Doing the right thing...

While it hasn't been the best week for the Canadian Justice system (eg. the Air India trial/farce) it was nice to see a glimmer of logic shining through the cracks. Strangely enough, I'm not referring to the long-awaited deportation of Ernst Zundel.

As some of you in the studio audience will remember, there was a lot of noise made recently about an American "war protester/war dodger" who escaped to Canada in a bid to avoid military service in the "War on Terrorism." This wasn't some activist, this was a soldier. He deserted his unit days before they were to be deployed to Iraq, slipped over the border and claimed refugee status. Democratic society that we are, that claim entitled him to a hearing.

I have to say that, as a former soldier, I find his actions cowardly and deplorable. He wasn't drafted or press-ganged into the military, he volunteered. He took an oath and (in his case) swore to defend the US Constitution and to obey the orders of the officers appointed above him, much in the same was in which I swore allegiance to Her Majesty, The Queen; her heirs and successors when I joined the Reserves, way back in 1986.

Now, unless this guy was terminally stupid, he'd have to know that the military does indeed have a purpose: to defend a nation's interest....sometimes by force of arms. Not that it's always the right way, but that's sometimes how it happens. Surely these weren't new revelations. Instead of taking a non-combat position like a medic or a truck driver or a clerk or something, he joins the infantry and becomes a parachutist in the process! Not exactly shrinking violets, these fellas!

The US military actually has provisions for serving members in accordance with their beliefs, and this lowlife chose to basically say "fuck you" to the process and slink away with his tail between his legs. He could have taken advantage (again) of the "conscientious objector" status and fulfilled his obligations, but no. What does he do? He runs away.

I won't debate the somewhat questionable rationale for Dubya's decision to send in the troops, but damnit, if you swear an oath, you live up to it. He made the weak argument that he couldn't obey illegal orders (in fact, he referred to the entire war as illegal.) If he had ever received one that was truly illegal he'd have an obligation to disobey it. But since he pussied out and tried to apply some vague interpretation of the law onto his arguments, it all comes out as bullshit. The orders he received might have been distasteful (and for soldiers, they sometimes are) but they were not (by definition of the law) illegal.

I'm glad he'll get his ass shipped back across the border where it belongs and that he'll get the court martial (and subsequent military prison time and the dishonourable discharge) he so richly deserves.

Honourable service is any soldier's obligation. If he'd gone over like a professional soldier, his wits and his so-called morals could have kept him alive. He could have made a better contribution by surviving and being a good parent to his child. He could have exercised his right to vote to make a change in his government.

But no...not Pvt. Jeremy Hinzman. His cowardice and twisted sense of loyalty sent him across the border to Canada. Garbage like that we don't need and a little bit of my faith in the nation has been restored because they said that he hadn't earned entry and that he'll now have to go home and face the punishment that particular democratic society has deemed appropriate.

Hinzman, get your disloyal, cowardly ass the fuck out of my country and never come back.