Soldier who deserted awaits word

[central scrutinizer]

from:
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/09/19/c1.cr.swift.0919.p1.php?section=cityregion

An Army investigation is complete, but Spc. Suzanne Swift - who deserted her unit to avoid a second tour of duty in Iraq - is still in limbo.

The official inquiry into allegations that Swift was sexually harassed and abused both stateside and in Iraq has concluded only that she was verbally harassed in the United States but not abused, an Army spokesman said.

Her commanding officer will now have to decide whether she should be punished for refusing to redeploy to Iraq.

Swift drew national attention last June when police arrested her at her mother's house in Eugene for a six-month unauthorized absence from her unit. She said she refused to return to Iraq in January because she feared she would be subjected to a repeat of the sexually charged atmosphere that plagued her first deployment.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

1. That's No Excuse

Just because she was sexually abused and harassed, does not give her the right to refuse serving our country and "spreading".......errrr......democracy around the world.

[Peace Patriot]

2. I support anyone who refuses to be cannon fodder for this corporate oil

war--whatever their reason. It is a sign of rigged elections and our faltering democracy that we are still there--having been led into it with lies, bearing guilt for the slaughter of at least 100,000 innocent people (in the initial bombing alone, according to the British doctors' report), bearing guilt for the unconscionable torture of innocent Iraqis, having to watch Halliburton, the vice president's company, steal billions and billions of dollars from us and from the Iraqi people, with no accountability, and having to be witness to the utter, wanton destruction of Iraqi society from day one of the invasion, with our Secretary of Defense equating looting and freedom.

HOW can this be continuing? How can our soldiers be dragged back into this, time and again, with multiple tours of duty in the hell that the Bushites have made of Iraq?

I have no doubt that this woman was intensely harassed. I've read detailed accounts of her story. The whole tenor of the U.S. presence in Iraq is brutal beyond belief, harassing, bigoted, macho, corrosive of all human and democratic values, and a criminal blight on our nation. I've no doubt that MANY soldiers are being harassed in every conceivable way. And I admiring of Spc. Suzanne Swift for calling them on it, and refusing to take this any more. What courage! What moxy! What spirit! Power, prayers and good wishes to you, Suzanne! And whatever hell they try to put you through for this rebellion, remember that it is THEIR problem, not yours. It can inconvenience and even hurt you, but it cannot touch your deeply any more. Your healing begins NOW!