Soldiers told: "You'd better re-enlist, or we're sending you to Iraq"

Atrios discovered this horrendous story of what is very likely a crime.

Hundreds of US soldiers in Colorado Springs, CO were THREATENED THAT THEY'D BETTER RE-ENLIST FOR 3 YEARS OR THEY'LL BE IMMEDIATELY SENT TO IRAQ (i.e., we'll kill you).

I see a few problems here.

1. These are our friggin soldiers they're threatening to kill.
2. Extortion, last time I checked, was a crime.
3. This is a draft, threatening to basically kill someone if he doesn't enlist.
4. Stalin, anyone?
5. The base is, of course, denying the story. Has anyone launched an official investigation of this?
6. If it happened to 100 of soldiers at this one base, it could be happening to soldiers across the country. How do we know it's not?

At the very least, there needs to be an immediate investigation of these charges, and if it's found that the threat was made, the extorter needs to be charged and jailed. Then we need to know if anyone higher up approved of this.

But hey, I'm sure it's an isolated incident that only happened at Abu Ghraib, I mean, Fort Carson.