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8,000 Members Of U.S. Military Have Deserted Since Start Of Iraq War
All Headline News
Julie Farby - All Headline News Staff Writer
March 7, 2006

Washington, DC (AHN)—Although the overall desertion rate has plunged since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, pentagon records reveal at least 8,000 members of the all-volunteer U.S. military have deserted since the Iraq war began.

According to USA Today, since fall 2003, 4,387 Army soldiers, 3,454 Navy sailors and 82 Air Force personnel have deserted their posts. Capt. Jay Delarosa, a Marine Corps spokesman says, the Marine Corps does not track the number of desertions each year but listed 1,455 Marines in desertion status last September, the end of fiscal 2005.

Some lawyers who represent deserters say the war in Iraq is driving more soldiers to question their service and the Pentagon is cracking down on deserters to discourage anti-war sentiment, USA Today reports.

Desertions in 2005 represent 0.24% of the 1.4 million U.S. forces.

Army spokeswoman Maj. Elizabeth Robbins says opposition to the war prompts a small fraction of desertions: "People always desert, and most do it because they don't adapt well to the military." Robbins says the majority of desertions happen inside the USA, with only one known case of desertion in Iraq.

Penalties range from other-than-honorable discharges to death for desertion during wartime.

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