(2007-03-23) — The Pentagon today admitted that, due to the Bush administration’s hugely unpopular war in Iraq, desertions from the Army have increased in each of the last two years, reaching almost 75 percent of pre-war levels.
According to a story in The New York Times, citing a National Public Radio report, the Pentagon has miscalculated desertion figures in recent years, in part because the Defense Department inexplicably misplaced personnel records during what officials called an “isolated incident at the office” on September 11, 2001.
With demoralized soldiers bolting the service at rates approaching the peace-time average — and almost 30 percent of the Vietnam war era average — Pentagon officials failed to offer a plan to halt what one reporter called “an exodus of Biblical proportions”.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, said she was not alarmed by the number of Army desertions.
“When Democrats say ‘We support the troops’,” Rep. Pelosi said, “these are the troops we’re talking about.”
33 responses so far ↓
1 Scott Ott // Mar 23, 2007 at 8:36 am
Army Desertions Rise to Near All-Time Average…
by Scott Ott(2007-03-23) — The Pentagon today admitted that, due to the Bush administration’s hugely unpopular war in Iraq, desertions from the Army have increased in each of the last two years, reaching almost 75 percent of pre-war levels.Accordin…
2 camojack // Mar 23, 2007 at 8:41 am
I deserted from the military years ago…after my enlistment was up.
3 seneuba // Mar 23, 2007 at 8:51 am
I find it hard to believe any reporter would refer to the Bible.
4 New York Times: Army Revises Upward the Number of Desertions : The Crimson Blog // Mar 23, 2007 at 8:55 am
[...] Update: Scott Ott over at Scrappleface puts just the right spin on it. [...]
5 University Update // Mar 23, 2007 at 9:28 am
Army Desertions Rise to Near All-Time Average…
…
6 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. // Mar 23, 2007 at 10:02 am
In light of this distressing news, we have no alternative but to surrender in Iraq.
7 Fred Sinclair // Mar 23, 2007 at 10:16 am
Somehow I sensed that coming - that these deserters are the troops the Democrats are supporting.
Heirborn Ranger
8 Darthmeister // Mar 23, 2007 at 10:28 am
…and surrender in Afghanistan, too.
We must keep speaking truth to power.
9 onlineanalyst // Mar 23, 2007 at 10:43 am
As ever, truth is a stranger to the fictions of the NYT and NPR, the usual suspects in the demoralizing camp who twist statistics for their own political agenda.
(We’re watching you, Mizz Pelosi and your Dhimmicrat followers and armchair generals trying to micromanage a war. Your attempts to slow bleed our armed forces with unrelated pork attached to yet another bill fool no one. Have you and your minions no shame?)
10 timcopeland1 // Mar 23, 2007 at 11:21 am
Scott Ott is an IDI OTT
11 everthink // Mar 23, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Darthmeister:
How about your three “heterosexual honor student” sons?
If, even, just one of them were to join the ground forces in Iraq, maybe you wouldn’t seem like such a hypocrite warmongering Chickenhawk.
This nation is at war! Are they only patriotic in your way?
ET
12 It is easy to spot satire except when it is so close to the truth « DPGI v.2 // Mar 23, 2007 at 1:04 pm
[...] It is easy to spot satire except when it is so close to the truth “When Democrats say ‘We support the troops’,†Rep. Pelosi said, “these are the troops we’re talking about.†[...]
13 Fred Sinclair // Mar 23, 2007 at 4:00 pm
re #10 - timcopeland1
I find it utterly amazing when reading tim’s deep and insightful comment just how astonishingly accurate I was the other day when I described tim with inerrant accuracy. Since it so aptly serves, I’ll repeat it for tim’s sake and any of his like minded brethern as they cower together in their church - “The Church of Liberalism”.
“When dealing with people like random (if you really must) always bear in mind that liberals (I started to write “suffer from…” but realize that most don’t suffer at all.) are not totally responsible. They have a genetic aberration which blocks that portion of the brain reserved for thinking.
