U.S. Anti-War Soldiers Escape to Canada: Paper

[seemslikeadream]

LONDON, April 19 (IslamOnline.net) – Evoking the exodus of young men north of the borders during the Vietnam era, two U.S. soldiers against the Iraq invasion fled to Canada.

The Daily Telegraph said in a report published Monday, April 19, that two soldiers are seeking asylum as refugees, arguing that they face persecution for their beliefs - and in theory the death penalty - if they return.

Speaking from his new home in Toronto, one soldier shied away from urging other servicemen to copy his example, afraid, he said, of being "seditious".

But he had this message for other soldiers with moral qualms about the invasion of Iraq. "They need to do what they think is right," he said.

"If that means going to Canada, follow your conscience."


more
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-04/19/article07.shtml

[DarkPhenyx]

1. Really wish I could...

...jsut cut and paste my opinon here. It would save a lot of time.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

9. You could have saved even more time by...

...not responding at all.

[DarkPhenyx]

10. But what fun would that be?

None at all. Your responding to me made it all worth while. Thanks snookums! :)

[seemslikeadream]

2. US 'soldiers of conscience' take Sixties route to Canada

Already he has been joined by a second fugitive, Brandon Hughey, 18, a private who abandoned his unit the night before its deployment from Fort Hood, Texas, to the Middle East and is now living with a Quaker couple in the Ontario city of St Catharines.

"This is a war based solely on lies," Pte Hughey said. "If other soldiers feel that they cannot take part, they should talk to their superiors about it. But Canada is an option."

They both call the war in Iraq a violation of international law, a crime that overrides their duty to the army they signed up for.

Pte Hinzman had no qualms about serving in Afghanistan although he did ask his officers for a non-combat role.



One of 60,000 Americans who fled to dodge the draft and service in Vietnam, Jeffry House, recalls turning up at the border in 1970 and simply announcing that he wanted to live in Canada. The Canadian guards asked whether he had a "military problem" and then ushered him to one side to start a new life.

Now a Canadian citizen and a lawyer, he is overseeing Pte Hinzman's and Pte Hughey's attempts to become refugees

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/19/wdes19.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=137110

[saigon68]

3. Look for more of this, especially when the "Draft" starts

Soon to be very "DRAFTY" at the border.

[malachi]

8. Canada no longer haven for those looking avoid the draft.

From a ltr to the ed in the Phila Daily News from last week. Pay special attention to para #5.

IAM SURPRISED that the media have not mentioned the pending bills in Congress,

S 89 and HR 163, to reconstitute the military draft just after the election.

It appears the administration plans to quietly pass these bills while attention is on the upcoming presidential election.

I understand that $28 million has been added to the 2004 Selective Service System budget to prepare for a draft, and the Pentagon has begun to fill all draft-board slots nationwide.

All persons, including women, 18 through 26, will be called in the draft. Since Canada and the U.S. signed a declaration in 2001, Canada will no longer be a draft-escape route. The reforms also eliminate higher education as a deferment. Upperclassman would only be able to postpone service until the end of their current semester. Seniors would have until the end of the academic year.

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/opinion/8444438.htm

[saigon68]

13. Canadian Airports used to fly to "Draft Unfriendly" Countries

There are more countries than just Canada who would offer asylum.

[Wright Patman]

4. U.S. volunteers

should realize that it is the nature of the beast to which they swear allegiance that they WILL be ordered to commit war crimes and should bear that in mind BEFORE they sign on the dotted line. Is a college education worth your eternal soul?

The U.S. military pioneered the use of weapons of mass destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and continues to violate international law and the rules of war as a matter of policy wherever it engages the "enemy" anywhere in the world. And the "enemy" may eventually include noncompliant Americans.

[NNN0LHI]

5. "And the "enemy" may eventually include noncompliant Americans." ??

John Cleary receives first aid after he was wounded by Ohio National Guardsmen who had fired into a crowd of students.

Members of the Ohio National Guard stand over the body of Jeffrey Miller, one of four students slain during an anti-war protest at the Kent State University campus.

[seemslikeadream]

7. August 6, 1945

Mothers moved among the wounded mobilized students who had been laid out. When one found her child, she would burst into tears and embrace her or him.
Drawing / Anonymous
August 7, 1945
Approx. 1,700m from the hypocenter

Outside Yokogawa Station, Yokogawa-cho 3-chome

Cremating on the riverbank bodies gathered in trucks
Drawing / Shigeo Fujii
August 17, 1945
Approx. 2,000m from the hypocenter
Fukushima-cho




Countless blistered, gray, unrecognizable corpses
Drawing / Anonymous
3:00 to 4:00 p.m., August 8, 1945
Approx. 250m from the hypocenter
Moto-machi


A People's Record of Hiroshima
Fifty-eight years ago, on August 6, 1945, a single atomic bomb dropped by the United States utterly destroyed the city of Hiroshima. Hundreds of thousands of residents died.

http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/virtual/VirtualMuseum_e/exhibit_e/exh...

[Voltaire99]

12. Excellent post, Wright Patman

Welcome to DU

[NNN0LHI]

6. Before someone questions this source...

http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/cst-nws-ikosovo19.html

[Voltaire99]

11. Good luck to these men! Canada should grant asylum

This is an opportunity for a moral light to shine in North America. Canada could offer refuge to the many conscientious National Guardsmen and servicemen who have been betrayed by our corrupt politicians.

Remember: the objectors are people who agreed to defend the United States, which is not an agreement to invade, pillage and kill for empire. I salute the soldier quoted in today's Chicago Sun Times:

"Just because you sign a contract, that doesn't mean you abdicate the right to be a moral human being," said Jeremy Hinzman, 25, a private at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and the first of the two to reach Canada. "If you know that an order is unjust, it's your duty to disobey it."

Wake up, John Kerry. Your complicity in this war is a disgrace.