U.S. Soldiers Seek Refugee Status In Canada To Avoid Serving In Iraq

You remember the Vietnam War -er - Conflict, don’t you? O.K. Some of us are a little too young to really remember it. I have a vague recollection of the end of it and I studied it in school and, of course, I saw like every episode of China Beach and had my hair cut like Dana Delany for a whole year of college.

Anyway, the whole thing was a mess. Everyone pretty much accepts that now. Heck, I think the 2004 elections pretty much prove that we still are fighting our demons from Vietnam. We can’t seem to agree whether it was more honorable to serve, to dodge, to get a deferment, or to disappear. It’s clear that no one that served came out unscathed and we’re still beating them up. But we beat up the ones who didn’t go either.
During that time period, between 50,000 and 60,000 Americans crossed the border into Canada to avoid serving in Vietnam. Some of them were avoiding the draft, some of them were already in service.

The War in Iraq apparently is no different. Hundreds of deserters from the U.S. armed forces have crossed the border and “are now seeking political refugee status there, arguing that violations of the rules of war in Iraq by the US entitle them to asylum.”

Lee Zaslofsky, 61, the coordinator of the War Resisters’ Support Campaign in Toronto, said that he was impressed by the young men who were seeking asylum. “Some have been to Iraq and others have heard what goes on there,” he said. “Mainly, what they discuss is being asked to do things they consider repugnant. Most are quite patriotic … Many say they feel tricked by the military.”

Read the whole story.

Hat tip to Susie at Suburban Guerrilla.

tags: American soldiers, protest, Iraq, Canada, Vietnam War

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