We conservatives take it as a matter of course when we think. A liberal is incapable of rational thought. To suggest to a liberal that he stop and think is to throw a new and unfamiliar block in his path . Never having done any thinking, the concept is a puzzlement to him. So don’t be too critical of random - he’s probably doing the very best he can with what he has.
Like the brain of a parrot, he’s mainly restricted to repeating the words and phrases his masters have programmed him to repeat i.e. “Bush lied/people died” or “Bush/Hitler, Bush/Hitler, Bush/Hitler” - see what I mean?
Then there are those with only marginal genetic defects. They can think a little bit. Enough to know that if they can control the parrots, they can live in luxury. So they train the parrots, organize rallys to support their agenda. Such as “Anti-war rallys” “Pro Homosexusl rallys” (even providing slogans for their signs)
No random is just another parrot and should be given the same level of credence.”
Now we can add tim’s parrot jabber “Scott Ott is an idi - ott” - very clever tim, you can thank your puppet masters for us. As I pointed out - a prime examole of not being capable of thinking.
Heirborn Ranger
14 Beerme // Mar 23, 2007 at 5:36 pm
No time to post….must…read…
15 Darthmeister // Mar 23, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Aren’t deserters heroes in Liberal World?
16 Darthmeister // Mar 23, 2007 at 7:42 pm
Ahhh, not content to merely be the Grand Inquistor of your kangaroo court here at Scrappleface, as the ever arrogant despot you prove yourself to be with each passing post you’ve now appointed yourself as the Draft Board too, eh?
You enjoy using your military service as a means to try and shut other people up, don’t you you miserable little cuss? Most people who have honorably served this country usually say they did so TO GIVE OTHER AMERICANS A VOICE … but apparently not you you scoundrel. Apparently you served so you can shut people up! You’ve also tried to undercut reasoned debate with your small-minded references to “chickenhawk” despite the fact many Scrapplers have logically destroyed your reasons for engaging in such screeds. You must enjoy living in self-imposed ignorance you small-minded troll.
And apparently you are arrogant enough to think that I or my sons are somehow answerable to self-aggrandizing twits like you. There is an answer to your question but given your condescending, arrogant broadside I won’t dignify your pathetic impertinence with an answer at this time other than to say one of my sons is going into the Marine Corps, everfilth. Your great-great-grandfather, who proved his character in the crucible of war, would be embarassed by the kind of officious crap that you spew here.
In fact, Bravo39, your own son should despise how you’ve dishonored yourself and brought shame to your family here at Scrappleface with your petulant and constant trashing of hard-working, law-abiding private citizens, Americans whose only crime is to support our troops, support their mission and support their Commander in Chief in the Global War on Muslim radicalism.
Grow up, troll, and take a good look at yourself in a mirror tomorrow morning. You’ve caused nothing but undue anger and dissention here and you’ve added NOTHING of any substance to any debate we’ve had when Scrapplers have seriously dealt with issues. What you’re unwilling to admit to yourself is our views more closely approximate those cherished traditions and moral values of your own forebearers. And if those ancestors of yours could see the scorn and derision you’ve heaped upon those of us who share those same traditional and patriotic values that they did back to the founding of this country, they would have either sent you to a sanitarium or shoot you dead behind the barn. The right of women to murder their unborn babies? Homosexual marriage? Using partisan lies to trash your own President during a time of war against a determined enemy? It may no longer be true today, but there was such a thing as family honor back then. Sorry, but that’s the truth and you know it. You’ve become an empty parody of yourself and it gets worse with each passing month.
17 everthink // Mar 24, 2007 at 1:04 am
Henry
I wrote 46 words; you responded with 474 (mostly vituperate) words. I was so upset when I read it I wrote a big long, rambling, stupid reply like yours, but without the lies, and misleading statements. I was just about to post it when, I reminded myself I was a Christian, and the Lord told me to love my enemies in The Beatitudes. They are part of the Sermon on the Mount. Read it, maybe you’ll understand.
