About the War in Iraq

There were a few articles that I came across this week that merit mention.

The first issue concerns Canada. Canada must by now be feeling a bit uncomfortable in it’s new lime light. They seem to be a beacon of democracy these days. First, after President Bush was reelected, there were many Americans who applied for citizenship to Canada, willing to leave the United States and give up their United States citizenship. These people were a combination of left-leaning people who felt that their country on many levels was trampling on democracy for many of it’s citizens. Others, such as couples of the same sex who wanted only to have equality through marriage, seek to live in a country where they could be equal.

But now, there’s a new group of Americans who are taking a closer look at our neighbor to the north; young Americans who joined our military and have been deployed to Iraq.

Thousands of people seek asylum in Canada every year, but these were extraordinary exiles: They claimed to be refugees from the United States, soldiers no less, who deserted duty in Iraq and are taking a provocative stance against the nation they vowed to serve.

“I was willing to give my life. I received a Purple Heart for being injured in combat,” said Darrell Anderson, 22, one of a handful of deserters who have surfaced here decrying the war and seeking protection as refugees. An Army Humvee gunner from Lexington, Ky., he spent seven months in Iraq before packing a duffel and fleeing while on leave earlier this year.

I’m going to be able to live the rest of my life with my head held up high, knowing I wasn’t part of the killing of innocent people,” he said on a recent night under a banner in the library that read: “Message From Canada, War Resisters Welcome Here.”

Anti-war activists and Americans who settled here to avoid serving in Vietnam are embracing the soldiers as kindred spirits, but this is a different generation of defectors. They volunteered for the military, and though Canada opposed the Iraq war, it’s arguing against granting the soldiers asylum -- a contrast to the Vietnam era, when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau declared his country “a refuge from militarism” and welcomed tens of thousands of deserters and draft evaders. (source)

It’s a tough issue that effects people I work with. I was talking two days ago to a woman at work who has a boy who is entering his teenage years. She believes that our country has made a bad decision in the war in Iraq. She fears that by the time her son is 18, a draft will be in force. She is thinking of starting the process of moving to Canada. Then the subject was changed because she said if she kept talking about it, she would start crying.

It’s not that these people are cowards or unpatriotic. I know that some people want to paint them in that light because it makes it easier to dismiss them. If we had an immediate threat such as an invasion to our country and were in imminent danger, I would be the first to take up arms to defend my country. All we have done is abuse our power and be the new bully on the block. Meanwhile, the hatred for our country increases day by day.

We, in return, imply to Syria that they could be our next target. And, our relationship with Russia is deteriorating as well. This is how world wars begin. Only this time, we are the Germany. We are the aggressors. And we all know what happened to Germany.

And finally, a milestone has been reached in the war. The number of United States troops killed in the war on Iraq has reached 1,500.

At the local level in Connecticut, I received an email from the People of Faith, that covers many religious denominations that believe, among other things, that gay people should be treated with equality. They are having a rally against the war in Hartford. This was part of the email:

END THE WAR IN IRAQ!
END THE OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE!
STOP TARGETING MINORITIES AT HOME!
BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

March and Rally
Saturday, March 19
Hartford
March at 12:00 noon
Intersection of Capitol & Broad
Rally at 1:00 p.m.
Barnard Park (South Green)

Be there if you can. I plan to be.