January 16th, 2005

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Politics
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5500 US Army Deserters

Here’s a story I haven’t heard much about. According to an article in the Telegraph (via BlogsCanada), 5500 soldiers military personnel have gone AWOL from the US Army.

American Army soldiers are deserting and fleeing to Canada rather than fight in Iraq, rekindling memories of the thousands of draft-dodgers who flooded north to avoid service in Vietnam.

An estimated 5,500 men and women have deserted since the invasion of Iraq, reflecting Washington’s growing problems with troop morale.

Apparently this number is fairly average (especially considering the 55,000 soldiers people who fled to Canada during the Vietnam War). Speaking of which, Jim Elve (the author of the aforementioned post) was a draft evader himself. He discusses his actions in the same entry.

On a vaguely-related note, here’s a really interesting piece from The New Yorker about the changing face of information management and distribution in the military.

Comments: 5 Responses so far

Richard
January 16th, 2005
1:15 pm

55,000 soldiers? Or 55,000 people? I contend that it was the latter.

Also, just because there have been 5500 deserters since the Iraq invasion doesn’t mean all of them deserted *because* of the invasion. Furthermore, this is about 1% of actively serving Army soldiers. Doesn’t sound like much cause for concern to me.

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Darren
January 16th, 2005
1:27 pm

Indeed, I corrected those to reflect ‘people’ or ‘military personnel’.

I’m not arguing that it’s a cause for concern–just a story that’s not being reported. It’s not front page news, but I think it’s newsworthy.

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Richard
January 16th, 2005
3:20 pm

If the story is that there were 5500 desertions *because* of the invasion (or even mostly because, or even, I’ll grant, a significant minority was because), then it’s newsworthy. It’s probably also newsworthy because it may not be widely known what percentage of soldiers are deserters. But the implication that it’s *since* the invasion that it’s also *because* of the invasion is misleading.

As to my first point, I’d be interested to know–simply because I do not know–what percentage of the army deserted during the Vietnam War as well as (separately but relatedly) what percentage of those that “fled” to Canada were normal migrants, draft dodgers, and deserters.

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Porter
January 16th, 2005
4:24 pm

It is more than likely the people who have gone AWOL are soldiers that have enlisted only for money for school and other such benefits. When the United States is not at war the military is not unlike many civilian corporate jobs. If I do say so myself it is a pretty sweet deal, when the US is not at war. So most likely the soldiers that have gone AWOL are people who are just in it for the money.

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Andrea
January 16th, 2005
7:30 pm

I agree with Porter. Some people may flee the military for philosophical reasons, but I think many enlisted soldiers are in it for money and careers. However, this is, in many ways, the fault of the military. Much of the recruiting blather focuses on job training, money for college, and work experience. However, two-thirds of recruits never get college funding from the military and only 15 percent actually get college degrees.
The average post-Vietnam veteran makes 11 percent less than a civilian. One research study found that veterans average 1.78 months of skills training during 31 months of active duty. Another study found that just 12% of male veterans and 6% of female veterans were able to apply skills from military experience to civilian jobs. (Source: Objector.org)

Even the Canadian military’s recruiting site (www.recruiting.forces.gc.ca) focuses on careers: “You’ll find more than 100 job choices in the Canadian military - from dental technician to IT specialist to infantry soldier to engineer.” Is it any wonder that people who enlist turn out to be people who don’t want to fight?

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