Military desertion rates "plunge," and USA Today says it's bad news.
The U.S. military's desertion rate "has plunged since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001," USA Today reports:
The Army, Navy and Air Force reported 7,978 desertions in 2001, compared with 3,456 in 2005. The Marine Corps showed 1,603 Marines in desertion status in 2001. That had declined by 148 in 2005.Accompanying the story is a chart that shows Army desertions have declined every year since 2001.
The desertion rate was much higher during the Vietnam era. The Army saw a high of 33,094 deserters in 1971--3.4% of the Army force. But there was a draft and the active-duty force was 2.7 million.
Desertions in 2005 represent 0.24% of the 1.4 million U.S. forces.
So how does USA package this good news for the military? As bad news: The headline reads "8,000 Desert During Iraq War," and the first paragraph begins:
At least 8,000 members of the all-volunteer U.S. military have deserted since the Iraq war began, Pentagon records show, although . . .
Many in the press seem determined to follow their Iraq-as-Vietnam script, whether or not it's consistent with the facts.
Hat Tip to Best Of The Web Today.
posted by Pat Campbell @ 10:27 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Enlisting fewer shrinking violets will result in fewer desertions.
As an Ex-Naval, there are only one or two persons in the Canadian
Navy group I worked with who may have wilted. Fortunately, no one ever did.
OT but worthy:
NewsMax Magazine uses the following thumbnail to lure you towards subscription.
Interesting, none the less. Good reasons to scrap the UN and start the U.D.N.
Wikipedia United Democratc Nations.
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ungrateful friends:
Turkey receives $1.007 Billion a year from the U.S., not including military assistance. Number of times Turkey voted along with the U.S. on the 12 key issues: 0 Percent.
Ethiopia receives $594 million. Number of times it voted along with the U.S.: 0 percent.
Colombia receives $524 million, Egypt gets $460 million, Jordan pockets $224 million and Peru receives $229 million. Number of times these nations voted along with the U.S.: 0 percent.
Even some of America's closest allies voted against U.S. interests. France, Germany, Italy, Japan and South Korea, for example, all sided with the U.S. on just 8 percent of the votes.
The issues voted on included a resolution calling for the U.S. - which shoulders 22 percent of the total U.N. budget - to lift its embargo against communist Cuba, another seeking the immediate withdrawal of Israel from Palestinian territory, and a treaty that would ultimately call for the U.S. to dismantle its nuclear arsenal.
NewsMax Magazine will chronicle the General Assembly votes each year, exposing the "most ungrateful" nations - countries that take Americans' tax dollars, then oppose the U.S. when voting on key issues.
The blockbuster NewsMax report also features a look at "The U.N.'s Great Follies," including:
* The U.N. voted to remove its forces from Rwanda in the early days of tribal conflicts there. Result: More than 900,000 Tutsis were slaughtered in April 1994.
* The Iraqi people were defrauded of at least $1.8 billion in revenue from the oil-for-food program designed to alleviate civilian suffering resulting from sanctions against the Saddam Hussein regime. Alleged wrongdoers included the U.N. secretariat.
* Sudan won re-election to the U.S. Commission on Human Rights in 2004 despite potentially genocidal atrocities in the Darfur region.
* U.N. peacekeepers in the Congo allegedly used food and money to pay for sex with girls as young as 12.
The eye-opening "United Nations Report Card" appears in the March issue of NewsMax Magazine. [Editor's Note: Get our special UN Report Card report with our cover story on Maria Shriver FREEE -- Go Here Now.]
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Seems like an effective subscription pitch.
Not bad, not bad at all. TG
USA Today sucks.
Publishing a raw number rather than a percentage makes the news more shocking to those who read only the headlines.
I'd like to see USA Today publish the number of people who have left the Democratic Party since 9-11. I suspect you'll never see that.
Nicole*s insights are profound. I fully agree with Nicole..
Nicole, more comments please at:
TonyGuitar.blogspot.com
TG
Yeah, I'll bet you're interested in her insights .... both of 'em, right there, in sight. :)
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