Why I fled Bush's war

[roody]

http://www.macleans.ca/world/global/article.jsp?content=20070205_140356_140356

This is a really sad story.


Why I fled George Bush's war
What happened to make a patriotic, gung-ho soldier desert the U.S. army, and turn against the war in Iraq. EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT
JOSHUA KEY | Feb 7, 2007 | 11:40 am EST
Joshua Key, 28, was a poor, uneducated Oklahoma country boy who saw the U.S. army and its promised benefits -- from free health care to career training -- as the ticket to a better life. In 2002, not yet 24 but already married and the father of two , Key enlisted. He says his recruiting officer promised he'd never be deployed abroad, but a year later he was in Iraq. Only 24 hours after arriving, as Key recounts in The Deserter's Tale (Anansi), he experienced his first doubts about what he and his fellow soldiers were doing there:

---snip---

It struck me then that we, the American soldiers, were the terrorists. We were terrorizing Iraqis. Intimidating them. Beating them. Destroying their homes. Probably raping them. The ones we didn't kill had all the reasons in the world to become terrorists themselves. Given what we were doing to them, who could blame them for wanting to kill us, and all Americans? A sick realization lodged like a cancer in my gut. It grew and festered, and troubled me more with every passing day. We, the Americans, had become the terrorists in Iraq.
In December 2003, Key went home on a two-week leave. He never returned to Iraq. Instead, Key went into hiding. The following March, he and his family crossed the Canadian border at Niagara Falls.

[MadMaddie]

1. This leaves you speechless....after reading this and

watching "The Ghosts of Abu Ghareb" this so called war has turned into one of occupation and destruction of all Iraqi lives.

The entire * administration should be prosecuted by the Hague for "Crimes against Humanity". All the lives wasted American and Iraqi for what...

so a few select men in America could profiteer off of the war.....

[roody]

2. Yet the troops are carrying out the crimes against humanity.

[tavalon]

19. Do you have any idea what groupthink in combination with brainwashing

and depersonalization of the "enemy" will do to a person? Free will is much more illusory than you might be comfortable with.

[karlrschneider]

3. Clever vignette and with the right message but fiction.

That isn't something a poor, uneducated Oklahoma boy would or could write.
edit: see following posts

[MadMaddie]

4. Interesting point....

[karlrschneider]

6. I might be wrong about this. I found this:

So the basic story may be true after all. I didn't think the commentary looked like something an Okie soldier would have managed

http://www.cbcunlocked.com/artman/publish/article_243.shtml

[walldude]

5. Maybe the story was a composit or something but I don't

doubt the account for a minute. You ever see the movie Gunners Palace? That is what we do in Iraq every day. We are not at war, we are a military police force. We kick in doors and "look for insurgents". That's what the "surge" was for. More troops to kick in doors.

[karlrschneider]

8. Yes, I think I was wrong somewhat. It now looks like someone wrote it for him

see my other post after I found a link. I'm in Oklahoma and I try to keep up with our troops but that's unfortunately mostly dedicated to those who didn't survive.

[babylonsister]

7. Maybe that's because he didn't write it:

http://www.anansi.ca/titles.cfm?pub_subid=765

he Deserter's Tale
The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq
Joshua Key as told to Lawrence Hill

In this first-ever memoir from a young US soldier who participated for eight months in the war in Iraq and then fled to Canada, Joshua Key offers a vivid and damning indictment of how the war is being waged.

Joshua Key is a husband and father from a conservative background who enlisted in the army to lift his family out of poverty. A year later, President George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq and Key was sent to Ramadi. The war he found there was not the campaign against terrorists and "evildoers" he had been told to expect. Key saw Iraqi civilians beaten, maimed, and shot for little or no provocation. He witnessed the killing of a seven-year-old girl who was scrounging leftover army rations, and watched while the dead bodies of Iraqis provided sport for US soldiers. When Key was sent home on leave he knew he could not return to the war. He went underground, finally seeking asylum in Canada. His case is now before the Canadian courts.

more...

[karlrschneider]

9. Thank you. The OP didn't include the "as told to".

It makes sense now. I shouldn't go off half-cocked.

