US Army Deserter Fled Iraq for Canada

[UpInArms]

http://www.thetyee.ca/News/2005/08/02/IraqDeserter/

Joshua Key grew to hate his army's chaotic brutality. In BC, he seeks legal refuge and a home.

“All we want is to find a home so our kids can grow up in a stable environment and go to school and make friends,” Brandi Key says as she towels off her six month old baby in the front seat of the dodge caravan which has recently become the family’s temporary home. Brandi is the wife of Joshua Key, a 27-year-old former soldier who deserted the US Army. The pair, in Nelson last week, are driving across Canada with their four kids in search of a home, and Canadian refugee status.

The Keys are living in a van because of Joshua Key’s opposition to the US-led war in Iraq. While many opponents of the Iraq war base their opposition on media reports, Key’s opinion is based on what he witnessed when he fought for eight months in Iraq’s Sunni Triangle.

Key never thought he’d end up in Iraq in the first place. When he first enlisted, he signed up to be a bridge builder in a non-deployable unit. Despite this the army trained him in explosives and landmines, and sent him to Iraq in April of 2003.

<snip>

Key’s unit was the second to enter Iraq after the invasion. Soon after arriving, Key saw evidence of an extremely disorganized U.S military. “There wasn’t enough food or water for the troops. We were told to steal water from other troops before we left on a mission so we’d have enough.”

They were in Ramadi for three weeks before it got violent. Key’s job was to patrol streets and raid homes. “We’d use explosives to blow up the front door, then six of us would run in, grab the males and send them off for interrogation and hold the women and children at gunpoint while we completely destroyed their home. Soldiers could steal whatever they wanted.”

...more...

[aquart]

1. No, no, no!

Dodgers go to Canada. DESERTERS GO TO SWEDEN. Is history simply not being taught in our schools?

[VegasWolf]

8. I think it's, "Is our children larnin' hystorie?" We democrats must speak

clearly so that our Republican friends will understand us.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. You have to wonder what's wrong with the ones that aren't headed

for Canada.

[atreides1]

4. Several Reasons

1. They truly believe that they are defending America and our way of life.

2. They have made their choice and they are doing their duty.

3. They look forward to the prospect of killing "ragheads".

4. They are to cowardly to stand up for what is right, and will
go along to get along. But they'll say they can't leave their
buddies behind.

5. They can't afford to run.

There are probably all kinds of reasons, including the 5 I listed above. Each man or woman has to make the decision based on what is
right for them.

[pocket]

5. They are to cowardly to stand up for what is right

#3 and #4

don't forget cash bonuses. we have a mercenary military.

[leetrisck]

18. Their lives and their families lives will be destroyed

It will not be like bush deserting

[qwertyMike]

3. Deserters to Canada

According to people in the streets here (Halifax, Nova Scotia) asking to sign petitions and raise funds, there are at least ten in Canada. One or two here in Nova Scotia.

Welcome guys/girls!!!!!!!

Mike

[DELUSIONAL]

6. Evidently bushie's gang intended Iraq to be a chaotic mess

Poor planning -- and then ordering the soldiers to break into homes, kidnap the men and destroy and steal whatever they wanted -- this is a sure formula for failure.

From the very beginning this war can be viewed as a decision tree -- the correct or truthful decision and the lie or screw up decision. Almost without fail the bush gang chose the liar/screw up decision.

If we need a text book example for future generations of WHAT NOT TO DO -- the bush gang's non planning and running of the Iraq invasion is text book case for not selecting a raving idiot to live in the white house.

At this point I don't know which will die first -- the Republican party or America.

[KFC]

7. But we are getting so much love in Iraq

Flowers being tossed at us nonstop, peace, safety, and happiness. Why would our troops ever want to leave?

