Soldiers Choose Canada (Facing Iraq duty, two U.S. G.I.'s head north to seek asylum)

the Village Voice ^ | 4/6/2004 | Alisa Solomon

[cpdiii]

Many Quakers served in WWII as battle field Medics. Although they did not fight they served with honor and distinction and endured casualty rates as high and higher than the other troops.

[GOP_1900AD]

Bounty hunting anyone? ;)

[Criminal Number 18F]

I have not served in the Military, ...[but]...If you don't want to fight - Get the hell out and apply for some free Gubmnt' Cheese!

I have 25+ years in the military (Active, Reserve and Guard), almost all of it in SF, and a wall full of gongs and baubles including the CIB, and I agree with you 100%.

Yes, the military offers benefits to young people (hell, I joined for college money myself) but there is another side to the bargain. In peacetime you have to do some crappy duty... in wartime you can be at risk. (If these clowns had a problem with fighting, why didn't they choose radar repair instead of infantry, f'r Chrissakes?).

I am beside myself with anger at this jerk who is so incredibly put upon because he had to spend - sob! - 14 hours a day on KP (while his former buddies spent a heck of a lot longer, doing a heck of a lot more, at an enormously greater risk...).

Hot tip for these two traitors: don't ask for enlisted representation on your court martial. You get all officers on the board, they will be young captains who may have some sympathy for you. Ask for enlisted, and you will get some beady-eyed sergeant major, who probably immigrated here, and loves his country and his Army more than life itself. It will take all the captains on the board to keep him from getting the death penalty on these twerps by sheer force of personality...

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[LenS]

No, just close the border and watch Canada's economy collapse.

[Tennessee_Bob]

Cowardly bastards. Speaking as a vet, I'd rather have them in Canada, than in my unit - but what the hell were they thinking when they went through basic and their other schools? Didn't they look at their ID cards? Mine said Department of Defense - nothing about the "Department of Daisy Planting." Rotten pieces of s**t.

[GeronL]

"I do not want to be a pawn in the government's war for oil

If we had wanted Iraq's oil, we would have dropped the sanctions instead of going to war.

[Criminal Number 18F]

Note, the kid in the article is 18. Hardly doubt you'd see him reenlist anyway.

Yeah. Now in some fields we need young people who serve one term -- that's perfectly honourable in my book. It's signing up, grabbing your bennies, and then bugging out when TSHTF that makes me see red!

Also, one of these goons, Hinzman, was in an infantry unit but nothing says where Hughey was. I suspect we will find he is in some assignment where he's have been deep in a bunker counting wool socks.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[68skylark]

If you've been sworn in today, let me say congratulations to you. You've stood up for a good, solid, hororable purpose. You've stood up for liberty. Many interesting adventures are ahead.

You sound like someone who has a good head on his shoulders -- someone who will make the most of the (sometimes difficult) challenges ahead.

[68skylark]

Sorry my fingers aren't working tonight! I meant to compliment you for the "honorable" purpose to which you've sworn an oath.

[Travis McGee]

I think the worst punishment for this jerk would be to have to stay in Canada for his natural.

[Travis McGee]

I am on the Marine Corp Recruit Depot San Diego several times a week, and I get choked up meeting those young kids, who enlisted knowing they were going to war. I salute every one of them, who has signed on for combat duty.

[Loyalist]

Canada is unfortunately full of cheap anti-American sentiment, but there's no one more virulently anti-American in Canada than draft dodgers and American academics in our universities.

With only a few exceptions, I find American expatriates in Canada to be the most obnoxious blowhards living.

[NordP]

This is SO typical....since there were two, the headline reads "SoldierS --Making it sound like there are dozens...

sheeesh.

[Terabitten]

Effin' p*ssies.

[John.Cooch]

The thing that bugs me, a 23 yr vet, is that if they feel so strongly about not going to war, they should be glad to face the consequences of that action. Instead, they want to just opt out. I don't want to go to war, but I don't want to go to jail for my beliefs either. What kind of person is that?

[John.Cooch]

Timo -

I can tell you there is no piece of paper that does what you suggest, HOWEVER, there are contracts and there are documents that speak to lengthly deployments.

In addition there is that oath that we take that states (and everyone states it upon enlistment TWICE) that we will DEFEND the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. That being said, I will let you make your own decision...