“Sergeant Bergdahl wasn’t simply a hostage; he was an American prisoner of war captured on the battlefield,” National Security Adviser Susan Rice asserted Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

“We have a sacred obligation that we have upheld since the founding of our republic to do our utmost to bring back our men and women who are taken in battle, and we did that in this instance,” Rice told George Stephanopoulos.

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl went missing from his base in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, under mysterious circumstances. According to press reports at the time, he simply walked away from his post.