I Salute "The Deserters"

[Michael]

I was having a difficult time sleeping last night, so I got up and began to read the news on the internet. You know, the real news. I’m not talking about thirty minute news “shows” from 6-6:30 PM every evening on NBC, CBS or ABC, fifteen minutes of which are commercials, sound bites from corporate owned and operated Bush apologists CNBC, MSNBC or CNN and certainly not FOX whose newscasters are this close to presenting the news wearing uniforms that involve brown shirts. I started reading the news sent to my inbox daily by The Rational News Digest.

I could have gotten this from Antiwar.com or The Common Dreams NEWS CENTER or The American Progress Action Fund, but I randomly chose The Rational News Digest.

I read that over 5,500 soldiers have deserted since the beginning of Bush’s illegal war. Since 55,000 military personnel or potential military personnel fled to Canada during the ten years of the Vietnam debacle, it seems like we’re right on track, doesn’t it?

Does this mean that, like in 1963-1972, we just have a bunch of sissies and “girly men” living in our country?

There were a couple of pretty good examples used in the article, but one caught my eye in particular. That was the case of Spc. Jeremy Hinzman of Rapid City, South Dakotah.

For me, what makes Hinzman’s case a bit more special was the logic that he uses in why he has moved up to Canada to try to avoid going to Iraq.

In the article, Spc. Hinzman makes the point that, when he was in basic training, he was told if he was given an illegal or immoral order, it was his duty to disobey it.

He did his duty.

Because of Hinzman’s refusal to take part in Bush’s terrorist attack on Iraq, there will be fewer deaths in Iraq. There will be at least one less unnecessary death.

Because the others in the article have chosen not to kill innocent Iraqi men, women and children and have chosen not to be killed or maimed by people angry that their country is being occupied by our present day Führer, there will be fewer deaths and less suffering in Iraq.

I had to write a letter to the editor of The Rapid City Journal. I had to write it and I hope it’s published because I hope that Mr. Hinzman isn’t attacked, verbally or otherwise, by his hometown citizenry.

Now if we can get another 125,000 or so soldiers to do their duty, the number of illegal, immoral deaths would drop off to none, a president would be impeached and removed from office for a good reason and maybe our country would be returned to peace and prosperity.

No, we didn’t have sissies and/or “girly men” fleeing to Canada during the dark days of Vietnam and we don’t have them today. These are people who I’m absolutely sure struggled with the idea of not “answering the call” and who should take pride in the courage of their philanthropic convictions.

I salute “the deserters”. They are what “bravery” in the face of adversity is all about!