Posted on 06/28/2007 8:45:09 PM PDT by World_Events
There is no crack team of bounty hunters, no elite military unit whose job is to track them down and bring them in.
Despite a rise in desertions from the Army as the Iraq war drags on into a fifth year, the U.S. military does almost nothing to find those who flee and rarely prosecutes those it gets its hands on.
An Associated Press examination of Pentagon figures shows that 174 troops were court-martialed by the Army last year for desertion — a figure that amounts to just 5 percent of the 3,301 soldiers who deserted in fiscal year 2006. The figures are about 1 percent or less for the Navy and the Marines, according to data obtained by the AP under the Freedom of Information Act.
Some deserters are simply allowed to return to their units, while the majority are discharged in non-criminal proceedings on less-than-honorable terms.
Pentagon officials say that while the all-volunteer military is stretched thin by the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the number of deserters represents an extremely small percentage of the armed forces, and it would be a poor use of time to go after them, particularly when there is a war on.
As a result, the Pentagon does little more than enter deserters' names into an FBI national criminal database.
In most cases, as long as a deserter stays out of trouble — as long as, say, police don't pull him over for speeding and run his name through the computer — he is in little danger of getting caught.
"A deserter either returns voluntarily or he spends the rest of his life looking over his shoulder wondering when he'll be discovered," said Maj. Anne Edgecombe, an Army spokeswoman.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Just leaving them to live with their miserable selves is apparently enough.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Guess you never read Starship Troopers.
"I thought I would be more of a priority," said Clousing,
Randi Rhodes of Air America radio is a deserter. She transferred to the Reserves under Palace Chase and supposed to serve double her remaining time in the AF reserves, but she only went to one drill of her reserve duty and never went back after that to serve the rest of the time. It’s kind of ironic considering that she led the “Bush was AWOL” movement.
On the other hand the Pentagon and Sec of Defense needs to get realistic about total service obligation times and deployments or they will have a major crisis they may not be able to contain. Eight year first enlistment obligations are insane. They should be put back at six. The lifers? Fine they know the life and it offers them security a good deal.
Desertion is the crime of leaving your unit with the intention to NEVER return. That makes it very difficult to prove in a court martial. The defendant can always say I was going to turn myself in next week.
When a soldier goes AWOL he is dropped from the unit’s rolls as a deserter after 30 days. But that is just an administrative classification. Otherwise he would be on the books forever and you could never requisition a replacement.
When he is caught or turns himself in, he is not automatically charged with desertion.
Why?
If they do not want to be with us.. we don’t want them with us... that’s all.. that really is enough.. and more powerful than any gun pointed at a mans head..
W
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