Bowe Bergdahl

Colleville-sur-Mer, FRANCE (CNN) -- President Barack Obama's national security adviser said Friday that her full-throated praise of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was appropriate given the former Taliban prisoner's willingness to go to war for his country -- despite questions about whether or not he deserted his Army colleagues.
Susan Rice, who on Sunday said Bergdahl served the United States with "honor and distinction," told CNN in an interview that she was speaking about the fact the Idaho native enlisted and went to Afghanistan in the service of his country.
Rice: Bergdahl deserves 'due process'
"I realize there has been lots of discussion and controversy around this," Rice said. "But what I was referring to was the fact that this was a young man who volunteered to serve his country in uniform at a time of war. That, in and of itself, is a very honorable thing."

I am beginning to believe Obama has no "feel" for military culture.

Serving in the National Guard during a shooting war is desertion.

Luckily, the president probably doesn't read this forum for foreign policy advice.

“Similarly with Benghazi, as has been recounted on many occasions, I provided the best information that the U.S. government had at the time,” she said. “Parts of it turned out to be wrong. I regret that the information I was provided was wrong and that I delivered to the American people. That doesn’t make me a liar. That makes me a public servant trying to say what we knew at the time and when I gave that information I caveated it and noted that it was what we knew then and there, but it could well change.”
If Rice was not aware of Bergdahl’s past last weekend, however, it isn’t because questions about him had not arisen before.
As first reported Tuesday, an Army investigation into Bergdahl’s actions found in 2010 that he had likely walked off his base in Afghanistan of his own volition. If he meant to return, he would still be considered AWOL under Army policy. He also could be charged with desertion, a more serious crime that typically arises in cases in which an individual planned to remain away from the military or to “shirk important duty.” A combat assignment like Bergdahl’s at the time would likely qualify.
Even if the result of that classified investigation did not reach Rice, however, there was ample evidence in the public domain ahead of Bergdahl’s release that he may not have served honorably. Most notably, a 2012 profile in Rolling Stone magazine by the late journalist Michael Hastings raised serious questions about whether he had chosen to walk off his base, even choosing to leave behind sensitive military equipment and his rifle to avoid problems.

A growing number of mainstream media outlets are holding Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) accountable for flip-flopping on his support of a deal to release Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from Taliban capitivity.

McCain joined in the right-wing outcry that followed the White House's May 31 announcement that it had secured the release of Bergdahl, the only U.S. service member remaining in enemy hands from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, telling Politico that he "would not have made this deal" if he was the president and denying that he was ever told of the potential prisoner exchange in an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo.

McCain's February position was already a change from the position he held in January 2012, when Rolling Stone's Michael Hastings reported that McCain "reluctantly came around" on the idea of exchanging the five Guantanamo detainees in question for Bergdahl.

McCain's rejection of the deal stood in stark contrast to his position on the issue just months ago, when he told CNN's Anderson Cooper that he "would be inclined to support" "an exchange of prisoners for our American fighting man," depending on the details -- an inconsistency the media initially missed.