[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10052]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    DEFENDING SERGEANT BOWE BERGDAHL

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, I was a Navy psychiatrist during the 
Vietnam war. I treated men who believed they were doing the right 
thing, but who, having witnessed the obscenity of war, came home 
shaken, brutalized, and lost. These men were demonized for their 
experience. Today, we are making the same mistake with Sergeant Bowe 
Bergdahl.
  Yesterday, I watched as members of the House Armed Services Committee 
attacked a U.S. citizen who volunteered to serve his country and who 
was held in the most deplorable of conditions for 5 years. In my time 
in Congress, I have never seen a more disgraceful, purely political 
attack on a U.S. soldier.
  How many times have we heard from our generals and our admirals that 
we never leave a warrior behind? We sent Sergeant Bergdahl to war. We 
gave Sergeant Bergdahl his gun and his orders. We must bring Sergeant 
Bergdahl home and take care of him.

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