Vox Sentences: The White House cheered Bowe Bergdahl's return. Now he might go to prison for life.

1. Just deserts

Bergdahl poses in front of an American flag. (US Army / Getty Images)

• Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was released by the Taliban in a controversial prisoner swap last year, is being charged with desertion.

  [NYT / Helene Cooper]

• It's generally agreed that Bergdahl abandoned his post in Afghanistan in 2009, but there's disagreement over whether he intended to desert, or even to defect.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• Bergdahl reportedly grew disillusioned of the US mission in Afghanistan, telling his parents, "These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live."

  [Rolling Stone / Michael Hastings]

• Since Bergdahl's enlistment term had expired by the time he was retrieved, the Army had to either give him an honorable discharge or charge him; they chose the latter.

  [Military Times / Andrew Tilghman]

• It's not clear whether Bergdahl will face a court-martial; there will be an Article 32 hearing, somewhat similar to a grand jury in civilan courts, to determine if enough evidence is present to justify a court-martial.

  [The Atlantic / David Graham]

• Desertion can be a capital offense, but the Army has ruled out seeking the death penalty. Life in prison is still possible.

  [Washington Post / Dan Lamothe]

• Bergdahl is facing so many threats that he is "required to have two escorts whenever he leaves the base in Texas where he has been living 'to prevent third parties from injuring him.'"

  [LA Times / David Cloud and James Queally]

• Five Taliban prisoners in Guantanamo Bay were released as part of the deal that freed Bergdahl, provoking Republican allegations that the White House let dangerous terrorists go.

  [Politico / Philip Ewing]

• Leaving aside the question of whether Bergdahl did in fact desert, the ethics of desertion are subject to heated debate among philosophers. Jeff McMahan argues that morality "demands of potential volunteers, potential conscripts, and active military personnel that they consider with the utmost seriousness whether any war in which they might fight is just and refuse to fight unless they can be confident that it is."

  [Ethics / Jeff McMahan]

2. Bombs over Tikrit

Iraqi policemen stand on March 22, 2015 over an army vehicle at a checkpoint at the entrance of Al-Alam, a flashpoint town north of Tikrit. (Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images)

• The US is conducting airstrikes in Tikrit, Iraq, to support an offensive by the Iraqi army and Iranian-backed Shia militias to retake the city from ISIS.

  [NYT / Rod Nordland]

• The effort, which began about a month ago, has stalled, prompting the US intervention.

  [The Guardian / Spencer Ackerman]

• On the ground, Iranian Gen. Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, is believed to be helping to lead the Shia militias.

  [Defense News / Paul McLeary]

• Soleimani has in the past directed Iran's intervention on behalf of the Assad regime in Syria, coordinated support for Hezbollah, backed anti-US Shia militias in Iraq during the occupation, and was behind "a scheme, in 2011, to hire a Mexican drug cartel to blow up the Saudi mbassador to the United States as he sat down to eat at a restaurant a few miles from the White House."

  [New Yorker / Dexter Filkins]

• There's growing concern that the Shia militias Soleimani is helping to coordinate may pose a long-term risk to stability in Iran; among other things, they stand accused of disturbing anti-Sunni atrocities.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

3. Aden's fall

Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, President of the Republic of Yemen, who was forced to flee Aden. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

• Shia Houthi rebels are advancing on the Yemen port city of Aden; they'd earlier taken the country's capital of Sana.

  [Washington Post / Ali al-Mujahed and Brian Murphy]

• The country's president Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who had been using Aden as a de facto capital after Sana fell, has fled the city.

  [NYT / David Kirkpatrick]

• The conflict is something of a proxy war between Iran (which backs the Houthis) and Saudi Arabia (which backs Hadi).

  [Vox / Katy Lee]

• Not allied with either side is Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which operates in the south of the country and could gain in strength as the country devolves into chaos.

  [Time / Jared Malsin]

• Former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was deposed in the Arab Spring, is believed to be helping the rebels.

  [Washington Post / Ali al-Mujahed and Brian Murphy]

• The US has condemned the Houthi advance, saying it has "caused widespread instability and chaos that threatens the well-being of all Yemenis."

  [Politico / Kendall Breitman]

4. Misc.

• Our descendants 100 years from now will be morally horrified at our behavior. This much we know. But what specifically will they condemn?

  [Aeon / Stefan Klein and Stephen Cave]

• Beijing has closed all four of its coal-fired power plants due to pollution concerns.

  [Bloomberg]

• I just finished Bloodline, and Todd is totally right: Netflix's model makes you wait far too long to get to the incredible last four episodes.

  [Vox / Todd VanDerWerff]

5. Verbatim

• "One longtime bundler recently fielded a call from a dispirited executive on his yacht, who complained, 'We just don’t count anymore.'"

  [Washington Post / Matea Gold and Tom Hamburger]

• "The worst people on the internet are the ones who respond to any kind of empirical evidence by saying 'correlation isn't causation.'"

  [Matt Yglesias]

• "At the Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building, and St. Patrick's Cathedral, about one half to three quarters of a mile from ground zero, light from the fireball would melt asphalt in the streets, burn paint off walls, and melt metal surfaces within a half second of the detonation."

  [Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists / Steven Starr, Lynn Eden, and Theodore Postol]

• "The first digital picture on a computer was, of course, a picture of a baby."

  [The Atlantic / Sarah Laskow]

• "Secretaries of the treasury, for the most part, are not big policy people."

  [GQ / Jason Zengerle]

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