8,000 desert during Iraq war

[leftchick]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-03-07-deserters_x.htm?POE=click-refer

WASHINGTON — At least 8,000 members of the all-volunteer U.S. military have deserted since the Iraq war began, Pentagon records show, although the overall desertion rate has plunged since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

Since fall 2003, 4,387 Army soldiers, 3,454 Navy sailors and 82 Air Force personnel have deserted. The Marine Corps does not track the number of desertions each year but listed 1,455 Marines in desertion status last September, the end of fiscal 2005, says Capt. Jay Delarosa, a Marine Corps spokesman.

Desertion records are kept by fiscal year, so there are no figures from the beginning of the war in March 2003 until that fall.

Some lawyers who represent deserters say the war in Iraq is driving more soldiers to question their service and that the Pentagon is cracking down on deserters.

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. "overall desertion rate has plunged since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001."

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.
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Sorta hard to "desert" when ur brought home in a "transfer tube"

or laying in a hospital with bits of your body blown off

The death and maiming rate has climbed considerably methinks . .

(sigh)

[rodeodance]

5. does this mean rates were higher PRE 9/11? umm..seems like a lot to me.

[underpants]

7. No it means they are lying

oh sorry LYING!!!

Hold it wait I think I see what they mean now-since the war started 3 years ago there have been 8,00 desertions so in the 3 years before the war there were...no wait my initial analysis was right-they are lying.

[Tight_rope]

11. Ding! Ding! Ding!....We have a win! n/t

[Maraya1969]

2. I thought they could go to jail. How are they deserting?

[sofa king]

8. I knew a guy who was recalled to duty last year.

He said that of sixty people in his group who were supposed to attend re-training, only half actually showed up. I expect those no-shows are classified as "deserters," even though they're deserting by simply refusing to come when called.

The point being that the no-show rate may well be in the thousands, maybe tens of thousands (I don't trust the people generating those numbers to do anything but sugar-coat the truth). It's expensive and difficult to track these people down, even if they don't change their lives at all.

Then, if you find someone who has already served and is recalled to duty, you have to keep in mind that every last one of them can hit a man-sized target with a rifle at two hundred yards. What if that person really doesn't want to go back?

[seriousstan]

9. The majority of desertions happen inside the USA. As per the article....

Desertions in 2005 represent 0.24% of the 1.4 million U.S. forces.

Opposition to the war prompts a small fraction of desertions, says Army spokeswoman Maj. Elizabeth Robbins. “People always desert, and most do it because they don't adapt well to the military,” she says. The majority of desertions happen inside the USA, Robbins says. There is only one known case of desertion in Iraq.

Most deserters return without coercion. Commander Randy Lescault, spokesman for the Naval Personnel Command, says that between 2001 and 2005, 58% of Navy deserters walked back in. Of the rest, most are apprehended during traffic stops.

[SunDrop23]

3. Don't say that too loud, the administration will use it to justify VA cuts

[BOSSHOG]

4. If the Pentagon is cracking down on deserters

they can send security over to the White House and throw bush in the brig.

[Tom Joad]

6. Support those that refuse!!

The real heroes are those that refuse to serve in an illegal war.

They have not deserted their consciences, and have been loyal to their community... they see the world as their community, and they refuse to wage a war of aggression against their neighbor.

Obviously the 8,000 referred to in the above story, many left for personal reasons, not related to thier thinking about the wars waged by Bush & Co. However, you can go here and see a list of people who have conscientiously chosen to risk prison rather than kill or die for no moral reason.

http://tomjoad.org/WarHeroes.htm

Jimmy Massey:
"I’m not going to kill innocent civilians for no government. ... I was taught and raised by parents and relatives that there are certain things you don’t do, and killing innocent civilians is one of them."

Kevin Benderman:
Serving an 18 month sentence after refusing to return to Iraq.
“I have both a professional and a moral obligation to call into question why we are still in Iraq after accomplishing the mission – in President Bush’s words – of deposing Saddam, and why U.S. military personnel are increasingly killing non-combatants. On my last deployment in Iraq elements of my unit were instructed by a Captain to fire on children throwing rocks at us.”

and more....

[Tight_rope]

10. WOW!....I wonder WHY?

:sarcasm: :evilgrin: