Fact or Fiction: Deserting from Combat Stress

The US mainstream media has been working over time trying to create negative perceptions of the US military in the general American public. First they tried to create a perception of poor troop morale, which failed, along with their efforts to stop military recruiting by attacking and banning recruiters or going after ROTC programs. Remember all the stories of the military not meeting their recruiting numbers a couple years ago? That was because the military was in the midst of expanding the overall force numbers, which meant more people had to be recruited. Now that the force has completed the expansion it is easier to maintain recruiting numbers which the military has been able to do for well over a year during a time of war.

Then the media tried to create an image of US soldiers with higher than normal suicide rates, which once again that was quickly debunked. Since all these other efforts have failed they have had to implement the strategy to paint soldiers as uneducated low lives that are committing crimes all over Iraq. This strategy is on going and not getting much traction stateside except in the usual places, but plenty of traction internationally, but overall is not working.

Let’s also not forget the leftist plants from Amnesty International that enlisted in the military and then suddenly came out against the war before last year’s congressional elections. There group just happened to be backed with a media campaign led by the biggest liberal public relations firm, Fenton Communications. (You need to read my prior postings here and here to understand what I’m talking about.)

Now the latest attack on the military, comes from the worst military bashing offender the New York Times. This latest attack is that the on going war on terror is causing soldiers to desert the military. There is only one problem it is not true. If you read the link you can see that the soldiers being discharged are not war veterans but the typical young, troubled soldiers that I have seen through personal experience desert before. Additionally the numbers of desertions during a pro-longed period of war like we are in now is actually much lower than the number of desertions during the so called peacetime military before 9/11.

Now the New York Times is suggesting that the Army is unfairly prosecuting these deserters and is another sign of the imminent collapse of the military:

The increased prosecutions are meant to serve as a deterrent to a growing number of soldiers who are ambivalent about heading — or heading back — to Iraq and may be looking for a way out, several Army lawyers said in interviews. Using courts-martial for these violations, which before 2002 were treated mostly as unpunished nuisances, is a sign that active-duty forces are being stretched to their limits, military lawyers and mental health experts said.

Yes folks, the fact the military is upholding and prosecuting desertion laws is consider a sign of the great impending collapse of the US military by the New York Times. We better stop giving out Article 15’s as well or the New York Times will consider Article 15’s a sign of increased indiscipline in the military and another sign of the impending collapse of the military.

What is even more humorous is that buried in the Times article, it admits that the number of desertions are much lower now than during the peacetime years:

The Army prosecuted desertion far less often in the late 1990s, when desertions were more frequent, than it does now, when there are comparatively fewer.

Yes folks the number of prosecutions are going up as the total number of desertions are going down. It even gets better, because further buried in the story is this sentence below, that totally debunks the argument the writer is trying to make:

Most deserters list dissatisfaction with Army life or family problems as primary reasons for their absence, and most go AWOL in the United States.

Notice nothing about deserting because of multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan, not that it matters to the New York Times. I do know one deserter that I wish the Army would hurry up and prosecute though, if that is okay with the NY Times.

HT: Milblogs