Warfare’s Never-Ending Story

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/08/opinion/sunday/warfares-never-ending-story.html

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The world looked back to the future last week as 18 national leaders gathered to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that triggered the end to World War II’s apocalyptic ravaging of Europe.

For all the celebration of peace, wisps of the Cold War that so quickly followed that global struggle were in the air along the sacred French battlefronts, stirred by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia’s continued flirtation with the old rhetoric, veiled threats and regional chess moves of the defunct Soviet empire. For his part, President Obama worked to brace the European alliance as if it were the 1950s. “Further Russian provocations will only mean more isolation and costs for Russia,” Mr. Obama declared in Poland.

The Question of a Soldier

Despite all the focus on wars past, cold or lethal, it was the jagged reality of contemporary combat against modern hit-and-run terrorism that preoccupied Mr. Obama and his critics in the suddenly emerging form of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a soldier who the Army said walked off his post without permission in Afghanistan in 2009.

Nearly five years of captivity by the Taliban followed and Sergeant Bergdahl’s release a week ago ignited a furious debate about whether swapping the soldier for five Taliban militants, held for more than a decade at the Guantánamo Bay prison, was a deal Mr. Obama should have made. The president’s warm embrace of the sergeant’s grateful parents was soon followed by cries from Mr. Obama’s Republican antagonists and some Afghanistan war veterans that the 28-year-old infantryman should be considered no patriot, and could be viewed as a deserter deserving court-martial who endangered patrols that went looking for him. Capitol Hill Democrats were angry, too, at not being informed in advance about the release of Guantánamo prisoners, as required by law.

At the D-Day invasion beaches, President Obama broadened the ideals of warfare’s sacrifice to link the old war’s soldiers to “this 9/11 generation” of warriors “who chose to serve a cause greater than self.” Back home, however, notions of an easy celebration of Sergeant Bergdahl’s return were already dead. Even the sergeant’s hometown, Hailey, Idaho, where proud banners, prayers and ribbons had long wafted, had second thoughts about staging a hero’s welcome home on June 28. The “Bowe Is Back” celebration was canceled and officials in the town of 7,900 admitted they feared a crush of visitors “who both want to support or protest against it.” “Now is not the time,” one resident said, shocked at how fast the sergeant had become a lightning rod for political divisiveness.

It was hard to tell whether critics were more motivated by fears that the five freed Taliban would quickly return to battle — despite promised restraints for a year in Qatar, the broker in the negotiated swap — or by the complicated profile presented by Sergeant Bergdahl, who clearly marched to a different drummer than the rest of his unit. He had slipped away from his tent near the Pakistan border, reportedly taking a backpack but not his weapons, in demonstrating his free spirit. He told his parents in an email before his capture that while the Afghan people needed American help, “what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid,” Rolling Stone magazine reported. “I am sorry for everything here,” his parents quoted their son.

Military investigators found previous incidents in which Sergeant Bergdahl wandered off from his duties at a training range in California and a remote outpost in Afghanistan. But he returned both times, according to people briefed on a classified report. “I think we can all agree we’re not dealing with a war hero here,” a visibly angry Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, said, criticizing a closed briefing by administration officials defending the swap. (“Was He Worth It?” was Time magazine’s cover question, as if a soldier’s behavior and politics must pass muster as a condition for his return.)

Far easier to hail an uncomplicated war hero. The domestic front has long found pride in the notion that American warriors, particularly those World War II veterans celebrated anew last week as “the greatest generation,” are ironclad patriots. Beyond the gloss of every war’s nostalgia, however, there inevitably are legions who felt compelled to retreat from the trenches. In World War II, there were 50,000 American deserters in the European theater, according to war records, and most were those who broke down in the battle zone, not behind the lines, according to Charles Glass, author of the World War II history “The Deserters.” (Whether Sergeant Bergdahl was simply AWOL — absent without leave, a lesser offense — or a full deserter is a question for military authorities studying his release.)

President Obama offered no apology as commander in chief for his duty to retrieve an American soldier captured by the enemy. “I am responsible for those kids,” he declared in Brussels, stressing that the sergeant’s health was found to be deteriorating and his rescue depended on a fast swap. “This is not a political football,” he insisted. But the Republicans’ attack lines in the elections, with control of Congress at stake, were already heating up over the swap for Sergeant Bergdahl.

The New Cold War

In Europe, the French president, François Hollande, worked out a bit of Nouvelle Cold War diplomacy, first dining at a Champs-Élysées restaurant Thursday with President Obama, then hurrying back to his residence to host a late dinner for President Putin. The French president hoped to use the grand D-Day commemoration to get beyond President Obama’s shunning of Mr. Putin because of his aggressive moves over Ukraine. The D-Day host sought some signal of détente in the revival of what was thought to have been that long-ago Cold War.

With Crimea firmly back in Mr. Putin’s orbit and pro-Russian agitators destabilizing Ukraine, the Russian president dusted off a Cold War feint back toward sounding reasonable for the occasion. “I am ready for dialogue,” he announced while President Obama worked to strengthen the allies’ pressure on the Kremlin, just as in the old days. Eventually they crossed paths for a few minutes in which the White House said Mr. Obama stressed the need for “de-escalation” of Mr. Putin’s Ukraine pressure. “I hope they will not forget the poor devils that died here,” an 88-year-old British war veteran observed amid the ceremony and shadowboxing.