Bowe Bergdahl, the American soldier held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan will be sentenced tomorrow on charges of desertion for which he could face life in prison. Despite stories put about by the Taliban that he had defected to them, he says he was setting out to another base 18 miles away to make a complaint about leadership issues in his unit. And he was held in solitary confinement, caged and tortured during his five years of captivity, during which time he continually tried to escape and was punished severely when they re-captured him.
The senior military investigator in the US said he believed Bergdahl’s account and found him to be both genuine and honourable in his intent, but also concluded Bergdahl was “delusional” and had “outsized impressions of his own capabilities”, believing his was a Special Forces type and like Jason Bourne. He recommended that Bergdahl should not be sent to prison.
Born 28 March 1986 in Sun Valley, Idaho, he is a Sun Aries inconjunct Pluto, trine Saturn in Sagittarius, square Mars Neptune in Capricorn, sesqui-square Uranus (135 deg) and semi-sextile Jupiter – a mix of confident with his Jupiter trine Pluto; fearful of being trapped but used to tough conditions with Sun Pluto Saturn; impulsive with Sun Mars Uranus and a dreamer with Sun Neptune.
He had an odd upbringing being home schooled by an Idaho woodsman father who taught him to shoot and hunt, whom he described as overbearing and domineering. He then extraordinarily studied ballet, sailed the Atlantic to Pacific and tried to join the French Foreign Legion. According to Rolling Stone he’d become disillusioned with the war in Afghanistan, disliking his fellow soldiers’ contempt for the locals. Others say he should never have been accepted into the military. The US coast guard had thrown him out of basic training after only 23 days, deeming him “psychologically unfit” after diagnosing him with “adjustment disorder with depression”. But in 2008, the US army issued Bergdahl a medical waiver and in May the following year he was sent off to Afghanistan. He lasted just six weeks before walking off his base and was possibly suffering a nervous breakdown at the time.
When he was captured on 1 July 2009 tr Pluto was conjunct his Mars and in the following year conjunct his Neptune and then square his Sun. And his Solar Arc Saturn which was conjunct his Mars when he joined up, then moved across his Mars/Neptune midpoint and Neptune. And was just clearing the square to his Sun was he was released. And that is a poleaxing set of influences – tr Pluto and Solar Arc Saturn all landing on his natal Sun square Mars Neptune for five years putting him through a hellish situation.
He’s disheartened by his reception back in the US and doesn’t look too cheerful ahead with tr Saturn heading to conjunct his Mars Neptune and square his Sun across this New Year into 2018; and his Solar Arc Neptune is square his Pluto round about now, which is devastating confusion. Then his Solar Arc Pluto is in a depressed/blocked conjunction to his Saturn by 2019 along with a trapped tr Pluto conjunct his Sun/Pluto and tr Neptune square his Mars/Saturn – and none of that looks good. Though even if he isn’t sent to prison the PTSD from his years of ill-treatment will catch up with him.
He sounds a touch like Bradley Manning, who also should never have been employed in the job he was.