Emulating the President -- How Patriotic

Unsurprisingly, some of our troops don't want to go back to the war zone when their leaves are up. This is human nature, the survival instinct kicking in on top of any of the other reasons these soldiers might have.

But what to do about them?

Soldiers failing to return from leave on schedule is an old story for the military, but nonetheless potentially a significant problem for commanders. Soldiers could face demotion or jail time for the offense.

"We had the same problem in Vietnam," said retired Marine officer Gary Solis, who commanded a company in Vietnam and later wrote a history on military law during that war.

On the other hand, they can rightly claim that they're following the example set by their Commander In Chief.

Maybe the wingnuts were right. They claimed that having a draft dodger in the White House encouraged young people to avoid the draft (though this was all theoretical, since there wasn't one). And now, we have an AWOL reservist for a pResident, and look what's happening...