I hope your son is planning on joining the Marines soon so you will learn more of the meaning of the words you speak. Tell him to hurry up if he’s going to get some of that “glory†you’re always talking about in Iraq. The Democrats are trying to close shop there, you know?
But, they are going to keep the operation open in Afghanistan till we get Osama bin Laden. Remember him?
You say: “Most people who have honorably served this country usually say they did so TO GIVE OTHER AMERICANS A VOICEâ€. Really? I never heard anyone I served with say that; and in my trips to family gatherings before my own son was deployed, both times, I never heard anyone say it then either. But, I guess like everthing else, you would know better than I.
You often refer to me as Bravo39.
Henry, I was Bravo39, I was chosen to be Bravo39, and believe me, Henry, in your best day you could not have been Bravo39.
You keep telling me what my family would think of me; I am awfully proud of them, and my heart is warmed by the certainty of their approval of my actions.
Speaking of genealogy: I connect to Dumbyah’s Prescott Line through my mother, and I connect to Obama’s Tarleton Line through my father, small world don’t you think? Oh’ yeah, and my surname is listed among the 70,000 people in line to the British Crown.
Remember that you pheasant!
ET
18 Fred Sinclair // Mar 24, 2007 at 2:58 am
everthink - “I reminded myself I was a Christian” Sure am glad you used the word “was”. Rom. 6:4 tells us that without a change of lifestyle - your “so-called” Christianity is just so much smoke and mirrors.
Liberals supporting the murder of boys and girls before they even make it out of the womb have no claim to the name of Christ.
Liberals supporting the homosexual lifestyle which God says is an abomination to Himself and that they who practice shall in no way ever see heaven, have no claim to the name of Christ.
Liberals supporting their right to refuse to care for their own families have no claim to the name of Christ.
Sorry you turned like a dog returning to it’s own vomit and rejected Christ, but it’s not too late, you can like the prodigal son repent and God will forgive you and take you back.
We Christians are warned to not be judgemental but we are at the same time invited to be fruit inspectors. And you have little or no good fruit and what there might be is putrid and rotting.
Again, for accuracy’s sake it is well you used the past tense of the verb - i.e. “was”.
Heirborn Ranger
19 Darthmeister // Mar 24, 2007 at 8:20 am
They say it all the time when asked, everfilth. Just the other day a veteran of the Iraq war said on our local radio station that he served to give voice to liberals even though he believes they are borderline seditious - you know, those liberals who sit in the shade of the tree of liberty watered by the blood of those whom serve in foreign wars that the same liberals constantly lie about and criticize.
There are those liberals who even insist Americans die on the battlefield for the rights of homosexuals or their rights of women to abort their unborn.
So allow me to cut through your self-serving obfuscations you word counting whiner. When you served, did you or did you not serve with the understanding that you were protecting the First Amendment rights of Americans? Yet here you are at Scrappleface month after month trying to short-circuit any meaningful debate by calling some of us “chickenhawks” and playing the Draft Board while the country has a volunteer army you lying little cuss.
Tell me, in the final analysis is it not now your belief that you also serve in the armed forces for the right of women to murder their unborn children and to defend the homosexual lifestyle even though you might not have publicly stated that at the time of your service? C’mon, be honest. Or are you going to actually insist that it is not your belief that American soldiers also serve on the battlefield to secure the rights of radical whacko femi-nazis and militant homosexuals?
20 Darthmeister // Mar 24, 2007 at 8:50 am
And to prove the twisted liberal mind-set about American soldiers serving to give voice even to traitors and seditious liars, CommonDreams attempts to defend the traitor Lt. Ehren Watada’s “right” to ignore lawful orders with impunity. That’s how far lefties on your side of the aisle go with their defense of the First Amendment and pointing out the “irony” of soldiers who serve to defend free speech but are being “denied” it. You apparently don’t even know what your own side of the aisle truly believes. Figures, ignorance is bliss.
