Posted on 08/11/2006 3:47:03 PM PDT by MizSterious
Published on Friday, August 11, 2006
Shortly after returning from Iraq last year, Army Sgt. Ricky Clousing gathered a few belongings and left Fort Bragg in the middle of the night, leaving only a note quoting Martin Luther King.
Less than six months in Iraq, seeing the "daily physical, psychological and emotional harassment of civilians," had left him confused and disenchanted with the United States' role in the war, he said.
"My experience in Iraq really made me second-guess my ability to perform as a soldier and also forced me to question my beliefs in associating myself" with the Army, the 24-year-old Sumner man said in an Associated Press interview Thursday, a day before he planned to turn himself in to Fort Lewis authorities.
Officials in Fort Bragg, N.C., did not return an Associated Press call for comment on the case Thursday. Fort Lewis officials said they did not know about Clousing's case and could not comment.
Speaking from a friend's home in Seattle, Clousing said he won't participate in what he considers to be a "war of aggression" that has "no legal basis to be fought."
Clousing sneaked out of Fort Bragg in June 2005. Beginning last fall, his lawyers said, they contacted Fort Bragg and later Fort Lewis to try to negotiate a discharge. But neither installation claims responsibility for him, said attorney Lawrence Hildes of Bellingham. Finally, Clousing decided to just show up at Fort Lewis.
He is the latest soldier in Washington state to publicly oppose the Iraq war.
(Excerpt) Read more at fayettevillenc.com ...
Why do I get the feeling that Ricky was a remf?
It's a damn good thing the Army didn't pay him to think.
I've never heard of a non-aggressive "war." What a dumb-@ss.
A defensive war, perhaps. If he was this attitude toward the war, do we really want him over there?
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