[Marxism] 8000 Desert Duing Iraq War

["Michael Hoover" <hooverm@xxxxxxxxxx>]

USA TODAY       
8,000 desert during Iraq war
By Bill Nichols, USA TODAY

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.

"The last thing they want is for people to think ... that this is like 
Vietnam," says Tod Ensign, head of Citizen Soldier, an anti-war group that 
offers legal aid to deserters. (Related story: Marines hunt Vietnam-era 
deserters)

Desertion numbers have dropped since 9/11. The Army, Navy and Air Force 
reported 7,978 desertions in 2001, compared with 3,456 in 2005. The Marine 
Corps showed 1,603 Marines in desertion status in 2001. That had declined by 
148 in 2005.

The desertion rate was much higher during the Vietnam era. The Army saw a high 
of 33,094 deserters in 1971 * 3.4% of the Army force. But there was a draft and 
the active-duty force was 2.7 million.

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 vast majority of 
desertions happen inside the USA, Robbins says. There is only one known case of 
desertion in Iraq.

Most deserters return within months, 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, the most are 
apprehended during traffic stops. Penalties range from other-than-honorable 
discharges to death for desertion during wartime. Few are court-martialed.

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