Rohan Pearce
In the lead-up to the November 2 US presidential election, the number of US casualties caused by Washington's attempt to conquer Iraq is a politically sensitive issue for the Bush administration. But, try as they might, the White House warmongers can't cover up the dreadful toll that their war is taking on the US troops in Iraq. As of September 29, some 1053 US soldiers had been killed in Iraq since the US invasion in March 2003.
But the toll the war has taken on the soldiers goes far beyond this. According to a September 27 Newsday report, since the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, more than 18,000 US soldiers have been admitted to the US military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, in Germany. Around 16,000 of them have been injured in Iraq.
Increasingly, reported Newsday, the injured have been combat-wounded, as opposed to those admitted due to accidents or disease. Between 30 and 35 personnel arrive daily from Iraq, the New York daily reported. The record has been 108 in a single day. More than 4000 injuries were so serious that the patients were prevented from returning to duty.
Given the toll the war has taken on US soldiers, which isn't merely physical injury or death, but includes significant incidences of psychological trauma, it is hardly surprising that the US military is suffering a recruitment crisis.
For the first time in a decade, recruitment to the US National Guard has fallen short of the Pentagon's target. The short fall is about 5000 troops. As a result, the September 27 New York Times reported, the Pentagon is considering reducing each soldier's combat tours of duty from 12 months to 6-9 months.
The US government has repeatedly denied that there is any intention to reintroduce a draft to bolster troop numbers in Iraq, but in an attempt to counter recruitment shortfalls the military has resorted to coercion to maintain troop levels.
In a September 27 letter to Duncan Hunter, chairperson of the US House of Representatives armed services committee, Colorado Representative Diana DeGette called for an investigation into allegations by soldiers that Pentagon has been threatening them with combat deployment to induce them to re-enlist. She said the alleged threats were "only the latest sign that the Pentagon may not be able to maintain necessary force strength through traditional recruiting and re-enlistment and that the US military may not have sufficient personnel to meet current demands".
The allegations were sparked by stories in the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post. A September 16 article in the News reported that soldiers at Fort Carson, in Colorado, claim they were being pressured into re-enlisting. Recruitment officers allegedly told them that if they didn't re-enlist for another three years in the military, they would be transferred to units that are going to be deployed to Iraq.
"They told us if we don't re-enlist, then we'd have to be reassigned. And where we're most needed is in units that are going back to Iraq in the next couple of months. So if you think you're getting out, you're not", one soldier told the paper.
According to a September 29 Associated Press report, the US Army claims that the soldiers' fears are the result of a misunderstanding. "It's just not being done" Lieutenant Colonel David Johnson, a Fort Carson spokesperson, told AP. "We are a professional army. We want soldiers who want to be in the army."
Johnson's claim that the Pentagon is maintaining the volunteer nature of the US armed forces is a lie however. The December 29, 2003, Washington Post reported: "Through a series of stop-loss orders, the Army alone has blocked the possible retirements and departures of more than 40,000 soldiers, about 16,000 of them National Guard and reserve members who were eligible to leave the service this year. Hundreds more in the Air Force, Navy and Marines were briefly blocked from retiring or departing the military at some point this year."
From Green Left Weekly, October 6, 2004.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.