Before we get on with episode two some news a few days ago the army announced that it will take

Bobergdahl's charges to court-martial to trial basically he's charged with two crimes

desertion and something called misbehavior before the enemy.

That second one, it's not used very often.

It carries the possibility of a life sentence, which doesn't seem likely that would happen. That'd be so extreme.

But it does mean Bo could face some amount of prison time if he's convicted.

The Army's decision to go to court-martial,

it's not that it's so surprising.

I mean, this was always a strong possibility. It's just that it's so surprising. I mean this was always a strong possibility.

It's just that for a lot of people watching Bo's case, it's been hard to handicap.

All outward signs have pointed to an army that is of two mines about how to deal with what Bo did, whether to

throw the book at him or whether to say, okay, yes, he screwed up in a huge way, but five years

with the Taliban, enough is enough. On the one hand, the Army leveled pretty severe

charges against Bow. But then at a military hearing in September, the two-star general

in charge of investigating Bow's case, a man named Kenneth Dahl, who took a 371 page statement

from Bo, who assembled a 22-person team who coordinated with 24 government agencies, interviewed

56 people. He said he believed that

Bo told him the truth about why he did what he did, that Bo was remorseful, that

Bo recognizes quote that he was young and naive and inexperienced, unquote.

When asked on the stand whether he thought Bo should go to jail,

Major General Dahl said, quote, I think it would be inappropriate, unquote.

Likewise, the officer in charge of that hearing, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Visker, in his report on what to do about the charges, he apparently recommended a lesser proceeding called a special court martial, more like a misdemeanor trial.

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