[WhiteTara]

14. they're sending "flowers" 68 times a day

some of them are really spectacular and give incredible flares, just like bombs. Oh, they are bombs.
BUSH IS A WAR CRIMINAL
IMPEACH BUSH AND SEND HIM TO THE HAGUE

[Dem_Doin_Business]

9. My Cousin in BC

says that he can house as many as 5 servicemen or service women who are running from the illegal war.

[Gregorian]

10. Yay!

I'm amazed Canadians are so up on things. I was listening to the Burnaby station cjsf, and it's one of the few place one can hear a public discussion on Rove's evil deeds.

And welcome aboard!

[Gregorian]

11. My neighbor fled to Canada during Vietnam.

Married a millionaire, and never came back. :)

[IndianaGreen]

12. Better to be alive in Canada than to be dead at Arlington

Here is one that won't be dying for Bush's insane wars. Godspeed, Joshua.

[Lisa]

13. I'm hoping to see him on Thursday

I imagine he'll have quite a lot to say.

[iverglas]

15. much like a tale I heard during Vietnam

The deserter I assisted personally at the time, rather late in the war.

He'd enlisted -- midwest Mormon background, blue-collar worker, little education ... don't really know what his reasons for enlisting were, but I understood that was how it happened.

He then claimed CO status regarding battle duty, and was told he would be a non-combattant "helicopter mechanic" or some such -- he'd been an auto mechanic before enlisting, so I guess that made sense. (They didn't have "specialists", whatever they are, in those days.)

Then he was put through the same training as everybody else, consisting of a lot of "Kill! Kill! Kill!" exercises. Then he was told that his assignment would be to sit in the doorway of the helicopter and shoot any, uh, enemy who got close.

He decided he'd rather leave. He got caught. He left again. He got caught again. That time when he left, he came to Canada.

It's from knowing him (and knowing more now about the US military's recruitment tactics, and of course the state of the US economy ...) that I have what sympathy I do have for many who enlisted in the US military before the invasion of Iraq. He was just a pretty simple person. Lots of people are.

What I will have no truck with is the argument that because they voluntarily enlisted, they must do what they are told. A contract's a contract, they must do their duty, and all that bullshit.

If my employer told me to kill people and terrorize their children and destroy their country's economic and social and physical infrastructure for no reason, I'd break the contract. And they could sue me, and they'd lose. And it is no one's duty to kill people and terrorize their children in the service of corporations.

Having enlisted, they placed themselves in a potentially horrific situation that they likely had no understanding of whatsoever at the time. By force of circumstance, they now have a duty: not to kill people and terrorize their children in the service of corporations -- a duty we all have, but they are in the unfortunate position of having to jeopardize themselves in order to carry out the duty. Well, that's life.

[saigon68]

16. I CALL THEM RUSTICS

Reality marks them as cannon fodder


"Soldiers could steal whatever they wanted" he said

Looting boys --" GRAB IT ALL"

[anarchy1999]

17. I really don't know how many more times I can read such as this.

I'm really ill reading just the short part posted without reading the rest. Damn it all you guys! (slang from southern Colorado).

What are we all to do???!! How in god's name, how in "our" name do we end this f'ing nightmare?

[Lisa]

19. well, I talked with him last night

He's a very nice, earnest person. Not the type who glorifies in the spotlight, and he even apologized at the start for not being well-spoken since he's from a small town in Oklahoma and didn't have a whole lot of education. His wife is also very pleasant and approachable.

Though I almost started crying when Brandi looked at another former soldier (his refugee appeal is still being filed so he didn't give his full name) -- the guy was even younger than Joshua, and Brandi was shaking her head in pity, saying, "he's only a boy!" She's so young herself, and has so much to worry about ... but she was feeling sorry for someone else.

I wish they could all stay. I could barely watch Bush on the news that night, knowing that he (supposedly the "commander in chief") sees those soldiers and their families as expendable. Bush has had so many opportunities -- heck, I've had such an easy life myself, next to what Joshua and Brandi have experienced. They are trying so hard to be decent people and good citizens ... really honorable Americans.