[babylonsister]

10. I just figured NO ONE would/could make this up. There are plenty

more realistic stories where this one came from. :-(

[mark414]

17. what does that have to do anything?

it doesn't take money or an education to write what you see and what you know

[roody]

11. I found this at Buzzflash.com.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

12. "poor, uneducated Oklahoma country boy" SMARTER than ex/pert/ploiters.

The corporatocracy could not convince him,...his own eyes betrayed him.

SMART guy, IMHO. Smart!!!!

[karlrschneider]

13. Hi! Welcome to DU

:D

[Jcrowley]

14. K&R

In a show of solidarity and a forum/benefit for those seeking asylum there was a get together in Buffalo/Niagra few months back. Cindy Sheehan spoke as well as many others. I was honored to have attended.

What is interesting is the trajectory that many of these ex-soldiers are on and Joshua is now living with both eyes wide open. It is sad yes but it is also heartening to see that he has rejected the conitioning he had to endure.

[az chela]

15. Lets hope this war is over soon and you can come home

Until then good luck and take care of yourself

[Lisa]

16. I've met Joshua Key a couple of times

I had the impression that he thinks very carefully before he speaks, not only because he wants to communicate his ideas clearly, but because he wants to be seen as a worthwhile person. I've been a teacher for awhile now, and I've noticed that some of my students who are from very poor families also do this. (I suppose it could be faked by a very good actor, but to have it hold up for an extended period of time, when someone is tired and stressed out, it would have to be an Oscar-worthy performance.)

After reading the book (which, as others pointed out upthread, was co-written with Lawrence Hill), I'm starting to understand why he is so concerned about his manner of speaking. It's an ugly thought too, knowing that there are people out there who are probably just as deserving of a chance as anybody in my classroom (instructor included), but they end up getting shunted aside. Potential employers or others in authority look at them once, at the clothing they're wearing and maybe their address, and make a decision about how much that person is worth, and that's that. I feel kind of sick, when I hear someone making fun of people who live in trailers, because it's that same story over and over again. I can't blame Joshua for deciding to join the military -- it seemed an honorable way out of all that. (I would like to believe that Canada is more egalitarian, but I know that there are places with grinding poverty where we treat our people the same way -- on aboriginal reserves, in small Maritime towns, or inner-city Toronto or Vancouver.)

He hasn't had much formal schooling, but he's worked very hard at trying to learn on his own, and (like many self-taught people I know), listens carefully and pays attention as if his life depended on it, and is almost painfully eager and earnest. Another war resister, Brandon Hughey (from Texas), was like that too -- speaking in complete sentences, and pronouncing words very carefully. (In contrast, some of my students from wealthier families deliberately use slang expressions, and act all aggressive -- they don't seem to care what anybody else thinks, but Joshua and Brandon, who both had pretty harsh lives, DO care.)

So I'm not surprised that the book is so well-written. Joshua would be very careful about that -- and working with a more experienced writer, I believe he would request, even demand, to be shown the most correct way to go about it. (When he found out that I taught at a college, he asked me a whole bunch of questions, until finally his wife -- a truly remarkable person in her own right -- gently reminded him that they were waiting for us to finish up and leave the room.)

[tavalon]

20. He sounds like a wonderful soul

and for those with that sort of bent, an old soul. I have of recent been exposed to a number of folks who live on the fringe of society and found them to be much as you describe him to be. And while I had things to impart to these folks (and continue to have the opportunity as they have become part of my community) I have found that it goes both ways. I am gifted by their wisdom as well as being able to gift the same.

[EC]

18. So once again we have Americans seeking political asylum

in other countries...

[Geek_Girl]

21. Does anyone know of a fund or charity

that helps soldiers seeking asylum?

[roody]

22. Citizen Soldier

Alternatives to Militarism, Inc.
267 Fifth Ave. Ste 901
New York, NY 10016

[roody]

23. here

FREE DOWNLOADS. cs 2007 report CITIZEN SOLDIER 2007 REPORT ... Soldiers in Revolt. GI Resistance During the Vietnam War ...
www.citizen-soldier.org/ - 23k - Cached - Similar pages

[Lisa]

24. and in Canada ...

This is the group that is helping Joshua, Brandon, Jeremy, and many others.

http://www.resisters.ca/index_en.html