http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=638635
The deserters: Awol crisis hits the US forces
As the death toll of troops mounts in Iraq and Afghanistan, America's
military recruiting figures have plummeted to an all-time low.
Thousands of US servicemen and women are now refusing to serve their
country. Andrew Buncombe reports
16 May 2005
Sergeant Kevin Benderman cannot shake the images from his head. There
are bombed villages and desperate people. There are dogs eating
corpses thrown into a mass grave. And most unremitting of all, there
is the image of a young Iraqi girl, no more than eight or nine, one
arm severely burnt and blistered, and the sound of her screams.
Last January, these memories became too much for this veteran of the
war in Iraq. Informed his unit was about to return, he told his
commanders he wanted out and applied to be considered a conscientious
objector. The Army refused and charged him with desertion. Last week,
his case - which carries a penalty of up to seven years' imprisonment
- started before a military judge at Fort Stewart in Georgia.
"If I am sincere in what I say and there's consequences because of my
actions, I am prepared to stand up and take it," Sgt Benderman said.
"If I have to go to prison because I don't want to kill anybody, so be
it."
The case of Sgt Benderman and those of others like him has focused
attention on the thousands of US troops who have gone Awol (Absent
Without Leave) since the start of President George Bush's so-called
war on terror. The most recent Pentagon figures suggest there are
5,133 troops missing from duty. Of these 2,376 are sought by the Army,
1,410 by the Navy, 1,297 by the Marines and 50 by the Air Force. Some
have been missing for decades.
But campaigners say the true figure could be far higher. Staff who run
a volunteer hotline to help desperate soldiers and recruits who want
to get out, say the number of calls has increased by 50 per cent since
9/11. Last year alone, the GI Rights Hotline took more than 30,000
calls. At present, the hotline gets 3,000 calls a month and the
volunteers say that by the time a soldier or recruit dials the
help-line they have almost always made up their mind to get out by one
means or another.
"People are calling us because there is a real problem," said Robert
Dove, a Quaker who works in the Boston office of the American Friends
Service Committee, one of several volunteer groups that have operated
the hotline since 1995. "We do not profess to be lawyers or therapists
but we do provide both types of support."
The people calling the hotline range from veterans such as Sgt
Benderman to recruits such as Jeremiah Adler, an idealistic
18-year-old from Portland, Oregon, who joined the Army believing he
could help change its culture. Within days of arriving for his basic
training at Fort Benning, Georgia, he realised he had made a mistake
and said the Army simply wanted to turn him into a "ruthless,
cold-blooded killer".
Mr Adler begged to be sent home and even pretended to be gay to be
discharged. Eventually, he and another recruit fled in the night and
rang the hotline, which advised him to turn himself in to avoid
court-martial. He will now be given an "other than honourable
discharge".
From southern Germany where he is on holiday before starting college
in the autumn, Mr Adler told The Independent: "It was obviously a
horrible experience but now I'm glad I went through it. I was
expecting to meet a whole lot of different types of people; some had
noble reasons. I also met a lot of people who [wanted] to kill Arabs."
In one letter home to his family, Mr Adler wrote that when he arrived
he was horrified by the things he heard other recruits talking about,
things that in civilian life would result in someone being treated as
an outcast. In another letter he said he could hear other recruits
crying at night. "You can hear people trying to make sure no one hears
them cry under their covers," he wrote.
Mr Adler now provides advice to other recruits who have decided the
military is not for them. "When people contact me I tell them go Awol;
it's the quickest way to get out," he said. "I was told I would be
facing 20 years hard labour at Fort Leavenworth [military prison]
because that is what the sergeant will tell you. I learnt that was not
the case."
Jeremy Hinzman, 26, a reservist with the 82nd Airborne Division who
served in Afghan-istan, decided to go Awol after his unit was ordered
to Iraq. He took his wife and child and fled to Canada, hoping to be
welcomed, as were the 50,000 or so young Americans who sought refuge
north of the border to avoid the Vietnam war.
