US runs low on soldiers

[Hel'n]

19.09.2004
By PETER HUCK
A radio is playing Marvin Gaye's What's Going On as the Veterans for Peace create a memorial known as Arlington West on the beach beside Santa Monica Pier. They are placing 1008 white crosses in the sand - one for each US soldier killed in Iraq as of September 12.

Pictures of the dead are displayed in front of a coffin draped with the US flag and topped with a military helmet. Later, their names will be read out. It is a sobering ceremony on this late summer's day.

With the war locked into a bloody stalemate, the veterans are wondering how the military might find replacements to fill the gaps starkly spelled out by their symbolic cemetery. For despite the Pentagon's boast that it can fight and win two conventional wars, US forces are seriously overstretched.

"We don't have the manpower to sustain the war in Iraq," says Eric Ellis, a Vietnam veteran who helped to start Arlington West. "In Vietnam we had 550,000 troops. We rotated them every year. We had to do one combat tour. Now we have 130,000-odd troops in Iraq. They do a tour, come home, then go back."

Where to find the extra troops to fight a seemingly intractable insurgency that echoes Vietnam has become a pressing question. And although you wouldn't hear it from the Bush Administration, the prospect of deploying a draft for the first time in a generation may be edging towards reality.

Since Vietnam the US has fielded a volunteer military. But after a year of bloody combat in Iraq, and to a lesser degree in Afghanistan, its limitations are becoming apparent.

Many US soldiers in Iraq are fighting for a second year. The Pentagon has also deployed about 45 per cent of the 1.2 million-strong National Guard (as against 1.4 million in the regular armed forces), the highest call-up of "weekend warriors" since World War II. Arguably, the move could leave the US more vulnerable to attack.

Other men have been drawn from the Individual Ready Reserve, troops on call for eight years after leaving the military.

The Pentagon has bumped the number of recruiters from 6000 to 7000, and inductees are offered bonuses, scholarships, and various enticements - cosmetic surgery at Government expense is one.

Meanwhile, the war in Iraq bleeds on. Besides the dead, 6690 soldiers had been wounded by September 12.

"We're seeing new types of people going AWOL [absent without leave]," says Steve Morse from the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors. "They've returned from Iraq and are extremely stressed by the war."

Calls to the GI Rights Hotline, run by the committee, have shot up. And a handful of soldiers have deserted, fleeing to Canada.

Can the Pentagon hold the line using volunteers? Or will it to have to resurrect conscription?

"If Bush gets in I think a draft is a distinct possibility," says Ellis. He isn't alone.

Officially, the draft is a non-starter. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has ruled it out. The Selective Service Agency, the federal body that would run a draft (which has to be authorised by Congress and the president), doesn't "foresee anything on the horizon". Neither Bush nor his presidential rival, Senator John Kerry, have mentioned it.

But this could change quickly. Should Washington give the go-ahead, America's 1980 draft boards, staffed by 11,000 volunteers, are "ready to do business", says Selective Service Agency spokesman Pat Schuback.

Certainly, the agency has enough names. Registration with the agency at 18 is mandatory, tied to voter registration, federal loans and jobs, or acquiring a driver's licence. A draft would apply to all males between 19 and 25.

Recruits would be chosen by a national lottery, starting with 19-year-olds and working up. Following a 1981 Supreme Court decision women are exempt, although this could change.

Despite official claims that a draft isn't contemplated, there is growing concern at the grassroots.

"We're getting a lot of calls from people who are worried," says Morse. "Especially from young men. Even from young women."

The last point is possibly prescient. Since the Supreme Court exempted women from any draft, female volunteers have expanded from 3 per cent to 15 per cent of the armed forces. In Iraq, where frontlines are non-existent, everyone is at risk, and women are coming home in body bags.

Currently, there are two private members' bills in Congress, one in the House and one in the Senate, to re-enact the draft.

Democrat congressman Charles Rangel, a Korean War veteran, wants two years of mandatory military or civilian service for all young Americans. A similar bill has been sponsored by Democrat Senator Ernest Hollings, a World War II veteran.