And whatever happened to the, “I disagree with what you are saying, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” that your side of the aisle so smarmily invokes when it engages in seditious speech or burns effigies of American soldiers and drags those effigies around the streets? Almost reminds me of the Islamofascists in Mogadishu. And look how some anti-war protestors on your side of the aisle make use of their First Amendment “rights”. And you dare deny me my right to defend with dignity the noble cause in which the American military is presently engaged against Muslim radicalism? You’re twisted.
21 everthink // Mar 24, 2007 at 12:28 pm
“everfilth”?
May the Lord bless you Henry.
Henry, when I read your tripe, I often think how much your speech is like the insane Mullahs of Islam. Have you ever really considered the similarities of your views with those of the Taliban?
You and they are both intolerant of the views of others.
You both interpret your different Holy Scriptures in the same extreme way.
You both believe in violent enforcement of God’s/Allah’s Lawâ€.
You both kill in the name of your god (i.e “Blow’em away in the name of the Lordâ€â€¦Jerry Falwell).
You both seek a theocracy!
Did you everthink, maybe you could start your own group? You could call it something like “Lunatics for The Lordâ€, or “Hateful Nutballs for Jesusâ€. Oh, that’s right, you’ve got a name. After you infiltrated, and gained control of the Laodocian Church, you went on to hijack the Conservative movement in America, and then you stole their good name. But, Darthmiester, you are really just the current crop of Neo-Nazis.
You want to change America “back” to what YOU SAY my forefathers intended.
Well, my people rejected that “Unitary Executive†idea back in 1776!
ET
I hope it is true that you are going to finally put something on the table, and stop your infernal kibitzing.
22 Brutally Honest // Mar 24, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Touche…
Scott Ott hits a home-run:(2007-03-23) — The Pentagon today admitted that, due to the Bush administration’s hugely unpopular war in Iraq, desertions from the Army have increased in each of the last two years, reaching almost 75 percent of pre-war…
23 Darthmeister // Mar 24, 2007 at 2:41 pm
neverthink, after reading your defeatist, lying, self-aggrandizing filth which totally misrepresents my views, I’ve decided that from here on out, despite how difficult you make it, I’m going to believe the best about you. I’m going to believe you aren’t invested in America’s defeat in Iraq and our defeat in the greater war on terrorism -that you actually want us to win in Iraq. Or are you going to be like a good moonbat and suggest we’ve already “lost” in Iraq?
But honest, I’ll really try to treat you with the respect you deserve.
24 Harry Daschle // Mar 24, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Sorry but, I do not remember many desserts from my days in the military.
I do remember once, yes once, we actually had real eggs instead of powdered ones though!
Seriously though, I think I saw one of these deserters on Hannity and Colmes the other night yelling at Rep. Duncan Hunter. A very angry young man!
If he had been as angry against our enemies (when he was in Iraq), as he was against Congressman Hunter the other night, maybe we would be doing better there?
25 everthink // Mar 24, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Henry,
“But honest, I’ll really try to treat you with the respect you deserve.” Deserve? You say deserve … hum … hum, that sounds kinda Bushy to me.
Then you say: “Or are you going to be like a good moonbat and suggest we’ve already “lost†in Iraq?”
Lost Henry? I guess that depends on your definition of victory. Henry, Iraq is not Friday Night Lights; were not talking about a football score here.
There have bee more than 3,100 U.S. troops killed, and at least 23,550 American military personnel wounded and maimed. Our Army no longer has a single unit officially “Combat Readyâ€, not one! I recently read an estimate that it will cost 70 to 100 Billion dollars to repair and replace our military equipment spent in Iraq. We have spent $412,000,000,000.00, while neglecting the needs of our own country. We spent 3 years in Iraq with the president bragging about Rumsfeld like he was “Brownie”, or something. Even in November, he bragged about our “progress†in Iraq.
