U.S. Army desertion rates up 80%

U.S. Army desertion rates up 80%

www.thestar.com

The Army defines a deserter as someone who has been absent without leave for longer than 30 days. The soldier is then discharged as a deserter.

According to the Army, about nine in every 1,000 soldiers deserted in fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30, compared to nearly seven per 1,000 a year earlier. Overall, 4,698 soldiers deserted this year, compared to 3,301 last year.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Pretty big numbers IMO, a 42% increase since last year. Article is full of stats about said topic, mentions that Supreme Ct case decision from last week.

Seems like the problem is 'repeated tours' overall, yet the big rates (70%+) was more along first year tours.

www.thestar.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 18-11-2007 by anhinga]

This is all about how you view the statistics. if you are saying that deserters increase from 7/7 to 9/7 then yes, you would see a high percentage. If you look though, they are talking in the 1000's. 7 in 1000 and 9 in 1000 respectively or basically from .7% to .9% of military personal.

I think your blowing this up out of porportion, you always see higher rates of desertion when a country is at war. Almost nobody wants or likes to be shot at, and those that like it the least desert.

Cheers,

Camain

This might be an opportune time to mention that we have War Resistor Support organizations up here in Canada:
War Resistor Support Campaign
I missed the rally on the 15th due to work, but I'm proud that my countrymen are offering shelter to those who simply cannot in good conscience fight a war they don't support.

So much for troop morale. What exactly did they expect with these endless deployments and dangerous settings :shk: