Monday, August 14, 2006

"Mother" Sheehan to create refuge for deserters

News flash: They've already got one. It's called "jail."
Now almost 40 days into her fast supporting war resisters and their families, Sheehan, though weak, announced that she is offering land she bought in Crawford near Bush's ranch as a refuge for U.S. troops who desert to resist the war in Iraq...

Among a contingent of younger Iraq Veterans Against the War were several current service members.

One not wearing a name badge declined to reveal his identity. He said, with confirmation from his peers, that he was from the Seattle area, in his 20s, and had been "away-without-leave from a combat unit now in Iraq" for an undisclosed period of time.

The AWOL soldier said he decided to flee the Army after the invasion of Iraq because he believes the war illegal. He said he joined the military before 9/11 "because I had been to five different high schools and went through family problems. The military was a way to get friends and family structure."

And a steady paycheck, and a college education, and a uniform that collects chicks like lint on a sweater. But it never occurred to him that he might actually have to soldier? Please.

He considers the war illegal. Isn't that cute? This twenty-something is more expert in military and international jurisprudence than all the amateurs at the Pentagon and Congress? Or has he merely been exposed to a variety of voices, and listened to the one that told him he could collect benefits without the hazard of being shot at?

Not surprisingly, Baghdad Jim is going to address the group. God deliver the Republic from the soldiery composed of barracks-room lawyers and escape artists that Congressman McDirtbag would see us forced to rely on.

Akubra tip to Jeff Goldstein, whose name I got right this time!

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