Posted on 03/17/2008 7:05:15 AM PDT by pnh102
TORONTO In from the cold they come, gangly young men and graying grandfathers alike, filling a downtown church with the kind of polite anticipation more befitting an afternoon wedding than an antiwar rally.
...
Across Canada, the remnants of a lost counterculture are rising up again as hundreds of aging draft dodgers reluctantly leave the quiet comforts of their anonymous lives to help an estimated 200 Iraq war deserters who fled north with no promise of asylum.
...
"You're being stop-lossed!"
Phil McDowell tried to absorb his wife's frantic news in June 2006 that the Army was rescinding his discharge. Iraq had left him unsettled, angry. ... Now a letter from his commander was waiting at home, and McDowell later learned that the Army could essentially reinstate him for nearly two more years' active duty.
...
Faced with orders to report back to duty, McDowell "made a promise to myself, to Jamime and my family: Whatever happens, I'm not going back.
...
Mull was a New York City social worker who joined the service for the education benefits: ... His childhood had been rough, and Mull landed in foster care at 14 after his mother died. ... he was still saddled with student debts and just scraping by, terrified to see that he wasn't that many steps away from the homeless he helped as a city caseworker: no family, no means, no safety net.
He signed up with the Army, choosing avionics as his field "because I didn't want to be kicking down doors, raiding houses. I didn't want that blood on my hands." But once posted to Fort Eustis, Va., ... "Everybody knew Fort Eustis was straight-to-Iraq." ... Not long after, he walked out of his barracks and caught a bus north.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Rules is rules - incorrect title.
Wow...such bravery!
May Jane Fonda could go up and put on a “Camp Show” for them!
May=Maybe. Fat fingers
Chicken$h!ts!!!
I don’t care that they went to Canada. I just want them to stay there for the rest of their miserable lives.
“who joined the service for the education benefits”
There inlies the problem.
He didn’t join to benefit his country, he joined to benefit himself.
that's one of the primary reasons, besides my father's service, for joining the Marines.
The education benefits were great, but I wanted to be surrounded by men that wanted to be Marines and not guys that were looking for the tuition lottery. In combat there's enough stuff happening to kill you, you at least want a brother that's "in" the fight, and not looking to bail.
Oh brother. I got the impression the author enjoyed writing the article much too much.
Reliving the past. Funny how these traitors can’t seem to understand that Canada won’t automatically grant asylum to them SINCE THEY VOLUNTEERED DURING WARTIME.
Dolts.
Do I at least get props for linking to the printer-friendly version of the article directly?
The Canadians should send them all to Winnipeg.
Six weeks of below zero (F) weather in the winter and huge mosquitoes in the summer.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
And stay there, those cruds deserve her!
Its all a byproduct of the “Army of One” BS campaign.
Did you just know that was going to backfire on them. Ask anyone who has been under fire—from my grandfather in WWI, my Dad in Korea, or kids that i know that have come back from Iraq—it is about the unit, not the troop.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.