JUNE 3, 2014
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WASHINGTON — The deadly rescue mission inAfghanistan in 2002 began when Petty Officer First Class Neil C. Roberts, a member of the Navy’s classified SEAL Team Six, fell out of a helicopter that came under enemy fire as it tried to land on the snowy ridge line of an 11,000-foot mountain.
Petty Officer Roberts was swarmed by Qaeda fighters almost immediately, and was nearly certain to die, but teams of Special Operations troops and Army Rangers were sent to the mountain in an attempt to rescue him. By nightfall, seven American troops had died on the jagged rocks that came to be known as “Roberts Ridge.” Petty Officer Roberts’s body was eventually found and taken off the mountain.
That costly attempted rescue remains one of the most vivid examples of the military’s time-honored ethos to leave behind none of its own on the battlefield. It is a tradition that has underpinned American efforts to rescue service members captured or stranded behind enemy lines from World War II to Vietnam to the “Black Hawk Down” raid in Somalia and the war in Afghanistan.
But now this credo is being questioned by critics who say it is one thing to risk lives to rescue a comrade captured in battle, and another to take the same risks for someone they accuse of being a deserter.
In the days since President Obama announced the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who military officials say voluntarily walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was seized by the Taliban, the initial euphoria over his return has given way to accusations that the military took unwarranted risks to try to get him back. The attacks have put the White House on the defensive and forced the Pentagon to say it might take punitive action against Sergeant Bergdahl, 28.
Mr. Obama on Tuesday dismissed questions about whether Sergeant Bergdahl deserved special efforts. “The United States has always had a pretty sacred rule, and that is: We don’t leave our men or women in uniform behind,” Mr. Obama told reporters in Warsaw during the first stop on his four-day European trip.
Asked about the circumstances of the capture of Sergeant Bergdahl by the Taliban, Mr. Obama said that no one had yet debriefed him — but he said that nothing changes the responsibility to try to recover him.
“Regardless of circumstances, whatever those circumstances may turn out to be, we still get an American prisoner back,” he said. “Period. Full stop. We don’t condition that.”
How important is this ethos?
“It’s more important than a paycheck or a medal,” said Gen. James N. Mattis, who from 2010 to 2013 led the military’s Central Command, which oversees operations in Afghanistan. General Mattis said a horseshoe from the Bergdahl family home in Idaho hung outside his command’s operations center.
The military’s Joint P.O.W./M.I.A. Accounting Command employs 500 people to conduct global operations to try to account for the more than 83,000 Americans still unaccounted for from past conflicts.
The “Ranger Creed,” an oath that every member of the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment must memorize upon joining the unit, declares, “I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy.”
Pentagon officials initially dismissed the idea of court-martialing Sergeant Bergdahl, saying five years in captivity was punishment enough. But on Tuesday, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and John M. McHugh, the secretary of the Army, said the military would determine whether he had violated rules by leaving his post nearly five years ago.
“The questions about this particular soldier’s conduct are separate from our effort to recover ANY U.S. service member in enemy captivity,” General Dempsey wrote on his Facebook page. “When he is able to provide them, we’ll learn the facts,” the general said of Sergeant Bergdahl. “Like any American, he is innocent until proven guilty.”
“The Warrior Ethos is more than words, and we should never leave a comrade behind,” Mr. McHugh said in a statement. “As Chairman Dempsey indicated, the Army will then review this in a comprehensive, coordinated effort that will include speaking with Sergeant Bergdahl to better learn from him the circumstances of his disappearance and captivity.”
General Dempsey’s Facebook posting and Mr. McHugh’s statement — which the White House immediately sent around to reporters — are the strongest indications yet that the Defense Department may pursue some sort of punitive action.
One administration official said the decision by the White House to draw attention to statements was an indication of the heavy political pressure Mr. Obama had been under since his decision to swap five Taliban detainees from the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for Sergeant Bergdahl.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, General Dempsey also said that Sergeant Bergdahl’s next promotion to staff sergeant, which was set to happen soon, was no longer automatic because the sergeant was not missing in action any longer. “Our Army’s leaders will not look away from misconduct if it occurred,” General Dempsey said. “In the meantime, we will continue to care for him and his family. All other decisions will be made thereafter, and in accordance with appropriate regulations, policies and practices.”
White House officials said they recognized that the prisoner swap would invite political attacks but that there was no serious internal debate about whether to go forward with it. While aware of the questions about Sergeant Bergdahl’s capture, officials said they were deemed largely irrelevant to the decision.
Any American, regardless of how he came to be held, should be recovered if possible, they said, and it was implausible to think of ending the war without taking the opportunity to recover him. If Sergeant Bergdahl were killed by his captors, they knew, the White House would have been criticized for not working harder to secure his release.
But anticipating criticism over the swap with the Taliban, White House officials decided to invite Sergeant Bergdahl’s parents to stand by Mr. Obama’s side in the Rose Garden when he announced the deal. They hoped to emphasize the human story of parents desperate for the return of their son, something many Americans could identify with even if queasy about negotiating with the Taliban. As it happened, the parents were already in Washington for Memorial Day events.
John B. Bellinger III, who was the top lawyer at the State Department under President George W. Bush, said Sergeant Bergdahl “will have to face justice, military justice.”
“We don’t leave soldiers on the battlefield under any circumstance unless they have actually joined the enemy army,” Mr. Bellinger told Fox News on Tuesday. “He was a young 20-year-old. Young 20-year-olds make stupid decisions. I don’t think we’ll say if you make a stupid decision we’ll leave you in the hands of the Taliban.”
Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti reported from Washington, and Peter Baker from Warsaw.
A version of this article appears in print on June 4, 2014, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Critics Questioning American Military Credo of Leaving No One Behind. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe
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