Cowards in Canada; American deserters seeking refuge north of the border were recently given a reprieve when Canadian justice Robert Barnes recently ruled that the Immigration and Refugee Board was wrong when it decided that an American deserter couldn't claim refugee status in Canada because the military transgressions he was evading weren't severe enough to be war crimes or crimes against humanity. The largest stumbling block yet to be overcome is proving that they would face undue hardship if returned to the United States.
Cowards? Some of you might take offense at applying this appellation to those who claim refuge based on principle or conscientious objector status. Yet the question remains, what are they fleeing? The American military is an all volunteer force and has been for many years and makes little effort to catch deserters aside from establishing a deserter warrant in the national criminal database.
Cowards! I call them cowards not because of their refusal to serve or fight in Iraq, I call them cowards because they lack the principals to stand up for their beliefs, choosing to flee rather than to fight for them. One need look no further than Gandhi to see the respectable principal of non-violent civil disobedience. What are they fleeing? Do they really believe that they will be drawn and quartered in the public square when no American deserter of the Iraq war has received more than eighteen months as punishment?
A Florida National Guard deserter, Camilo Mejia, received one year in jail, a bad conduct discharge, and a reduction in pay by two-thirds to $795 a month. I wonder how much time he had left on his enlistment contract, more than a year?. Rick Clousing of the 82nd Airborne deserted in 2005, leaving a note in his barracks explaining his actions, he fully expected the police to be waiting with handcuffs when he returned home... no one was there. He turned himself in in Seattle, hoping to make an anti-war statement and be hauled off in chains; He was given a bus ticket to Fort Bragg and told to report on his own. "I really though I would be more of a priority" said Clousing. Sorry, Rick, we really don't care! He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of absent without leave (he returned of his own accord...desertion requires the intent not to return) was given a bad conduct discharge and 3 months confinement. Most deserters are simply discharged in non-criminal proceedings under "other than honorable" conditions.
Other than honorable: That is an apt description for the actions of these people, they are not heroes (other than of the anti-war movement), nor are they despicable fiends. Is Ryan Johnson the best that the anti-war movement has to offer? Johnson was tired of living in the agricultural wasteland of Visalia, California, tired of dead-end jobs, the military was a chance at a college education. "I enlisted as supply because there was a war going on, and at the time of my enlistment they said, ‘this is a job where [you would] be working in a warehouse,’ and I had no interest in participating in direct combat." Hello moron! You joined the freaking ARMY, not the peace corp. Have you ever cracked a dictionary? Try looking up "Army". Take Cory Glass for example "I joined the National Guard in 2002 believing it was a humanitarian organization". What? The little guy on their emblem holding a rifle wasn't a clue?
Other than intelligent: There is no way, unless you spent your formative years chained to the basement wall, that anyone can put forth the argument that they had no idea that the basic mission of any military organization involved the application of violence in the furtherance of political ends. The vast quantity of information out there in movies, TV shows, video games, novels (okay, maybe they don't read), hell, even comic books, is overwhelming. What? You managed to grow up never having seen a single episode of M*A*S*H ? Never played "Call of Duty"?
Fraud: We shouldn't be prosecuting these idiots for desertion, we ought to be prosecuting them for contract fraud. Since they all seem to have joined the military for it's benefits never intending to fulfill their end of the contract. What? Did you think it was some kind of lottery? Hey maybe I'll get lucky and get that $30000 for college and we won't go to war and I won't get shot. Maybe we ought to print the odds at the bottom of the enlistment contract: Odds of getting killed in the US Military over the past five years of operation in Iraq 1:3646 (This is a really crude estimate based on number of people on active and reserve/guard service and the average number of US KIA's in Iraq per year between 2003 and 2007). These are mercenaries of the worst sort... joining the military for the money as opposed to the principal.
Cowards! I would have significantly more respect for you had you simply sat on the ground at the entrance your post and refused to get up. Was your unit going to carry you into combat? I think not. You fled to Canada not out of principal, being opposed to the war, you fled to Canada because you were unwilling to accept the repercussions of your refusal to comply with the terms of your contract. You are a coward because you were afraid to face the opinions of your supposed comrades in arms. You are a coward because while you claim in principle to oppose the war, you are afraid to accept the consequences for refusal to obey orders you believed to be wrong. You are a coward because instead of staying and standing up for what you claim you believe in, you chose instead to flee, to accept being used as a propaganda tool against your country, and you are no more than that; a tool. You are a coward because you would sacrifice your principals for your comfort... unwilling to sacrifice the time or suffer the personal embarrassment of sticking around. Where would India be today if Gandhi had simply fled to the U.S and requested asylum? I have much more respect for Camilo Mejia and Rick Clousing than I have for you.
Where would America and the world be today if Patrick Henry, John Adams, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and all the other 'Patriots' had simply fled to Spanish or French territory and simply requested asylum.
Where would America be if Martin Luther King had fled to Canada and requested asylum based on racial discrimination and the threat of death?
What I can't figure out, outside of the possible propaganda benefits to the Canadian left, is why the Canadians would even want you.
Canada, give them asylum... Please! Because honestly, I'd rather they be called Canadians than Americans (nothing personal).
~Finntann~
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