There’s an old joke here in Arkansas about President Clinton returning to his home state for a Razorbacks championship football game. While there, he’s given two cute little piglets by a wealthy agribusiness Razorback alumnus. As he later disembarks Marine One on the White House lawn Bill has a cute piglet under each arm. At the foot of the stairway, a sharp young Marine lance corporal snaps a smart salute and barks, “Nice pigs, Sir!” A grinning Clinton hoists them a bit higher and says, “Yeah, they a couple of real Arkansas beauties aren’t they; I got one for Hillary and one for Janet Reno.”

The Marine, still holding his salute says, “Smart trade, Sir!”

Well, it would appear that America’s second black president isn’t quite as adept at hog-swapping as America’s first black president was. As we have learned over the weekend, our outlaw president has taken it upon himself to ignore the law and oversee a prisoner trade between our country and Al Qaeda that is so one-sided as to once again demonstrate to the world that in the Obama White House, ineptitude is the acceptable standard of performance.

Obama got his pig, and I make no apology for that description of PFC Bergdahl (he was promoted to sergeant while being held captive) for this is where this discussion turns deadly serious. As a former non-commissioned officer who served in combat with another airborne unit, my first reaction upon hearing of Bergdahl’s desertion many years ago was, get him back, give him a fair court-martial and put him in front of a firing squad. Good, honorable paratroopers lost their lives searching for this treasonous bastard. Various sources from Bergdahl’s unit, the 501st Airborne Infantry are reporting in around the Web with this information:

PFC Matthew Michael Martinek, Staff Sgt. Kurt Robert Curtiss, SSG Clayton Bowen, PFC Morris Walker, SSG Michael Murphrey, 2LT Darryn Andrews, were all KIA from our unit who died looking for Bergdahl. Many others from various units were wounded or killed while actively looking for Bergdahl.

Those deaths, every single one, are on Bergdahl’s head. For the squeamish among you who find my opinion too harsh, here’s Article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the statutory regulation dealing with desertion:

(c) Any person found guilty of desertion or attempt to desert shall be punished, if the offense is committed in time of war, by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct, but if the desertion or attempt to desert occurs at any other time, by such punishment, other than death, as a court-martial may direct.

And there is damning evidence against PFC Bergdahl from those in his unit. He made no secret of his disillusionment with America, sending emails to his parents, one of which contained this statement, “The system is wrong. I am ashamed to be an american. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools... I am sorry for everything here”

Notice that non-capitalization of "American". A fellow trooper, Jason Fry, has reported that Bergdahl told him, "If this deployment is lame, I'm just going to walk off into the mountains of Pakistan."

So yes, we can court-martial this dishonorable deserter whose selfish views and actions caused all those unnecessary deaths and take his life or lock him away for the rest of it for the simple reason that the son of a bitch walked out on his band of brothers in an active combat zone in an act of betrayal that caused the deaths of his brothers in arms who willingly went in search of him, to save his sorry, weasel ass. Those events have immeasurable consequences on those both above and below his rank that he deserted. There is no greater crime that a combat infantryman can commit than desertion to the enemy on the battlefield. Were he to be judged by his fellow paratroopers, he’d be dead in the blink of an eye for the deaths that he caused. He willingly manipulated and violated the code of, “No man left behind,” for his own selfish sense of fulfillment that proved deadly to troopers in the 501st Infantry, and who knows how many more in special operations, who sent in patrols for years trying to find this weak-ass traitor.

So, Mister President, in another demonstration of your unprecedented presidential ineptitude, you just unleashed five ferociously rabid, bloody-tusked Islamic boars on our world and our troops for a weak-ass, whiny, little piglet traitor that would fit neatly under Bill Clinton’s arm.

Not a smart trade, sir…