So far, their calls have meet with a tepid response from lawmakers. But this could change quickly in the New Year.

"Once the presidential election is done I think there will be strong pressure on Congress to look at the draft," says Professor Don Zillman, a expert on the subject at the University of Maine in Portland.

"We are not getting the new enlistments. And the need for additional forces is there. If we are simply running out of soldiers where do we find them?"

Ultimately, any decision is political. The Vietnam-era draft, which conscripted disproportionate numbers of poor Americans, attracted widespread odium. Since then, any tradition of public service in the US has atrophied.

But Zillman believes a draft that was levied fairly could win public approval in an emergency. "I think at this stage it would be unpopular. But if we have another terrorist attack closer to home, all bets are off."


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3592350&thesection=news&thesubsection=world

[Hel'n]

Numbed by the devastation that was World War I and its aftermath, T.S. Eliot wrote in “The Waste Land,”

“A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
“I had not thought death had undone so many.”

So it is with wars. In the beginning, every death is a fresh wound, but as it goes on and the insatiable maw of the death machine continues to consume everything in its path, we become numb.

Many of us failed to notice that in August American soldiers fell at a rate of two a day. Sixty-five new graves, 65 more souls walking across London Bridge.

Ongoing, heavy fighting between American soldiers and militia loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr at the mosque in Najaf was to blame for many of the deaths.

The heaviest American losses were on the 15th (six dead) and the 21st (seven dead). Somehow the events slipped by for most of us in the haze of late summer with its bargain sales and back-to-school excitement.

The deadliest month for American troops in Iraq so far was April with 135 deaths. (Eliot was right about that, too: April so often proves to be the cruelest month.) That number fell to 80 in May and 42 in June, before creeping back up in July and August. If losses continue at this rate, they will reach the 1,000 mark by mid-month.

We cannot blame our flagging interest in the war on a lack of information. Even if major media outlets fail to showcase the news, the Internet provides unprecedented access to information about the war and the war dead.

The giant databases of The Associated Press, for example, allow users to track death totals by month, by country, by state, by age or by cause of death. Reports of individual deaths can be searched by name, branch of service or location of death. That way we can learn that 14 American service men and women have died in Najaf, and one more in Najif, possibly a typographical error for Najaf.

We also can search the AP databases just for casualties added today or yesterday.

Users can have their search results presented 50 to a page, or 100, or 500. With many of these reports, a photograph is available.

The photographs are valuable for putting faces with names, but also for challenging our ideas of war.

We imagine the dead as young men and women whose lives were still unwritten — brothers and sisters, sons and daughters. But so very many were already parents and grandparents, jobholders, breadwinners.

When we search by age, we learn that more than half the dead were younger than 26. More surprising is the companion fact that 43 percent of the American soldiers dead in Iraq were 26 or older. More than 100 were 36 or older.

Recent estimates place the age of those serving in Vietnam at around 23, not the 19 often reported. The average age of service in World War II was 26.

Another source of information on the war, albeit one with a vested interest, is the Department of Defense. DOD issues news releases naming the dead after a soldier’s family has been notified.

The release that follows, issued Tuesday, is notable for including three names in one terse note.

“The Department of Defense announced today the death of three Marines who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“Pfc. Nicholas M. Skinner, 20, of Davenport, Iowa, died Aug. 26 from injuries received due to enemy action in An Najaf, Iraq. Skinner was assigned to Battalion Landing Team 1/4, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

“Lance Cpl. Nickalous N. Aldrich, 21, of Austin, Texas, died Aug. 27 from a non-hostile vehicle accident in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Aldrich was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

“Sgt. Edgar E. Lopez, 27, of Los Angeles, Calif., died Aug. 28 due to enemy action in Babil Province, Iraq. Lopez was assigned to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.”

Often such notices include a statement that “the incident is under investigation.” But there are never any follow-up statements presenting the results of such investigations.

