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thedrifter
08-02-05, 07:17 PM
US Army Deserter Fled Iraq for New Life in Canada
By Rebecca Craigie
TheTyee.ca

Joshua Key grew to hate his army's chaotic brutality. In BC, he seeks legal refuge and a home.

“All we want is to find a home so our kids can grow up in a stable environment and go to school and make friends,” Brandi Key says as she towels off her six month old baby in the front seat of the Dodge Caravan which has recently become the family’s temporary home. Brandi is the wife of Joshua Key, a 27-year-old former soldier who deserted the US Army. The pair, in Nelson last week, are driving across Canada with their four kids in search of a home, and Canadian refugee status.

The Keys are living in a van because of Joshua Key’s opposition to the US-led war in Iraq. While many opponents of the Iraq war base their opposition on media reports, Key’s opinion is based on what he witnessed when he fought for eight months in Iraq’s Sunni Triangle.

Key never thought he’d end up in Iraq in the first place. When he first enlisted, he signed up to be a bridge builder in a non-deployable unit. Despite this, the Army trained him in explosives and landmines, and sent him to Iraq in April of 2003.

‘All-American values’

Key describes himself as a patriotic citizen who grew up learning “all-American values.” Raised by his grandparents in a small town in Oklahoma, Key became a welder and was earning $7.25 an hour before he joined the Army. With a rapidly growing family, he desperately needed a better job to make ends meet. After a visit to the local military recruiting office and then a score of 50 percent on an aptitude test, Key was told he could pick between three different jobs.

“I decided on a bridge builder in a non-deployable unit,” he explains with a slight southern drawl. “This was my incentive to join the Army. I wanted to be close to my family. Other guys were offered money incentives.”

Key felt that his situation was so desperate that he signed a contract with the US military even though his wife was pregnant with their third child. “They don’t usually let guys in who have three kids. They told me they were hiding the fact that my wife was pregnant. After I signed the paper it didn’t matter anymore. The Army was the only option we had.”

During basic training in May 2002, Key learned that his legally binding contract could be changed by the military at any time. “In the first few days of basic training, you learn that you are just a number and to keep your mouth shut unless spoken to. We were told that we were going to learn how to be the worst damn killers in the battlefield. I was already thinking; what the hell are you talking about?”

‘Breaking you down’

Key’s first duty station was in Fort Carson, Colorado where he was put on a rapid deployment unit. “This meant I could be sent anywhere in the world in just a day’s notice. This wasn’t what I had signed up for. I was mad and decided to ask my platoon leader what was going on.”

According to Key, even after going through the proper procedure to ask a question, the response from the platoon leader was to “get the hell out of his office. For two weeks after that I was punished severely. They call it ‘breaking you down’ so they can rebuild you to military conformity,” he explained.

This was the first experience of many that made Key want to quit. “I knew that if I quit I would be sent to jail and the Army would take all my money. When you’ve got a wife and kids to support, you just stick with it and keep going.”

In February, 2003 all the equipment from Key’s unit was being loaded onto trains to send to Iraq. “We were told that Saddam Hussein was an evil tyrant and he had to be crushed. I believed there were weapons of mass destruction and war was justified. I felt like I better get it over with now so that my kids don’t have to deal with him (Hussein) in the future.”

Raiding and stealing

Key’s unit was the second to enter Iraq after the invasion. Soon after arriving, Key saw evidence of an extremely disorganized U.S military. “There wasn’t enough food or water for the troops. We were told to steal water from other troops before we left on a mission so we’d have enough.”

They were in Ramadi for three weeks before it got violent. Key’s job was to patrol streets and raid homes. “We’d use explosives to blow up the front door, then six of us would run in, grab the males and send them off for interrogation and hold the women and children at gunpoint while we completely destroyed their home. Soldiers could steal whatever they wanted.”

It was an adrenaline rush at first, but after a while Key couldn’t figure out why they were raiding homes. “I started seeing the mothers faces screaming and hollering; they don’t look at it as though it’s your government who is doing this to them, they see you as being the enemy. They look at you as though they would slit your throat at any minute if they could,” he explains.

When Key’s unit moved to Fallujah, he saw the enemy fighting back for the first time. “We went from not knowing what a mortar attack was to being under attack every single night.” Even though he was being shot at, Key felt that the Iraqis were just fighting for their country.

