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LARRY DOWNING/REUTERS US military personnel listen to Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld as he addresses troops on Wednesday at Camp Buehring in Kuwait before thei r scheduled departure for Iraqi combat zones.
TIM HARPER WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTONDavid Qualls reluctantly returned to Iraq yesterday, but not be fore he made a louder statement about the state of US troop morale tha n any of the pointed questions from soldiers to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this week. It is a burgeoning problem for Rumsfeld and the Bush administration becau se more and more soldiers in Iraq are questioning the rationale for thei r mission, the way in which they have been equipped and how long they've been deployed. In so doing, they are shining new light on the price being paid for what is widely seen as inadequate war planning and piecemeal responses as US . troops battle an insurgency better armed and more determined than any scenario drawn up. As the US death toll in Iraq tops 1,270 and the looming Christmas seaso n only magnifies the frustration of families at home, stories of deserti ons and disgruntled troops began dominating the airwaves. There was the now-famous grilling of Rumsfeld by troops stationed in Kuwa it, who challenged him on a lack of armoured vehicles, lengthened deploy ments, antiquated equipment and unpaid benefits. The Toronto case of Jeremy Hinzman, a 26-year-old South Dakotan who said he fled to Canada instead of deploying to Iraq after realizing he could not kill another human being, was given prominence in many US media ou tlets. A navy petty officer is at large and been declared a deserter after refus ing to board a troop transport ship in San Diego, bound for Iraq. "I just couldn't sleep at night knowing that I took 3,000 people to a pla ce where 100 of them might die," 23-year-old Pablo Paredes told National Public Radio. Wassef Ali Hassoun, a 24-year-old Lebanese-bo rn US Marine who disappeared from his camp near Falluja last summer, l ed to a charge of desertion this week. "I didn't want, you know, died deluded in Iraq' over my gravestone," he said. According to the CBS program, some 5,000 American men and women have dese rted the military since the war began. They are largely accused of cowar dice back home, but they say they are acting out of conscience. Erik Leaver, of the liberal Institute for Policy Studies, said this week' s confrontation in Kuwait show many soldiers believe Washington is not b eing straight with them. "More and more we are hearing from military families that their sons or daughters are comi ng home on leave and saying, Mom, I don't know what I'm doing over ther e' The soldiers on the front lines there understand US policy is not working." Leaver said the shortage of armoured vehicles, coming on the heels of las t year's controversy over a lack of body armour, is particularly distres sing because this a war of choice for the Bush administration, which det ermined its timing and still did not prepare properly. Many believe the program, which allows the Pentagon to extend voluntary d eployments in time of war or national emergency, is the single most mora le-damaging program in place. The Pentagon is not forthcoming on how many soldiers will have their stay s extended, but many estimate it could affect 40,000 to 47,000 soldiers, both regular service and reservists about a third of the 150,000 Americ ans who will be in Iraq for the run-up to scheduled Jan. Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, who appears to be mulling anot her presidential run in 2008, this week called the stop-loss program the single most damaging morale issue for the military and pointed the fing er of blame at an ill-prepared Pentagon. "It just adds another layer of stress to families left at home who are no t able to plan moves, or enrol kids in school," says Michelle Joyner of the National Military Families Association, a support group for those wi th loved ones in Iraq. Joyner, whose brother, Adam Smith, is serving in Iraq, said her group has fielded calls from families who lost college tuition deposits or are ha ving difficulty getting straight answers from units as to when their fam ily members could be expected to return. "It forces some families to live day to day without being able to plan fo r the future," she said. "f you can't get clear answers, it just feeds gossip and increases stress. So when we get some calls from families, we simply have to tell them there are some questions for which we have no answer." Many of those raising questions, like Qualls, are older and more experien ced. About 45 per cent of the 138,000 troops now on the ground in Iraq are dra wn from the US Reserve and National Guard and tend to be less deferent ial to authority than younger active duty troops. The 35-year-old Qualls failed in his attempt to win a court injunction ke eping him in the US until his lawsuit could be heard. He left Camp Taji about 24 kilometres north of Baghdad last month and ret urned to Arkansas for US Thanksgiving. He was on active duty until 1990 a nd then was a member of the Individual Ready Reserves before leaving the military in 1994. In July 2003, Qualls entered the service again, under an Army National Gu ard policy known as Try One, which allows veterans to serve for only one year on a trial basis before committing to a full enlistment, according to the lawsuit. Qualls was deployed to Iraq in March but has been told his stay will be e xtended. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans reported this week that Iraq i war veterans are beginning to show up at shelters in California, raisi ng fears of a repeat of the generation of homeless Vietnam vets. And another study released in the New England Journal of Medicine this we ek showed medical advances have saved the lives of many soldiers in Iraq who would have died in previous wars. However, many of the 10,300 soldi ers wounded so far are attempting to re-integrate into their country wit h much more horrific and debilitating injuries than veterans of any othe r previous war. Death dropped in this reporter's in-box three times during the writing of this story. They came by way of separate e-mails that drop with such numbing regulari ty, they are often treated as spam unless you remind yourself that three more families have paid the ultimate price.
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