Perhaps the communications officers responsible for releasing the information also find the whole thing begins to blur after awhile.

Not so, of course, for the families of Pfc. Skinner, Lance Cpl. Aldrich and Sgt. Lopez. For them and for others whose loved ones serve, the war stands out in sharp relief. For them there is no blur, no numbness, no going on with other things.

Take a few minutes this weekend to catch up with the war if it is passing you by. Learn where American troops are serving and what dangers they face. Don’t wait for someone to interrupt your scheduled programming with updates.

“Shantih. Shantih. Shantih.”

So ends “The Waste Land” with a prayer for “the Peace which passeth understanding.”

Just right now, we might settle for any peace at all.

http://www.swtimes.com/archive/2004/September/03/opinion/hansen.html

[Hel'n]

Here's one measure of the cost of fighting terrorism and liberating Iraq: Fifty-four with Washington state connections are dead.

Saddam Hussein has finally been captured by American forces, but at what cost? The dying in Iraq is now done at such a rate that back home we can hold two services just miles apart on the same day. On Dec. 6, an Everett funeral was held for Todd Drobnick, 35, a Gulf War I vet killed in a head-on crash Nov. 22 near Mosul. He was a civilian interpreter working security and intelligence assignments in Iraq for U.S. defense contractor Titan Corp., which has lost 13 employees in five months. Borne in a flag-draped casket, Drobnick received full military honors at Evergreen Funeral Home next to the freeway. At the same time, down Interstate 405 that Saturday, memorial services for Army Capt. James Shull were being held at a Mormon church in Kirkland. Shull was accidentally shot in the head by another soldier while making his rounds in Baghdad Nov. 17. In the packed church, mourners filed past an array of happy family photographs including Shull, 32, with his wife and three children.

Not counting Drobnick, who does count, 54 active-duty soldiers with Washington state connections have died in Afghanistan, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Iraq since October 2001. All were raised, based, or had family here. Ages 19 to 36, they left behind 23 children, 18 widows, and one widower. The American dead of what might be called Gulf War II in Southwest Asia include Army Sgt. Nathan Chapman, 31, of Puyallup, the first to die in combat during Operation Enduring Freedom, and Marine Cpl. Cedric Bruns, 22, of Vancouver, the seventh to die in Operation Iraqi Freedom following George Bush's May 1 "Mission Accomplished" speech aboard the Everett-based USS Abraham Lincoln, declaring the end to major hostilities. As of September 2004, more than 860 U.S. military have died since then, more than 1,000 since fighting began. Counting the 130-plus dead of Afghanistan and the Philippines, where this state lost seven fighters, more than 1,130 American military personnel have died in the Southwest Asia war zone from combat and noncombat wounds since October 2001. Casualties, officially, include more than 5,000 wounded in action and a similar number in noncombat. Another 5,000 troops were evacuated for medical and psychological conditions that included stress and depression. An estimated two dozen troops have committed suicide in the war zone.

The Reuters news service recently noted that the U.S death toll in Iraq has surpassed the number of American soldiers killed (392) during the first three years of the Vietnam War, 1962 through 1964. The Orlando Sentinel, relying on Pentagon figures, calculates that since the war began, almost 10,000 U.S. troops have been killed, wounded, or injured or become ill enough to require evacuation--the equivalent of almost one Army division. But that is based on figures through only October, and November was the deadliest month yet, with 79 U.S. soldiers killed and hundreds more wounded, many suffering the loss of limbs from suicide bombings.

Such statistics are not easy to come by. The Department of Defense does not do body counts. In a political war such as Iraq, as in Vietnam, a high count is an added government liability. The Pentagon does compile lists--who died, who was wounded--without totals, which only keeps us guessing. An Associated Press story the other day on the funeral of Army Spc. Bob Benson of Spokane said he was the fifth Washingtonian to die in Iraq; in fact, he was the seventh. There are now 12. There is no official way for the public to know this, so we're left to compile our own figures using our own methods. For me, that means counting casualties such as Todd Drobnick and James Shull.