Plagued by sympathy

According to Key, sympathy for the Iraqi people was one of his downfalls. “You’re told to treat the enemy as though they’re guilty until proven innocent, and to have no remorse and no regret.” During a traffic control point that Key was part of, an American tank blew up a car that passed through without permission. There was a father and his child inside. The father was dead and the boy was badly injured. Key bandaged him up and took him to the closest hospital.

“I wasn’t supposed to do this as it showed sympathy to the enemy.” Key and other U.S soldiers searched the car afterwards and there were no signs of contraband anywhere. “They just didn’t understand what stop meant,” he says sadly. There were signs everywhere that showed the military’s lack of control. At a scene in Ramadi, Key realized that no soldier was going to be held accountable for their actions. “We turned a corner and all I saw were heads and bodies. It shocked us all. There were American troops in the middle saying they had lost it. My squad leader told me to go and see if I could find evidence of a firefight and what went on. As soon as I stepped out of the tank I saw American soldiers kicking a head around like a soccer ball.

“That disgusted me and I told my platoon leader that I wanted no part of it,” says Key. “He couldn’t do anything about it, even with his authority, and told me to sit down in the tank. The next day I asked him if anything had been followed up on the incident. I was told to shut the hell up, that it wasn’t my concern.”

Feeling expendable

As a combat engineer, Key felt he was expendable. After seven months of fighting in the red zones, sleeping in bombed places, eating canned food, and showering once every three weeks, Key was sent to a green zone for two weeks of relief. It was here he experienced the feeling of being only a number. “They had a really nice chow hall. Me, my team leader who was a sergeant, and one other guy went to get some food. The colonel at the door stopped us and told us we couldn’t go in. We weren’t allowed to go in until we had pressed our uniforms. This was the way we were treated by our own people, I couldn’t believe it.”

One of Key’s friends received a book in the mail from his mother titled, America Sold it’s Soul for Saudi Crude. His opinion on the war started to change after he read that book. “When I got to Iraq I asked the people why there was so much trash everywhere. They told me it was from us. I didn’t believe it until I started reading. We’ve destroyed that country in the last 14 years. The U.S government planned, organized and orchestrated the whole thing. We’re just there for the oil.”

People criticize Key for abandoning the war and not honoring his contract with the military. Key’s response to this is that he was sent to fight an illegal war for his country and that it was the military who didn’t uphold their side of the contract. “I thought I was there to promote democracy, but I think I was there to prevent it.”

During a brief leave of absence in December, 2003, Key asked a military lawyer if there were any other options besides going back to Iraq. The lawyer told him he had to get back on the plane or go to prison. He decided he couldn’t justify going back to Iraq. Key packed up his family and moved to Philadelphia where they lived in hiding for 14 months.

Escaping the US Army

Key used his military training to plan an escape route if it was needed. “The military taught us how to evade terrorists and I knew my escape routes to Canada. I was always on alert, and I started to go a little crazy. I wanted something better for my kids.” Key talked to Jeffrey House—the Toronto lawyer who has represented other Iraq war deserters—who said he could help. The Key family arrived in Toronto in March of this year by crossing the border at Niagara Falls. “We had lots of luggage, and they wanted to know why. We told them we had four kids. They let us through and told us to have a nice time in Canada,” he says.

Now Key is touring Canada, telling his story to whoever will listen. “I have taken some major risks in leaving the military and I know that if people listen to my stories, they can’t tell me I have to go back and spend ten years in jail.”

In fact Key could face five or more years in jail if he returns to the United States. He recently applied for refugee status and is hopeful the Canadian government will grant his request. Despite that optimism, federal immigration officials ruled against the first claim by an Iraq war deserter. Jeremy Hinzman had his first refugee application denied last March.

While Key packs up his Dodge Caravan to move on to the family’s next destination, his 6-year-old son Zachary hops into the driver’s seat of the car. “Can I drive Dad?” he asks innocently. Key plucks him from the front seat of the car and tells him he can when he’s older. For now Key is in the driver’s seat, heading towards an uncertain future.

Rebecca Craigie is a journalist based in Nelson.

