Deserter Bowe Bergdahl who left his post to join the Taliban is being hidden and protected by the US Army. Army Lieutenant Clint Lorance is in jail for nearly the next two decades for killing the enemy. Matthew Golsteyn was stripped of his Silver Star for killing a terrorist who was blowing up his men. After being punished, he is now being investigated again for talking about it on TV to Bret Baier though he said nothing new.

The Washington Post reported in February of last year that “CPT. Mathew L. Golsteyn, a former member of the 3rd Special Forces Group and a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., was investigated for an undisclosed violation of the military’s rules of engagement in combat for killing a known enemy fighter and bomb maker, according to officials familiar with the case.”

Golsteyn was not charged with a crime, but Army Secretary John M. McHugh decided not only to deny Golsteyn the Distinguished Service Cross but also to revoke his Silver Star which he earned for a different engagement. McHugh cited a provision in Army regulations that if facts become known that would have prevented the awarding of a medal, the award can be revoked.”

Major Golsteyn was found guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer because he violated prohibitive rules of engagement put in place by the administration. They treat the terrorists as if they were criminals and give constitutional rights to them as if these were court proceedings instead of war.

During an interview for a CIA position, Maj. Matt Golsteyn said the insurgent was a known maker of improvised explosive devices and was in the presence of such components. He considered him an armed combatant, so he shot him. Maj. Golsteyn’s explanation is contained in a CIA transcript obtained by The Washington Times.

The military is dealing with terrorists who are innocent villagers one day and they are trying to kill them the next. It has been very difficult for them in the field under these prohibitive rules of engagement.

Testimony from Golsteyn and his men said the bomb maker had been detained and then released because he had no explosives on him.

Later Golsteyn, a Green Beret, came across him armed with a rifle and at a compound devoted to IED-making and shot him, thinking he was following the rules of engagement since the bomb maker was armed and dangerous.

He knew the bomb maker had killed two people and was going to kill more.

Maj. Golsteyn said:

“There’s hundreds of dudes that are caught all the time. We caught probably close to that number and released every one of them because there’s no point in it [to] just stop taking detainees. You know, I could have a guy that[‘s] standing, you know, a nice guy with a family standing against a wall pointing like, you know, just peeking out and like that guy cut off heads three weeks ago. He’s a Taliban tax collector, and this is what he’s doing, but I can’t do anything about that. With this guy in particular, with the IEDs, as they were, he was a combatant and was going to go right back to continue being a combatant. So by the letter of the law, I’m wrong, but he never stopped being a combatant.”

After all of his sacrifices and many gallant actions which won him several awards, he was separated with a general discharge under honorable conditions.

The Army Times reported that the major had earned a Bronze Star and Army Commendation Medal with “V” devices for heroism in earlier actions which he kept.

The full account of what then CPT Golsteyn did to earn the Silver Star:

“Golsteyn’s Silver Star came for actions on Feb. 20, 2010. He assembled his unit after his base had come under sniper fire from an insurgent wielding a Dragunov rifle, according to an Army narrative of his actions.

He directed his troops to launch an assault across 700 meters of open fields, but an armored truck is known as a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle sank into the mud under gunfire after about 175 meters.

Under heavy machine-gun and sniper fire, Golsteyn ran about 150 meters to the trapped MRAP to retrieve a powerful 84mm Carl Gustav recoilless rifle, an anti-tank weapon. While moving under gunfire, he coordinated a medical evacuation for the wounded Afghan soldier and then opened fire with the Carl Gustav, said the Army narrative, which was obtained by The Post.

Captain Golsteyn was alone running in the open through enemy gunfire that had over 80 men pinned down, and from the crow’s nest on top of [Forward Operating Base] McQueary, it looked like Captain Golsteyn was alone fighting 30 enemy fighters out in the poppy fields,” the award narrative said.

Enemy reinforcements continued to arrive on the battlefield, so Golsteyn organized airstrikes by both F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets and a Predator drone. No American or coalition troops were killed in the battle despite a barrage of enemy fire that lasted four hours, the narrative said.”

Rep. Hunter took up Golsteyn’s case.

Hunter’s office, citing anonymous sources, said it was a separate U.S. intelligence agency, not the Army, that initiated the investigation. The Army’s investigation found no support for the allegations against Golsteyn, despite interviewing 20 soldiers and offering immunity to Golsteyn’s team.

Soldiers fully supported Golsteyn, including a highly-decorated officer who brought the case to Hunter’s attention. That officer called Golsteyn “the best operator” he knew in the Army.

Hunter accused the Army’s generals of “acting like politicians,” in a Daily Beast article and noted that “only 27 percent of the military felt senior leaders looked out for their best interests,” citing a Military Times poll.

Golsteyn publicly criticized the strategy in Afghanistan in the 2011 book “The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, and the Way Out of Afghanistan.”

In the book, author Bing West quotes Golsteyn as saying: “We’re the insurgents here and we’re selling a poor product called the Kabul government. The district governor has been Taliban for years. The people believe Kabul’s the enemy.”

That takes us to today and the interview. The Army, acting like vindictive political terrorists themselves are re-investigating him again, not because he said anything new, but because he gave the interview.

Charles Krauthammer responded on Special Report.