US Forces Deserters, Objectors are Criminals says Pentagon

Latest Pentagon figures show 5,133 troops missing from duty, but campaigners say the true figure could be far higher. At present the GI Rights Hotline gets 3,000 calls a month and the volunteers say that by the time a soldier or recruit dials the help-line they have almost always made up their mind to get out by one means or another.

A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lieutenant Colonel Ellen Krenke, told the UK Independent: 'The vast majority of those who desert do so because they have committed some criminal act, not for political or conscientious objector purposes.'