But in March he was refused refugee status by the Canadian Immigration
and Refugee Board. Mr Hinzman, who is appealing the decision, told the
hearing: "We were told that we would be going to Iraq to jack up some
terrorists. We were told it was a new kind of war, that these were
evil people and they had to be dealt with ... We were told to consider
all Arabs as potential terrorists ... to foster an attitude of hatred
that gets your blood boiling."
Campaigners say recruits who decide they want to leave the military
are the most vulnerable to pressure from sergeants and officers who
try to force them to stay. Some are told they will go to jail, others
are told they will never be able to get a job if they receive a "less
than honourable discharge", they say. They also face intense peer
pressure and abuse, as they try to get out and after they manage to do
so.
Campaigners have also drawn attention to the often scurrilous tactics
used by US military recruiters, who for three months have failed to
meet their targets for recruits. After several cases where recruiters
had illegally covered up recruits' criminal and medical records,
threatened one prospect with jail for failing to meet an appointment
and provided another with laxatives to help him lose weight and pass a
physical, the Pentagon is halting all recruiting on 20 May for a day
of retraining.
Senior commanders have said the present recruiting environment - with
the war in Iraq having cost the lives of more than 1,600 servicemen
and women and the economy able to offer other jobs - is their most
difficult. Despite this, the Pentagon insists it is committed to
finding recruits in a fair and transparent process. Colonel Joseph
Curtin, an Army spokesman, said the retraining day would give
recruiters time to "focus on how they can do a very tough mission
without violating good order and discipline".
JE McNeil, who heads the Centre for Conscience and War in Washington
DC, a Christian group whose members also staff the GI Rights Hotline,
said many troops she spoke with had been lied to by recruiters. "I had
an 18-year-old who was told he did not have to serve in Iraq. 'I was
told I'd get a job where I would not be sent', he told me," said Ms
McNeill, a lawyer. "He was recruited to be an military policeman. They
are the people they are sending to Iraq. People all the time are told
[by recruiters] 'I can get you a job where you will not have to go to
war'."
Campaigners say that despite pressure on unhappy recruits exerted in
the barracks and the insults they will likely face, if a recruit
follows the correct legal procedure they can usually get out of the
military. One of the biggest hurdles for those who want out is
obtaining the correct information on how best to proceed. Usually, the
advice to those on the run is to turn themselves in. After 30 days of
being Awol a serviceman is considered a deserter, and a warrant is
issued for his arrest. At that point, he can be returned to his unit,
court-martialled or given jail time or - and this is more often than
not the outcome for recruits - they will be given a non-judicial
punishment and an less-than-honourable discharge. Volunteers say
usually the military is more inclined to let go those who have had the
least training and are the least specialised. But an experienced Air
Force pilot, for instance, in whom the military has invested hundreds
of thousands of dollars, could face a much more difficult time in
getting out. "The most important thing we do is listen and not lie,"
Ms McNeil said. "Sometimes I tell people there is nothing they can do.
I don't enjoy saying it but some times that is it."
Kevin Benderman is anything but a raw recruit. He joined the US Army
in 1987, served in the Gulf War and received an honourable discharge
in 1991. He rejoined in 2000 and served during the invasion of Iraq
with the 4th Infantry Division. He says what he saw there left him
morally opposed to returning to war applied to be a CO. The military
says that on 10 January he failed to show up when his unit was to ship
out.
Last week, at Fort Stewart, a military judge started a so-called
Article 32 hearing to decide whether there is sufficient evidence for
a full court-martial of Sgt Benderman. The proceedings recommence on
26 May. Sgt Benderman's wife, Monica, who had been heavily involved in
organising his defence, said: "A lot of what they are saying about
Kevin is not true. He never went Awol and was never a deserter. He is
staying strong. I am proud of him. He has had a lot thrown at him over
the past three days. If you consider what he has gone through he is
doing very well. If people cannot see he is genuine, then they are not
looking at him."
The Pentagon says it does not keep records of how many try to desert
each year. A spokeswoman, Lieutenant Colonel Ellen Krenke, said the
running rally had declined since 9/11 from 8,396 to the present total
of 5,133. She added: "The vast majority of those who desert do so
because they have committed some criminal act, not for political or
conscientious objector purposes."
©2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
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