Soldiers' resistance

At least 28 soldiers have failed to report for flights back to Iraq after two weeks of leave in the United States or to call ahead with an explanation, US military spokesmen said Tuesday.

The military sought to play down the no-shows, noting that they represented only a tiny fraction of the more than 1,300 Iraq-based soldiers who have been given two weeks of leave since the program began September 25.

..."To my knowledge, the vast majority of those have already tracked back to guys who missed planes, missed connections. One man's house burned down. So there are reasons why they did not return," General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.

Military spokesman said the circumstances of each case will be investigated.

"We're not seeing this as a chronic, overwhelming problem here," said Mitchell. article

More media damage control.

We had a preview of this issue in an October 5 article from the New York Post.

The GI Rights Hotline, a national soldiers' support service, has logged a 75 percent increase in calls in the last 12 weeks, with more than 100 of those calls from soldiers, or people on their behalf, asking about the penalties associated with going AWOL - "absent without leave" - according to volunteers and staffers who man the service.

Many of the calls have come from soldiers who are among those now on the first wave of 15-day authorized leaves that began almost two weeks ago. Some hotline callers have indicated they may not return, staffers said.

I may have a hard time being convinced this is not going to be a problem, but I am confident that it will be addressed.

You might consider volunteering to plug holes in the dyke for BushCo. They may be coming up short on fingers.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.