In the world of Big Baloney, there are three kinds of American military:

  • poor, uneducated dupes who join out of desperation
  • vicious killers who terrorize civilians 
  • post-traumatic stress victims doomed to become homeless once state side

Actually, there’s a fourth category: deserters.

Alan Fraser notes at American Thinker:

According to America’s biggest news agency, the United States is facing what amounts to a desertion crisis in its military. Lolita C. Baldur of the Associated Press writes a story headlined “Army Desertion Rate Up 80 Pct. Since ‘03.”

“Soldiers strained by six years at war are deserting their posts at the highest rate since 1980, with the number of Army deserters this year showing an 80 percent increase since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003….While the totals are still far lower than they were during the Vietnam War, when the draft was in effect, they show a steady increase over the past four years and a 42 percent jump since last year….Army desertion rates have fluctuated since the Vietnam War - when they peaked at 5 percent.”

Sounds bad. Bush’s fault etc. But wait:

According to author Rod Powers  (who spent 23 years in the Air Force), the desertion rates per 1,000 for the Army and Marines from 1997 through 2004 are as follows:


ARMY

1997
2,218
4.58 per 1,000
1998
2,520
5.20 per 1,000
1999
2,966
6.13 per 1,000
2000
3,949
8.16 per 1,000
2001
4,597
9.50 per 1,000
2002
4,483
9.26 per 1,000
2003
3,678
7.60 per 1,000
2004
2,376
4.91 per 1,000

Marine Corps

1997
1,375
7.94 per 1,000
1998
1,460
8.43 per 1,000
1999
1,689
9.75 per 1,000
2000
2,019
11.66 per 1,000
2001
1,310
7.57 per 1,000
2002
1,136
6.56 per 1,000
2003
1,236
7.14 per 1,000
2004
1,297
7.49 per 1,000

Look at the above rates of Army desertion in the years just prior to the Iraq war.  Years 2000, 2001, and 2002 (8.16, 9.5, 9.26) show higher rates than we have had during this terrible quagmire of an Iraq war, with its multiple tours of duty. 

Why doesn’t AP correspondent Lolita C. Baldur discuss that?