Did Bowe Bergdahl really serve with 'honor and distinction'?

No stranger to Sunday morning controversies, National Security Adviser Susan Rice appeared on ABC's This Week on Sunday and — in response to a question about whether or not ex-POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had been a deserter — declared that he "served the United States with honor and distinction."

Now comes this from The New York Times, "provided by a former senior military officer briefed on the investigation into the private's disappearance":

It's hard to square Rice's comments with this report. More and more, it's looking like we traded five potentially dangerous Taliban leaders for one deserter. What's more, it seems likely his desertion may have cost the lives of other Americans.

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This is starting to look like the most lopsided trade since Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas.