U.S. soldiers' grilling fields... `Backdoor draft' adding to worries for some troops

More talk heard of desertion, disgruntlement
Tim Harper / Washington Bureau / The Toronto Star /Dec. 11, 2004. 08:23 AM

WASHINGTON—David Qualls reluctantly returned to Iraq yesterday, but not before he made a louder statement about the state of U.S. troop morale than any of the pointed questions from soldiers to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this week.

Qualls, an army specialist from Morrilton, Ark., and seven other soldiers who have remained nameless, have sued the Pentagon, claiming they are improperly being kept in Iraq beyond their agreed tour of duty.

It is a burgeoning problem for Rumsfeld and the Bush administration because more and more soldiers in Iraq are questioning the rationale for their 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 U.S. troops battle an insurgency better armed and more determined than any scenario drawn up.

As the U.S. death toll in Iraq tops 1,270 and the looming Christmas season only magnifies the frustration of families at home, stories of desertions and disgruntled troops began dominating the airwaves.

There was the now-famous grilling of Rumsfeld by troops stationed in Kuwait, who challenged him on a lack of armoured vehicles, lengthened deployments, antiquated equipment and unpaid benefits.

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The news for those who have come home is equally bleak.

The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans reported this week that Iraqi war veterans are beginning to show up at shelters in California, raising fears of a repeat of the generation of homeless Vietnam vets.

And another study released in the New England Journal of Medicine this week 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 soldiers wounded so far are attempting to re-integrate into their country with much more horrific and debilitating injuries than veterans of any other previous war.

Meanwhile, the death toll mounts. Death dropped in this reporter's in-box three times during the writing of this story.