A recent poll in Iraq reported that 51% of Iraqis think it is alright to kill Americans, and most thought life was better under Saddam. Our larger threat, Iran appears to benefited most from our “Intelligence Failure” in Iraq. They are backing the Shiites, while Saudi Arabia is funding the Sunni insurgents. And, when we do finally get out of their way, whenever that is, they will fight it out.
Now, even those here appear to acknowledge your previous optimism was unjustified. The president, who hasn’t gotten anything right since taking office, wants us to give the “surge†a chance. Like this is his first “Strategeryâ€. The most we could possibly do is hold the warring factions at bay long enough to get a government with no chance of survival whatever to appear in control so “stupido†can save some face.
Sad as that goal is, it too seems unlikely; but if we should succeed, and you want to call that victory, maybe Dumbyah can play “dress up†again, and make another proclamation of VICTORY! But, we will have lost so much more than we will have won!
What about Osama?
ET
26 Fred Sinclair // Mar 25, 2007 at 7:26 am
Risen to almost 75 % of the pre war totals (giggle, giggle)
Off topic : “The Boston Globe”
I get from the news media that in 2005 alone there was 6,082 motorcycle deaths in America with an overall total of 43,443 traffic fatalities for the year. A .01% increase from 2004. The liberals in their “Get Bush” program, wail, weep and bemoan the # of Americans Bush has killed. If there was any real concern for needless deaths then attention would be focused on America’s streets and highways - not the relative few deaths in Iraq. more than double is the number of motorcycles deaths in 1 year than the combined total of four years of war. (average 659.25 combat deaths per year - to date.
Perhaps we need a national ban on motorvycles? Probably not a good idea.
Or maybe we could duplicate Germany’s laws on obtaining and keeping a drivers license. You really, really wouldn’t like that; even if it cut highway deaths by 50% (which it would)
Heirborn Ranger
27 Darthmeister // Mar 25, 2007 at 7:43 am
Of course you’re absolutely right, everthink. You can cut and paste with the best of them and your boilerplate against Bushie is to be commended. Please forgive me for ever thinking you were wrong on anything or that your motivation for believing what you do is unquestionably pure.
Since America had to invoke a draft, had over 427,000 of her soldiers killed in both the European and Pacific theaters, we still have troops bogged down in Germany and Japan after 60 years, and FDR’s imperialism contributed to killing 65 million people world-wide at an adjusted cost of over $7 Trillion dollars I guess we lost that war, too. We were stupid for even thinking we could fight against the ideology/religion of Nazism. We didn’t even wipe Nazism out since skinheads and Neo-Nazis still thrive by the hundreds of thousands today … even right here in the good ol’ US of A. So it all proves once again it’s futile to fight against a religious ideology and we’ve only stirred up a hornet’s nest of hate against an America. I mean, can’t we all just get along?
28 Darthmeister // Mar 25, 2007 at 7:51 am
And what about Osama?
You’re right, Osama is still the mastermind to be reckoned with even though he a) is living in a cave or b) is actually dead and the American intelligence community along with the Chimperor are using his memory to further legitimize the war on innocent Muslim freedom fights. But like you suggest once we get Osama/Usama that will be the end of al Qaeda.
But then it was never proven we got Hitler either? Why I just saw on the Discovery channel this last week a documentary that strongly suggested Hitler was spirited away to Argentina where he lived to a ripe old age while secretly working with the Tri-lateral Commission and the Bildebergers to create a New World Order that Bushie 41 once spoke about back in 1991. Now there’s something to think about. Thanks for the headsup, everthink.