MY CASUALTY COUNT also includes Iraqi and Afghan civilians, coalition and enemy troops, and American and allied civilians. (The Web site unknownnews.net pegs the toll of coalition and enemy soldiers and civilians in Southwest Asia at 26,486 as of the start of this month, with 79,040 wounded or injured.) I also include U.S. military personnel who died from events related to war. Among them is Army reservist Rachael Lacy, 22, of Illinois, a combat medic headed for Persian Gulf duty who died in the U.S. in March after being vaccinated against smallpox and anthrax. She is one of many casualties of military medicine.

I count the home-front killing, too. Four women were murdered by their soldier husbands at Fort Bragg, the Special Forces headquarters in North Carolina, during a six-week stretch of 2002. Three of the soldiers, two of whom had just returned from Afghanistan and had taken an anti-malarial medicine that causes psychotic reactions, then killed themselves. At Fort Lewis, a soldier murdered his young wife and baby this year before committing suicide in a head-on collision. In Georgia, Spc. Richard Davis was recently found in a crude grave, beaten to death by four Army buddies who served with him in Iraq. And in Arizona, Spc. Kyle Edward Williams, who served with Jessica Lynch, murdered a young car prowler, then drove to California and killed himself. They are reminders that battles are not always fought on battlefields. Besides the debilitating long-term effects of vaccines, medicines, and weaponry such as depleted uranium, soldiers in Iraq are suffering three times the common rate of brain injuries, Army doctors say, due to high-concussion explosives used by enemy forces.

The lesson here is to not accept an official number as the definition of war's consequences. The combat death toll in Gulf War I was 148. More than 215,000 of the 696,000 deployed for that conflict--almost one-third--have sought war-related disability treatment from the Department of Veterans Affairs; another 11,000 veterans of that 1991 war, average age 36, have died. The bottom line of war, in addition to combat tolls, is the sum of all nonnatural casualties in service to the country. The Pentagon will not agree. But once you cut through the politics and patriotism of war, you get down to the deciding factor: life. How did Gen. George Patton put it-- "There is only one unchanging principle of warfare: that is, to inflict the greatest amount of death and destruction upon the enemy in the least time possible." Unfortunately, the enemy sees it this way, too.

THUS TODD DROBNICK, the Titan worker and 1986 Mariner High School graduate, is not an official military number but nonetheless a casualty of war. He and a second Titan worker were killed when hit by an oil truck in Iraq, becoming the San Diego company's 12th and 13th casualties there. His funeral went mostly unnoticed, and I couldn't find his name while wading through his company's Web site. Titan, which is being acquired by the nation's biggest defense contractor, Boeing rival Lockheed Martin, calls itself a provider of "national security solutions." It also provides modern-day soldiers of fortune in Iraq, and Drobnick's recent Everett Herald obituary made little distinction between his Persian Gulf tours: "Todd served more than eight years in the U.S. Army, doing three tours of duty in the Gulf War Theater, and two civilian assignments supporting our government in both Iraq and Kuwait as a manager of Arabic linguists." On its Web site, Titan lists a current opening for an Arabic linguist. Must be ready to work in an "unstructured environment," it says.

Capt. James Shull, meanwhile, is an official but noncombat casualty--of little difference if you are the one dead. He was deployed to Iraq May 1, the day that the war, in some minds, ended. At his memorial service, Brad Shull remembered his brother as the wild baby boy who once bounced his crib across the room, a high-school athlete, and a peacemaker. A Washington State University criminal justice grad, James joined the Army to become a military police officer. Kim Cooney, a spokesperson for the Kirkland Third Ward church, told me about a surprising coincidence between James Shull and a Utah man, Nathan Dailey. Both were Mormons. Both were Eagle Scouts. Both were in the Army. Both were captains. Both were in the 1st Armored Division. Both were hit by nonhostile fire. And both died the same day. "It's amazing," Cooney said. Regrettably, we now have the numbers to make the amazing possible.


http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0351/031217_news_wabodycount.php