A 26-year-old U.S. Army sergeant, Bowe Bergdahl, who is currently a prisoner of the Afghan Taliban, said in an e-mail sent to his parents shortly before his capture in 2009 that he was “disillusioned” by the U.S. war in Afghanistan and “ashamed to even be American,” Rolling Stone reported on Friday.
The 8,300-word article, published in Rolling Stone, cites a letter written by Bergdahl three days before he was captured by Taliban militants near the U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan. The soldier criticized the U.S. army, calling it “the biggest joke the world has to laugh at” and spoke out against the “self-righteous arrogance” of U.S. military officials.
"In the U.S. army you are cut down for being honest…but if you are a conceited brown nosing sh*t bag you will be allowed to do what ever you want, and you will be handed your higher rank... The system is wrong. I am ashamed to be an American,” Rolling Stone cited the letter as saying.
Bergdahl, dubbed by the U.S. media "America’s last prisoner of war," mentioned what seemed to be one of the most traumatic events from his Afghan mission when a local child was run over by a U.S. $1.5 million armored vehicle, MRAP.
"We don't even care when we hear each other talk about running their children down in the dirt streets with our armored trucks...We make fun of them in front of their faces, and laugh at them for not understanding we are insulting them," the e-mail said.
In what seemed to give notice he might desert, Bergdahl wrote: "I am sorry for everything…The horror that is America is disgusting."
Bergdahl, who remains the only U.S. prisoner of war left in either Afghanistan or Iraq, is expected to be a part of the prisoner swap that is being negotiated between U.S. and Afghan officials. He may be exchanged for five Taliban militants currently held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The U.S. government is muted on Bergdahl’s release since the issue could “scuttle” the U.S.-Afghan peace talks. Moreover, the soldier’s fellow troops leaving Afghanistan were ordered to sign nondisclosure notes that prohibit them from discussing any "personnel recovery" issues, the magazine reported.
“According to administration sources, both the Pentagon and the White House also pressured major news outlets like The New York Times and the AP to steer clear of mentioning Bowe's name to avoid putting him at further risk,” Rolling Stone said.
Over the last three years since Bergdahl had been captured, Taliban has published four video footages with the soldier pleading for freedom.
In the latest one, dated May 2011, Bergdahl screamed at the camera: "Release me, please! I'm begging you, bring me home!"
