Deserter
From dictionary.com:
Deserter:
To leave empty or alone; abandon.
To withdraw from, especially in spite of a responsibility or duty; forsake: deserted her friend in a time of need.
To abandon (a military post, for example) in violation of orders or an oath.
I’ve been wanting to say something about this for awhile , just haven’t gotten around to it. That said, I’m very pleased with the result, and fully support the Canadian government’s decision NOT to grant this deserter refugee status.
1. I think it is very offensive that this individual had the gall to classify himself as a ‘refugee’, thus placing himself in the same category as poverty stricken people escaping atrocities in Dafur.
2. He VOLUNTEERED!!!!! He signed a contract, he took an OATH.
3. He ABANDONED his fellow soldiers who were going to/are in Iraq. Cowardice isn’t running from the enemy, it is failing to help and protect those you swore to defend. It is running from responsibility.
We don’t have room for people like this in Canada. We can’t have people like this tying up the system and delaying, or even preventing legitimate refugees from entering.
No related posts.
29 Mar 2005 08:47 pm Bryan 2 comments
I agree with you. This is kinda unrelated because the guy was already a solder, but you should read “For Us, The Living”…Heinlein’s first novel drafted in 1938-9, first published by his family trust in 2004 unabridged. It’s got some intersting theroies on rights of citizens and soldiers in declarations of pro-active war. He asserts that in a utopian democracy, every pro-active declaration of war (i.e. a war declared on a country which has not invaded the home country) should flow from a positive national refferendum to do so. If the vote is to go to war, each “yes” vote constitutes a voluntary conscription by that person. After that, a second draft may be used for all those who abstained from the vote, and then any third draft could by used for the “no” voters. It kinda reminded me of that Michael Moore bit where he asks the congressmen who voted to invade Iraq if they would enlist their kids. (Don’t get me wrong, the rest of fahrenheit 911 was trash…but I did like that bit.)
I wonder if Heinlein would have changed his tune post-WWII though. Hmmm.
I’d love to get my hands on that book. The one thing I’m regretting about China is the dismal reading scene. Aside from the net, there’s not much in the way of good material floating around Big Red