IIRC, some of these freaks are gone a year and the military only goes after them for AWOL, when they fit the bill for desertion.
Why always Canada? Does Canada provide some sort of special sanctuary to deserters?
Neither of which exist. LOVE the way the Junk Media simply makes facts up sell their hyped up, valueless product
To cite one notable celebrity hypocrite...”Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time”.
There wasn’t a day in the 4 years I was in the military service that I didn’t regret my enlistment, and counted the days off on a calendar. It takes self discipline to honor a contract. Years later, I am a professional making great money, and I owe it all to the G.I. Bill getting me through an M.S. degree in college, and the self discipline to ride out the storms that hit me periodically throughout my life.
Canada my foot. I know one working in a local restaurant. The military doesn’t even seem to care.
I know this idea may be met with derision and distaste, but if the military isn’t willing to go after deserters...
...what if someone else does?
Do you think the military would be pleased if they got a phone call as to where to find a deserter, bound hand and foot, waiting nearby a military base for the MP’s to come and escort his sorry butt to the stockade?
A no-lose situation: Save the military the trouble of using the manpower to find these miscreants, and a dirty traitor get the justice they so richly deserve.
What say you?
Deserters’ discharges are all the retribution needed. Try finding a job in the U.S. with a DD or BCD.
Back in the time of Gulf War 1, my wife’s nephew was in the Army but decided that he hadn’t really signed up to get shot at. He told his commanding officer that he wanted out and -poof- he was out.
In a volunteer army, I don’t think that the Army wants to waste its time with those who really don’t want to be there. The Army sees no gain in going after the deserters except perhaps “pour l’encourages les autres.”
WA ping???
btw...he was bitching that all his US banked funds had been frozen.
Back in 93 at Fort Lewis, I was talking to some MPs and asked what their latest strange case was. They had just come back from Idaho where they picked up a kid who decided not to go to Korea and went back home. The kid never got on the plane. His unit always sent back his end of month pay saying he isn’t our soldier. Took six months for someone to notice he never showed up.
Just sitting there some things came to mind.
I first went in enlisted and then went OCS. Just random memories reference this topic.
• When I originally enlisted I had to go through a process and it was impossible for me to enlist on the spot. I had to come back later and finalize it. Part of the process was to ensure that I was not under the influence of alcohol or any other substance.
• During the process I had to sign a bunch of papers which asked questions about any moral objections I might have that would impede me from performing my job: http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/infomgt/forms/eforms/dd1966.pdf (Please reference question 25)
• I had to take an oath of enlistment: “I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.“
• This process involved sworn statements, witnesses, signatures in quadruplicate of forms that were written in plain simple English. Officers administering an oath, several days and I still had the option of backing out for a long time even after all the paperwork was completed.
These people were not tricked into service. They are all of legal age. They can’t be mentally ill or even under the influence of prescription drugs if they alter ones ability to make decisions. The recruiter in all truth paints a favorable picture, but does not lie. He wants to make his numbers, but if you fail out before a specified time he does not get full credit for the enlistment. Just a bunch of bodies that fail entry requirements or bomb out of basic does nothing for him.
A question that seldom gets presented by the media is how many of these deserters took their enlistment bonuses and paycheck and for how long, before suddenly having an epiphany during a war that they are actually morally conflicted about this whole concept.
Their entire argument revolves around two points:
• I was tricked into enlistment or the conditions of my enlistment were not made clear and this war is in direct conflict with my morals.
• The war is illegitimate and I don’t have to follow the orders given to me by the Commander in Chief, officers appointed above me, or Congress which approved military action.
I focused on the first point they present. However, as I jokingly already rhetorically added in their second argument, even that point has no merit. They are soldiers in the US military. What the UN, EU, or any other political body decides is completely irrelevant. When Sean Penn thinks a war is illegitimate because the UN didn’t approve it (Although they actually already did in 1990/1991) he must think that US soldiers are sworn in to defend some UN charter or mandate. Their defense really revolves around gaining some sort of public support with vapid arguments which will get some resonance in an unpopular war. People don’t look at the details nor logically reason in most decision making; it’s often emotional and a sort of group think. The war right now does not “feel” good to the mass consensus and hence non-valid, irrelevant arguments actually hold some weight. Any court-martial as with Watada will ultimately be made into a clown show where the true issue is avoided and long dissertations of war-crimes, the illegitimacy of this war, the decay of morale, made up stories of abuse from superiors etc. will be pushed to the forefront. The government inherently wishes to avoid long and large-scale mud fights which these issues turn into. With this inertia in public support, that’s why they have the huge rallies, the masterfully constructed web-blogs, give speeches, hump the leg of any reporter, etc. etc. etc., they hope to have the government back down.
Example: http://www.thankyoult.org
It is very sad, since it appears they they are at least in part successful. The boys taking the money; breaking a contract; breaking an oath; fleeing their country; often making false and inflammatory remarks about their own country, military, and leadership; hiding behind skirts that feel sorry for them, might get off easy after all. -IMHO