World Politics. We learned about the international state system, and challenges to international politics today.
In the Hindsight episodes, Sarah Koenig explores the idea that Bowe was unfit for military service. In Part 1, Bowe’s prior military history, his entering the U.S. Coast Guard and being discharged on a psychological diagnosis after a breakdown, is told. In Part 2, Bowe’s admittance to the U.S. Army after his previous medical and mental health based discharge is scrutinized, as well as the diagnosis of Bowe having Schizotypal personality disorder. By the end of Hindsight, Parts 1 and 2, all of this history is applied to Bowe walking off of OP Mest, and how his irrational and potentially dangerous behavior could be explained.
After listening to these two episodes, I think Bergdahl was not fit for U.S. Army service. From Part 1, I see how he carried his doubts from the Coast Guard into the Army, and he had unresolved questions about the ethics of the U.S. military and his role as an enlisted soldier. For example, Bowe’s state of mind is questionable to me. He describes the process of going along with military service as a constant “struggle,” what Koenig labels a “gulf of meaning,” essentially the reality of serving versus Bowe’s ideal soldier standard. Bowe does not seem emotionally capable to handle an uncompromising job, which requires partial or at times complete dismissal of the existential, and often ethical, questioning Bowe finds necessary to fit his ideal.
Bowe had fantastical ideas about what it means to be a soldier. Part of his justification for rejoining the military, after being dismissed from the Coast Guard was the idealized, highly moral life of a soldier. For Bowe, his ethical ideas were shaped by romanticism of what it means to be a soldier, from set ideals that he aspired to, particularly the Bushido code and U.S. army manuals. To him, soldiers should rally behind honorable causes and think about the meaning of their actions deeply.
In contrast, the military code of ethics in the U.S. seems to involve just war theory, especially ‘jus in bello’ in cases of war, a responsibility to establish cause and a declaration by governmental authority that war is warranted and moral. Jus in bello states that the military should strive to discriminate between combatants and non-combatants, and that there should be force proportionate to the proposed threat. However, critics of American military intervention claim that the hierarchical obedience of soldiers, and the structure of the U.S. itself enables rampant imperialist interference and inevitably targets civilians.
As Mark Boal describes, the situation of entering the military with unmatched mission and purpose, and walking off the OP in Afghanistan, only makes sense if you’re Bowe. From Part 2, I gathered that the recruiting process was not rigorous enough in its health background check on Bowe’s re-enlistment, and in my opinion he should not have been allowed back into the military. I recognize though that asking anyone to know everything of their limitations and to match their ethics to their actions is unrealistic. In Part 2, I think the explanation of Bowe being uniquely fit physically but unfit mentally and perhaps emotionally fits the circumstances.
In contrast, my personal code of ethics does not place ultimate value on loyalty, honor or duty, because I am not in the military. I feel that those words in particular are broad in scope, and are used as catch-alls in times when hard decisions are being made. However, my personal ethics involves absolute responsibility for my actions because my actions have consequences and determine my integrity. Because of that belief, I try to live sustainably and with respect to my and others’ individuality and purpose. It is more important to me to make decisions through civility than to combat ideas with violence, even if that contradicts ideas of loyalty, honor or duty.
In my opinion, I think that the code was violated by Bergdahl’s recruitment after the incident in the Coast Guard, because by not disclosing medical information, Bowe was not being responsible for his mental state and the military was more focused on meeting quotas of quantity instead of constitution.
