Pray for Bowe

In July of last year, a soldier from my valley named Bowe Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border. He is supposedly the only U.S. soldier being held captive in Afghanistan.

Around July 18, 2009, the Taliban released a video of Bowe looking unhappy, and the Dept. of Defense confirmed that he had been missing. Another video was released at Christmas. Now the Taliban has threatened to put him to death if a Pakistani neuroscientist, who is being held in the U.S., is not released (along with 21 other Afghan prisoners).

Here is what our paper says this morning:

"The PakTribune reported that members of [the scientist's] family had sought help from theTaliban after she was convicted Wednesday by a Manhattan jury of attempting to murder U.S. soldiers while in custody in Afghanistan in July, 2008.

'Being Muslims, it becomes our religious and moral obligation to help the distressed Pakistani woman convicted by the U.S. on false charges,' the Taliban commander was quoted as saying. ... 'Since [Bowe] has confessed to all charges against him, our Islamic court has announced death sentence for him.'"

I am so, so sad. I do not even know him personally, but I think about the situation all the time. I am not even religious but I find myself saying little prayers for him during the day.

This is a really small community. Like I said, I do not know Bowe, but everyone here knows him or his family. His dad is our UPS man. He did ballet when he was younger! He has a girlfriend named Monica.

We have had yellow ribbons tied around every tree in Hailey since last summer. They're bedraggled now, and some have fallen off. But they're still up on most trees along Main Street, shops still have signs of support in the windows, and as you drive into town the big sign in front of the rodeo grounds reads "Standing With Bowe."

Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.