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thedrifter
11-18-07, 06:05 AM
November 18, 2007
Military Desertion Rates and the Associated Press
By Alan Fraser

According to America's biggest news agency, the United States is facing what amounts to a desertion crisis in its military. Lolita C. Baldur of the Associated Press writes a story headlined, "Army Desertion Rate Up 80 Pct. Since '03."
"Soldiers strained by six years at war are deserting their posts at the highest rate since 1980, with the number of Army deserters this year showing an 80 percent increase since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003....While the totals are still far lower than they were during the Vietnam War, when the draft was in effect, they show a steady increase over the past four years and a 42 percent jump since last year....Army desertion rates have fluctuated since the Vietnam War - when they peaked at 5 percent."
According to this AP story, 9 in every 1,000 soldiers "went AWOL" in fiscal ending September 30, 2007. In the year ended September 30, 2006, nearly 7 per 1,000 were AWOL. The article uses the terms AWOL and desertion interchangeably even though they are not the same. A deserter is a member of the armed forces who remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to remain away permanently or goes away from his unit with the intent to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service. e.g. during times of war. Article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

When you click on a side-box video on MSNBC's version of the AP Story, NBC's Brian Williams tells us that "the number of desertions is way up since the 6 years we've been at war." Then Jim Miklaszewski tells us of a dramatic spike in the last two years that appears to be due to multiple combat tours in Iraq. Miklaszewski tells us that during the (you guessed it!) Vietnam War, deserters fled to Canada. Likewise in this war, after 6 months in Iraq an Army PFC fled to Canada with his family... just like Mik's generation did 40 years ago. And of course they interview the other solider who fled to Canada, who is naturally against the war, and therefore is shown denouncing the war, stating that his reason for deserting was that it was a "bogus war"... no WMD... "no links to international terrorism".... You've heard it all before.

This is all interesting. But are these rates that AP hypes in its article high or low relative to other periods in history. Relative to other wars, for instance. What do you think?

According to author Rod Powers (who spent 23 years in the Air Force), the desertion rates per 1,000 for the Army and Marines from 1997 through 2004 are as follows:

www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/11/military_desertion_rates_and_t.html

Ellie