perfidy

So this soldier packed up and moved his family to Canada because he was going to be sent in harm's way. Again. He had already completed a tour in Afghanistan, and was about to be sent to Iraq. His conscience would not allow him be a tool of American oppression (or something), so he ran to Canada. His story is that he enlisted for the college money and to "make a difference", and not so much for the fighting and the icky bits.

Here's the problem: he was in the 82nd. He went to jump school. The article doesn't specify whether or not he was an infantryman, but regardless you don't put yourself through the rigorous training and land a posting in a prestigious airborne unit unless you want to be there. If you are unfamiliar with the 82nd's history of close combat, relentless aggression, and cultivation of the warrior spirit, you're stupid. If you just need a hug, you're in the wrong place.

Furthermore, he decided he was a conscientious objector. That claim would carry alot more weight if he had claimed he was a CO when the recruiter first asked him, early on in the process. Or later, when he signed a document that again asked him whether he was a CO (among other stuff, like if you've ever tried to overthrow the governemnt, that sort of thing). So he wasn't then I guess.

The article quoted him at length discussing how he was unwilling to risk his life for a mission he did not believe in (in Iraq, that is). Again, this kid is a little dense, and missing the fundamentals: it's not up to soldiers to decide which missions they will accept or which they will not. It's the soldier's job to execute them. Yes, there is an ethical dimension, in that all soldiers are sworn to obey the lawful orders of the officers posted over them. If your commander orders you to execute a prisoner, you would not have to obey and indeed would be criminally liable if you did. Getting an order to deploy to Iraq is a lawful order, and Congressional authorization for the conflict is what counts, not the goddamn UN, not Mother Theresa, not Greenpeace, and damn sure not you. There's no conscientiously objecting your way around that.

Finally, if the kid really "wanted to make a difference", as he claims, why not the Peace Corps or Teach for America or Commies for Christ or some such? No, nothing says "I'm here to help" like parachutes and body armor.

Oh, and double-finally: Canada should extradite him, since desertion is a crime there as well as here. He's not so much cowardly, as just dumb.