You wouldn’t catch me dead in Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-2318643,00.html

Scores of American troops are deserting — even from the front line in Iraq. But where have they gone? And why isn’t the US Army after them? Peter Laufer tracked down four of the deserters

They are the US troops in Iraq to whom the American administration prefers not to draw attention. They are the deserters – those who have gone Awol from their units and not returned, risking imprisonment and opprobrium.

When First Lieutenant Ehren Watada of the US Army, who faced a court martial in August, refused to go to Iraq on moral grounds, the newspapers in his home state of Hawaii were full of letters accusing him of “treason”. He said he had concluded that the war is both morally wrong and a horrible breach of American law. His participation, he stated, would make him party to “war crimes”. Watada is just one conscientious objector to a war that has polarised America, arguably more so than even the Vietnam war.

It is impossible to put a precise figure on the number of American troops who have left the army as a result of the US involvement in Iraq. The Pentagon says that a total of 40,000 troops have deserted their posts (not simply those serving in Iraq) since the year 2000. This includes many who went Awol for family reasons. The Pentagon’s spokesmen say that the overall number of deserters has actually gone down since operations began in Afghanistan and Iraq, but there is no doubt that a steady trickle of deserters who object to the Iraq war have made it over the border and are now living in Canada. There they seek asylum, often with the help of Canadian anti-war groups. One Toronto lawyer, Jeffry House, has represented at least 20 deserters from Iraq in the Canadian courts; he is himself a conscientious objector, having refused to fight in the Vietnam war – along with 50,000 others, at the peak of the conflict. He estimates that 200 troops have already gone underground in Canada since the war in Iraq began. snip

Many of the deserters are not pacifists, against war per se, but they view the Iraq war as wrong.

[gratuitous]

1. Deserting?

Boy, it's a good thing we're meeting all those recruiting goals, or the military could be in deep trouble, manpower-wise.

[Hailtothechimp]

2. Many who signed up after 9/11 are probably pissed...

After all, they wanted to get those who attacked the WTC. I completely understand that. But then they get sent off to Iraq, instead. IRAQ HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11. Bush admits as much.

So they are in harm's way, watching their friends die, for something that does not resemble what they signed up for. I don't blame them for deserting.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Great article

Thanks for posting.

[KoKo]

4. Didn't a young soldier just commit Suicide because couldn't Kill Children

Wasn't that posted this a.m. on DU.

That he had to commit suicide because whatever his "training taught him" to do that distressed him so much should be a story of our time.

Instead we get "Jon Benet" and whether the DNA evidence will prove that the idiot they found to hoke up to cover Bush's latest lies is really involved or not. We are wondering WHERE IS THE TERROR PLANE INCIDENT of just LAST WEEK?

Where does this news go? Doesn't it seem that there's just a "little" imbalance in the NEWS FOLKS NEED TO KNOW???

Arghhhhhhhhhhh!

[sabra]

5. 19 year old UK soldier

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1980886&mesg_id=1980886