No one's looking for them.
That's the (false) line on war resisters.
Little Lynn Franey (Kansas City Star) got the ball rolling last week in the continued distortions of war resisters. Citing 'expert' (on the military payroll) Morten Ender (the man who utilized the web to find the father he never knew), Franey telegraphs that "courage" doesn't factor into resistance. "It isn’t so much a courage issue," she quotes the man raised by a US military non-biological father which brings in all sorts of issues.
Franey under-cites the figure for Army self-checkouts in 2006 (and naturally avoids telling you the number was slightly raised after NPR's reporting on the undercount this spring -- same way she avoids noting that military experts estimate the Army's self-checkout figures for 2006 should be at least 5,000). She quotes the Pentagon, she quotes their paid staff and that's really it. She offers a few bits (wrong) on Kyle Snyder that she got from the man who is NOT Snyder's attorney though Franey WRONGLY tells readers he is.
And she also includes this delicious (albeit wrong) tidbit:
The Army does not actively work to track down deserters. It enters their names in a national crime database, which tells law enforcement officers whether a warrant is out for someone's arrest.
Are your sides aching yet? Well hold on, we said Franey got the ball rolling; however, there was apparently an intramural competition for the Fool Squad last week. Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins and Bill Lee (Yakima Herald-Republic) offered up the fact-free (they're trying to cut down on facts at Yakima Herald-Republic apparently) "Military has more pressing business than tracing deserters" editorial which seemed to exist solely to flaunt their ignorance with tidbits such as these:
Noting the increasing number of desertions as the war in Iraq grinds on with no end in sight, it was mildly disturbing to learn that the military doesn't spend a whole of time and resources tracking down those who have cut and run.
[. . .]
Pentagon officials say that since today's deserters represent an extremely small percentage of the armed forces, it would be a poor use of time to go after them, particularly when there is a war on. As a result, the Pentagon does little more than enter deserters' names into an FBI national criminal database.
We're left yet again wondering, "Does it hurt to be that dumb?"
Kyle Snyder can tell you a different story. After he attempted to turn himself in only to have the US military back out of the agreement, he checked out again. He traveled around, did some Hurricane Katrina reconstruction work and embarked on a West Coast speaking tour. He had to begin phoning in his appearance after the US military began phoning police at his upcoming stops and insisting they arrest him. Snyder finished out his tour, went back to Canada and, on his wedding day, found himself hauled out of his home (in his boxers), handcuffed by Canadian police at the request of the US military. The police had to release him because it is not against the law to check out of the military and go to Canada. The US military was far from done. They crossed over the border themselves, in search of war resister Joshua Key. They showed up on Winnie Ng's doorstep, posing as Canadian police officers, demanding to know where Key was. They denied it. The Canadian police denied it. Some shamefully suggested Ng had her story wrong. Then came the admission that maybe it happened. Then came the confirmation that a Canadian police officer did take to two members of the US military to Ng's house. The cover story now is that, such strong lovers of books is the US military, they just wanted to meet the author of The Deserter's Tale and pick his brain.
The idiots from last week knew nothing of the above. Really, does it hurt to be that dumb?
Well, you may be thinking, that was a few months back and, outside of Salon, who covered it in the United States?
But last week was also the week when Lance Hering was in the news. He may or may not be a war resister. He disappeared last year while hiking. His friend states they staged the incident because Herring did not want to go back to Iraq. That may or may not be true. (We're not calling Steve Powers a liar, but on this issue, our position has been and remains that if the person is alive, they need to state their resistance themselves.) So what happened last week?
The parents of Lance Hering had their home searched by the police last Tuesday. Why? It was suspected Lance was there. Vanessa Miller (Boulder Daily Camera) reported that the police searched the home for over an hour why? They were "acting on a tip from the military". [Miller also notes that Powers has explained that Lance "Hering staged his disappearance because his life was in danger because of something he knew about his fellow Marines. Hering is a lance corporal in the Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment based in California -- the same unit that had eight soldiers charged with conspiracy, kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi civilian in Hamdania, Iraq."]
Friday, Christine Reid (Boulder Daily Camera via Rocky Mountain News) added some more deatails.
A Marine investigator said deserter Lance Hering posted on his MySpace page that he was staying at his parent's house in Boulder, sparking a search of the home earlier this week.
[. . .]
But according to a police report released Thursday, a Marine investigator called Boulder authorities Tuesday to say he had come across what he thought was Hering's MySpace page, in which Hering indicated he had been staying with his parents.
The investigator asked Boulder police to check out the Endicott Drive home after speaking with Elynne Hering and not being "satisfied by her responses to his questions," the report said.
The three idiots who wrote the editorial bemoanded that the military didn't do more than enter names in crime bases but ended up deciding it was all for the best because there were better ways to use the time.
But the reality they and Franey (intentionally?) missed is that the US military is actively seeking out war resisters, they do have an investigation division that attempts to hunt them down and, with the exception of Joshua Key, when they want to 'nab' them, they call in the police.
Here's another reality. When writing about war resisters, as an alleged journalist, it's probably a good idea to be at least familiar with their stories even if talking to one is somehow to personally distasteful for you. If it is and you're a woman who wants to do online writing, The Nation is looking to beef up their lousy record of publishing women . . . in print.
[For more on the above, you can refer to C.I.'s Tuesday "Iraq snapshot" and C.I.'s Wednesday "Iraq snapshot."]