"I will never leave a fallen comrade" reads one key line of the U.S. Armed Forces' "Warrior Ethos."

"I will never leave a fallen comrade."

Never.

Period.

It makes no difference how or why they fell: whether they were hit before they ran down the ramp; or tripped and fell and broke a leg; or fell as heroes; or as cowards.

We don't leave any of them behind.

Not one.

Why? Because leaving them on the beach violates a sacred oath, a promise that soldiers swear to each other formally, and one most of the rest of us make to each other simply because we are human.

Not leaving our people behind is something that most, if not all of us, are hard wired to do.

After our comrades and fellow citizens are off the beach we can make decisions about just whom we've risked our lives, and fortunes, and sacred honor to save.

But honorable men and women do their best to get them all off the beach first.

And the best of us would rather risk dying than leave them there.

Those who are saved and are later found unworthy of the risk and sacrifice made to save them, are doubly damned.

For the sake of our own conscience, and the honor of the corps writ large, we don't leave anyone behind.

From this perspective, the recent right-wing orchestrated outcry over trading prisoners for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl is more than just another misguided, misinformed, and dishonorable propaganda ploy . . . it speaks to a larger issue: the attitude of the GOP and its "greed is good" Tea Party wing toward our lost and wounded in a much larger sense.

All too many of our fellow citizens are wounded, struggling to get off one hopeless beachhead or another, often in the face of overwhelming odds. Our friends on the right don't think twice about leaving behind those badly hurt by lack of medical care, or a job, or illiteracy, or hunger, or homelessness, or racism, or sexism, or a million other forms of indifference and abuse.

They seem to give not a thought to leaving them, their wounded families, their wounded children and grandchildren, parents and grandparents behind, not only to struggle, but all too often to die.

Just as with Bergdahl, our friends on the right have a thousand excuses for not only leaving people behind, but keeping their own heads down and ears covered when the people on the beach cry out for help.

Some hide and pretend not to hear.

Others excuse their own cowardice and inaction by condemning the failings of the wounded. One of them, they argue, is a coward, or a shirker, or someone they just don't like. We won't risk ourselves to save any of our people if that means helping "losers" as well.

Still others simply try screaming louder than those left behind, in the hope the wounded can't be heard.

Sadly, after hiding in their holes, those who fight to leave our people behind put themselves in for medals, in the form of praise, profit, preferment or re-election.

Worse: they get them, all too often because they've rigged the decoration review boards to include large majorities of folks who can either be sold their cowardly and mean-spirited excuses . . . or agree with them . . . or are uniformed . . . or don't really see, or hear, or care.

Those of us who give a damn and can do something . . . men, women, black, white, gay, straight, rich, poor, sick, healthy, religious or not . . . must stand up and be counted.

That's the only way to get all our people off the beach . . . and perhaps help some of those who would leave them there understand what sad and cowardly things they have said and done.