A generation after Vietnam, an increasing number of American soldiers are evading Iraq by heading north, writes Ian Munro in Toronto.BEFORE he deserted from the US Marine Corps, Dean Walcott had ridden shotgun on besieged convoys speeding towards Baghdad and spent a second Iraq tour setting up military communications.
Though he had re-enlisted and was in no imminent danger of being redeployed for a third tour to Iraq, Mr Walcott could not go through with it. He bought a ticket on a Greyhound bus and rode to Canada, joining a steady trickle of US enlisted soldiers seeking refuge.
Mr Walcott's life was up-ended in 2004 at a military hospital in Germany when burns survivors from the Mosul mess tent bombing were shipped in.
(snip)
A Toronto lawyer, Jeffry House, said he had spoken to 170 people hiding in Canada and estimated the total number of deserters at 250. "I can't believe I have seen every single guy up here," he said.
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