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40,000 US Troops Have Deserted
(Ana Radelat, Gannett News Service, 05 August 2006)
Since 2000, about 40,000 troops from all branches of the military have deserted, the Pentagon says. More than half served in the Army. . . . Those who help war resisters say desertion is more prevalent than the military has admitted. . . . "They lied in Vietnam with the amount of opposition to the war and they're lying now," said Eric Seitz, an attorney who represents Army Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to the war in Iraq. . . . Watada is under military custody in Fort Lewis, Wash., because he refused to join his Stryker brigade when it was sent to Iraq last month. . . . Watada said he doesn't object to war but considers the conflict in Iraq illegal. . . . Joe Davis, spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said deserters aren't traitors because they’ve done nothing to help America's enemies. . . . Because today's military is an all-volunteer force, troops seeking objector status must convince superior officers they’ve had an honest change of heart about the morality of war. . . . The last time the US military executed a deserter was World War II. But hundreds face court-martials and imprisonment every year. . . . Members of the armed forces are considered absent without leave when they are unaccounted for. They become deserters after they’ve been AWOL for 30 days. . . . [ALSO SEE: George W. Bush Is A Certified Deserter] . . . Army spokesman Hilferty said the Army doesn’t try to find deserters. Instead, their names are given to civilian law enforcement officers who often nab them during routine traffic stops and turn them over to the military. [NOTE TO DESERTERS: Don't drive!] . . . Commanders then decide whether to rehabilitate or court-martial the alleged deserter. There's an incentive to rehabilitate because it costs the military an average of $38,000 to recruit and train a replacement. . . . Jeffry House, an attorney in Toronto who represents Magaoay and other deserters, said there are about 200 deserters living in Canada. They have decided not to seek refugee status but instead are leading clandestine lives, he said. . . . Like many of the people helping today's war resisters, House fled to Canada to avoid the Vietnam War. About 50,000 Americans sought legal residency in Canada during the Vietnam era.

posted by LoZo 11:09 AM