29 Darthmeister // Mar 25, 2007 at 8:08 am
I’m sorry, everthink, I misread your post. Sorry for the tangent I went on in my last post. You’re absolutely right, the only way to give any meaning to the deaths of those American
stormtrooperssoldiers who fought for what they thought was a noble cause is to declare defeat in Iraq and cut-and-run. Then the Sunnis and Shias can get back to the business of making love with one another now that Great Satan America isn’t there tempting devout Muslims to violence.But failing that, if we do create a power vacuum by leaving Iraq we can always shop around and find another Muslim despot of Saddam Hussein’s caliber, install him and power and let him bring peace to the Shias and Sunnis. After all, Islam is the religion of peace.
30 Darthmeister // Mar 25, 2007 at 8:10 am
Sheesh, that’s … “install him IN power.” It’s hard speaking truth to power.
31 everthink // Mar 25, 2007 at 11:24 am
Henry you lying little twit!
Do you think others cannot see when you twist my words, as you so often do?
I NEVER called American soldiers “Stormtroopers”! I did say you were a Neo-Nazi!, but you are not an American soldier are you? No, Bush is not smart enough to be fairly compared to Hitler, unless the comparison is in their humanity.
When an American steps foreword, raises his right hand, and swears to defend our country, that is to me noble.
The only way to give any meaning to the deaths of those American Soldiers in Iraq is to hold those who sent them to war wrongly accountable.
Not the Republican kind of accountability, where the only punishment is saying “I accept responsibility†a hundred times; but to hold them accountable in the same way the fallen soldier would have been held accountable if he had caused the needless death of his comrades by lying.
If the CNC misled them into an unnecessary war, in an attempt to redeem his father’s reputation, we should try him like we did Saddam!
ET
32 Darthmeister // Mar 25, 2007 at 11:34 am
I never said you did, neverthink, but others on your side of the aisle have. Hey, I’m agreeing with you in principle, isn’t that good enough? Sheesh!
It’s just like what the truly enlightened people have been saying on the talk shows now that they’ve gotten their talking points from the DNC, the surge is “only reinforcing failure in Iraq”. There is already an historical precedence for the utter stupidity of sending reinforcements when the going gets tough. Look at the reinforcements FDR and Eisenhower sent into the European theater during World War II which got another 100,000 Americans slaughtered on their pell mell dash on the autobahns of Germany. Clearly we America stupidly reinforced failure there. Think of not only the $7 Trillion dollars America had to cough up for FDR’s imperialism in intruding in yet another European war but also the trillions of dollars we spent rebuilding and occupying Germany and Japan. All for what? To feed capitalist greed, that’s for what. I’m on your side now, quit being so combative, comrade.
Hey, I’m not saying anything that can’t be found on some progressive blog somwhere. You should be rejoicing that I’m now speaking truth to power.
33 Pros and Cons » An extended, link rich festival of Iraq reportage. // Mar 26, 2007 at 5:14 pm
[...] Of course, I find it fresh and exciting that people other than Jews, in the Middle East would actually vigorously express their opinions on issues like which rifle they ought to be equipped with. The opposite is apparent in NPR’s recent piece on “soft power”, which starts with Mr. Nye, goes on to Valerie Plame leaker Armitage, moves on to Francis Fukayama and winds up with a professor at Tufts comparing Iraq to Vietnam in terms of lessened prestige (and not invading would have helped our “prestige” how, exactly?), but then says that the US can recover, as it did after Vietnam. Hmm. Note something there? No war supporters or advocates of John Bolton-style blunt diplomacy were asked for an opinion. I further have to note that, interestingly, we recovered after Vietnam not with Carter’s preferred soft power (molle-puissance or hypo-puissance?), but through honoring our commitments to our allies, building a huge military, deregulating our economy and invading a few well-chosen (Grenada - Thatcher did the Falklands) and not so well-chosen (Lebanon) places. Even the not so rah-rah American Spectator seems to understand the whole “force works” dynamic, even as it wishes we were using it elsewhere. Soft power sure hasn’t worked out well in Seoul. It does seem to be doing wonders for military morale, especially in desertion rates, though the New York Times reports the rise to under 3/4 of the peacetime rate in crisis-laden tones. [...]
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