A board hearing Canada’s refugee cases rejected a bid Thursday for asylum by a U.S. Army deserter who refused to go Iraq, according to The Washington Post.
The board decided that the United States would not unfairly prosecute Jeremy Hinzman for refusing to serve in what he said was an illegal war.
The parachute-trained specialist served in Afghanistan but fled from Fort Bragg, N.C., to Canada in January 2004 after his unit, the 82nd Airborne Divi-sion, was given orders to deploy to Iraq.
But Hinzman couldn’t even escape to Canada, a favorite destination of deserters (who were drafted, by the way) during the Vietnam War. Canada said go back and take your punishment. Good for them. What Hinzman did was cowardly, and Canada was right to call him on it.
First, in this age of the all-volunteer force, nobody should be in the Army unless you have chosen to be there. Sure the recruiters are going to come by the house, offer you wheel barrows full of money, to mow your mom’s grass, wash your dad’s car, and tell your sister her dress is pretty.
But you don’t have to join.
In fact, as a public service to all the other Jeremy Hinzmans who might be contemplating signing up, I offer what should be common knowledge. Once you sign on the dotted line, they own you. If you don’t like war, don’t join the military. If you only like some wars but not others, don’t join the military. If you don’t like following orders, don’t join the military. If you don’t like the thought of deploying to dangerous places, don’t join the military.
If you do join the military, nobody will ever ask you again what your position is on any of those issues. As my drill sergeant used to say, “it’s mind over matter. I don’t mind, and you don’t matter.”
But Hinzman, 26, did join. When he did, he took an oath. Everyone who joins takes the same oath:
I, _________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers ap-pointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
Hinzman took an oath that he would obey the orders of the President and the officers appointed over him. He took a regular salary from the U.S. govern-ment. He more than likely took a cash bonus and money for college. And when it was time to pay it back, he ran.
Now I’m sure he and others will try to spin this as some sort of conscious, honorable form of disobedience. It isn’t.
The closest parallel I can find would be the civil disobedience articulated by American author Henry David Thoreau and made popular by Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. There is a long history of civil disobedience used as a form of protest against governments.
Gandhi outlined about nine rules on how active civil disobedience should work, but one of the rules is particularly relevant.
“When any person in authority seeks to arrest a civil resister, he will voluntarily submit to the arrest, and he will not resist the attachment or removal of his own property, if any, when it is sought to be confiscated by authorities.”
A nonviolent protester is fully aware and accepts the consequences of his or her actions. In other words, Jeremy, they don’t run. They don’t take everything their government has to offer and disappear. If you have an issue with the war, stay here, make your point publicly and face your consequences like a man. That’s what Canada was telling him.
Anything less is just cowardly.
