This article, by Scott Dunn, was originally published in the Owen Sound Sun Times
Two United States Army soldiers who have deserted and fled to Canada say they did so as conscientious objectors, not to save their own skins.
They brought the plight of other war resisters to First United Church in Owen Sound Saturday night.
They don't want to fight in the five-year-old U.S.-led war in Iraq, which was initially justified with the now-discredited threat that the Iraqis had weapons of mass destruction.
Rich Droste, a 22-year-old who rose quickly through the ranks to become a trainer of soldiers and was last stationed in Korea, and Josh Randall, a 21-one-year-old medic last stationed in Iraq, came to Owen Sound courtesy of the War Resister Support Group of London, Ont.
Ask Droste if he fled because he was afraid to die and he grows restless. "I hate that question," he said in an interview before Saturday's presentation, vigorously objecting to the idea that he won't fight because he's afraid.
"I joined when I believed the war was necessary. I was great at my job. I loved it.
"There's something very primal about it, something that you dream about since you were a little boy. You know, shooting and blowing stuff up."
Droste, who came to Canada in March, hasn't become an overnight pacifist though. Sometimes war is still necessary, he said.
"If it wasn't a war for oil. If it wasn't political and about one man's agenda, then I would have considered fighting."
The non-commissioned officer had completed almost all of a four-year commitment when his service was extended another four years under the U.S. "stop-loss" policy. He had been told about the possibility, but it was only supposed to happen if the Third World War broke out, he said.
Unlike the soldiers drafted during the Vietnam War, these ones signed up voluntarily while the war in Iraq raged on. Skeptics question how young men could sign up to fight, then be allowed to change their minds when faced with the bloodshed in the seemingly unwinnable Iraq war.
The Canadian Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration recommended on Dec. 6 that the government let conscientious objectors and their immediate families stay in Canada, with certain provisos. The government's dissenting view was that the refugee application process is sufficient.
Randall fled to Canada on leave in January. The Texan says he signed up out of patriotism, stoked by images on Fox News, the right-wing television giant. "Follow the flag, don't look to the left or to the right. Just follow blindly and don't question your government."
He admits he was scared in Iraq, but he said he has rejected the war on higher principles. Once enlisted, he learned of human rights abuses, including torture of prisoners.
During four months service in Kirkuk, Iraq, Randall - who had little medical training - was allowed to perform medical procedures such as inserting a tube to create an emergency airway on wounded Iraqis. Only a doctor would be allowed to do that on American soldiers. "They were our practice dummies," he said.
Visits to concrete detention centres gradually pricked his conscience to the point he decided to desert, he said. It gets cold at night and Iraqis slept on the floor with a blanket. Rules said prisoners may only urinate on scheduled breaks every eight hours.
"So if they had to go between there, they had to hold it, whether they had bladder problems or not," Randall said.
Prisoners were yelled at, separated from the others and put in cells outside if they peed in bottles. They weren't allowed to talk, Randall said. "Basic human rights were definitely neglected."
On leave with his wife in London, Ont., and filled with doubts, he started researching the war. "Canada decided to stay out of the war. The UN decided it was an illegal war. It's illegal by how many counts, from mistreatment of civilians to profiteering."
Droste blames himself, his youth and sense of adventure and compelling recruitment campaigns aimed at his demographic for helping him jump into army life. He knew Iraq service was a possibility but he was "young and naive."
"We're sending our poor to die," by promising to pay for their education, he said. "You don't meet a rich soldier in the United States Army. It just doesn't happen."
He said it bothered him when he'd hear the U.S. Army moved into a new Iraqi city and find one or two terrorists among 300 who were wounded or killed. He also objects to U.S. defence industry friends getting rich off the war on the backs of dead soldiers and innocent people, he said.
"I also feel that America, in a sense, had it coming to itself. We spread like a cancer. We want to spread our idealism to every country we make contact with. And if they don't do what we say then we're going to force them to do what we say."
But he's not a terrorist sympathizer, he added. Born and raised mostly in Detroit but for a few years in Indiana, he now thinks the U.S. is "very socialist . . . working itself towards communism." He cited Naomi Wolfe's "The End of America," which he read in the service, which argues civil rights and democracy in the U.S are under attack.
Having volunteered for service, he thinks he has earned the right to withdraw. "What about the 99 per cent of the United States' people that will never volunteer a day in their life for the army? But they're going to be the first to criticize you."
Droste said if his application for refugee status, to be heard Sept. 17, is turned down, he could face jail or even the death penalty upon deportation. Randall hasn't applied for refugee status yet but he may to get a work permit faster. He won't be deported because of his Canadian wife, he believes.
Their visit was also supported by the Grey Bruce Coalition for Peace and Justice and the Peace and Justice Committee of Grey Presbytery.
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