Bergdahl apologizes in court for actions in Afghanistan

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl on Monday reportedly apologized in court for putting the lives of other U.S. servicemen in danger after walking off his base in Afghanistan in 2009.

“Saying I’m sorry isn’t enough. My words can’t take away the pain that people have been through,” Bergdahl said on the stand, according to media reports.

Bergdahl began the open-court session — part of his sentencing after a guilty plea — by reading a statement where he admitted his decision to leave base was wrong.

He said he now understands his actions hurts others, including his platoon mates.

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Bergdahl claims he left his base in 2009 in an attempt to report misconduct within his unit to an officer, but was captured by the Taliban who kept him in captivity for five years until a controversial 2014 prisoner swap.

“I was trying to help, and the fact that I did not breaks my heart,” he said, adding that he has thought “about what I did every day for the last eight years.”

The Army says at least two American soldiers were seriously injured on missions to search for the missing sergeant. 

A military judge ruled earlier in the day that President Trump’s past critical remarks about Bergdahl won’t stand in the way of him receiving a fair sentencing.

Bergdahl pleaded guilty earlier this month to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. 

Trump once called Bergdahl a “no-good traitor” during his campaign, while saying he “should have been executed.”

The judge, Army Col. Jeffery Nance, said he would factor in Trump’s past comments as a mitigating factor in Bergdahl’s sentencing, The Associated Press reported.

A day after Bergdahl entered his plea, his lawyers filed an eleventh-hour motion to have the case dismissed.

When asked about Bergdahl at a press conference in the White House Rose Garden earlier this month, Trump pointed his “comments in the past.”

During the open-court session, Bergdahl described the physical abuse he endured at the hands of the terrorist organization.

He reportedly described the worst part of captivity as being “the constant deterioration of everything. The constant pain of my body falling apart. The constant internal screams from my mind.”

Bergdahl faces up tolife in prison after he pled guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy without negotiating a deal for a lenient sentence.