Bowe Bergdahl's legal team has updated the punch line to an ancient joke, which defines the Yiddish word "chutzpah" (very roughly, "brazenness").  The old joke illustrated the concept with the example of a child who murders his parents begging for mercy from the court as an orphan.  The new Bergdahlian version has it: deserting your post, getting captured and rescued at enormous human cost, and then asking for a medal as a prisoner of war. Many people, especially those concerned about military discipline, were outraged that the sentence handed down to Bergdahl by Judge Col. Jeffrey Nance involved no further imprisonment.  But buried in the account by Alex Horton in the Washington Post is this gem of chutzpah: Bergdahl's legal team intends to pursue the military's Prisoner of War Medal for him. I do not regard myself as qualified to comment on military discipline, since I have never served in uniform.  But the spectacle...(Read Full Post)