Ellie

Joseph P Carey
08-02-05, 09:00 PM
It makes you feel like you have just read the new Anti-war novel. This man Keys has more imagination thatn most people, so he should be an easy mark for Hollywood. Or, do you think he knew that already before he went North?

sonny
08-02-05, 09:41 PM
I wonder what he is going to tell his kids when they get older. Or his grandkids.. That your daddy was a deserter!!!

carroll1972
08-03-05, 12:14 AM
Someone once quoted..."War is Hell" ....and there's two sides to each story.......
Here is a poem.....and a letter.....read both......you read the above post....now read this.......I think it 's worth it..and God Bless you Aaron.........Sgt Carroll1972

This is a poem being sent from a Marine to his Dad. For those who take the time to read it, you'll see a letter from him to his Dad at the bottom. It makes you truly thankful for not only the Marines, but ALL of our troops.

We all came together,
Both young and old
To fight for our freedom
To stand and be bold.

In the midst of all evil,
We stand our ground,
And we protect our country
From all terror around.

Peace and not war,
Is what some peope say.
But I'll give my life,
So you can live the
American Way.


I give you the right
To talk of your peace.
To stand in your groups,
and protest in our streets.

But still I fight on,
I don't b****, I don't whine.
I'm just one of the people
Who is doing your time.

I'm harder than nails,
Stronger than any Machine.
I'm the immortal soldier,
I'm a U.S. MARINE!

So stand in my shoes,
And leave from your home.
Fight for the people who hate you
With the protests they've shown

Fight for the stranger,
Fight for the young.
So they all may have,
The greatest freedom you've won.

Fight for the sick,
Fight for the poor.
Fight for the cripple,
Who lives next door.

But when your time comes,
Do what I've done.
For if you stand up for freedom,
You'll stand when the fight's done

By: Corporal Aaron M. Gilbert, US Marine Corps, USS Saipan, Persian Gulf



Hey Dad,
Do me a favor and label this "The Marine" and send it to everybody on your email.list. Even leave this letter in it, I want this rolling all over the US; I want every home reading it. Every eye seeing it, and every heart to feel it. So, can you please send this for me? I would but my email time isn't that long and I don't have much time anyway. You know what Dad? I wondered what if would be like to truly understand what JFK said in his inaugural speech. "WHEN THE TIME COMES TO LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR MY COUNTRY, I DO NOT COWER FROM THIS RESPONSIBILITY. I WELCOME IT."
Well, now I know. And I do.
Dad, I welcome the opportunity to do what I do. Even though I have left behind a beautiful wife, and I will miss the birth of our first born child, I would do it 70 times over to fight for the place that God has made for my home. I love you and ll and I miss you very much. I wish I could be there when Sandi has our baby, but tell her that I love her, and Lord willing, I will be coming home soon. Give Mom a great big hug from me and give one to your sef too.....

Aaron

If this touched you as much as it touched me, please forward it on. Let's help Aaron's dad spread the word......."FREEDOM isn't FREE"

someone pays for you and me.....

Dick and Merlene Carlson

Grimmy
08-03-05, 03:44 AM
Canada, the first choice of cowards!
Canada, the chosen home of cowards!
Canada! Where the cowardly find refuge.


Canada
Exports:
Imports: cowards and deserters.

Dont you know that's gotta eat the heart out of alot of good folk up north of the boarder.

radio relay
08-03-05, 04:54 AM
In 1968, a time when the the fighting and dieing was at it's highest in Vietnam, and the draft doging slime of the USA was seeping into Canada. The oldest man in my boot platoon at MCRD SD, was a Canadian. He was 26. He graduated bootcamp, became a Grunt, and took his place beside his Marine Brothers in a rifle platoon in Vietnam, fighting the communists.

Many Canadians fought and died in Vietnam. If I were a betting man, I'd bet that more Canadians came south to fight along side Americans, than the cowardly pieces of American sh!t who fled north to escape their duty.

I'd also bet that there are still many more Canadians in the American Army, and Marine Corps today, than there are scum bag deserters in Canada. Of course, the leftwing press will never print that story!!!

c5down2
08-03-05, 08:47 AM
It said he wanted to join the Army for a better life for his kids after only making $7.25 an hour. HHHMMMMMM? Well is the life you wanted for your kids better now? As far as raiding and destroying...

EDNA TRIMBLE
08-03-05, 10:51 AM
like he is the only one over in iraq who is dealing with a lot of stuff there. he is a disgrace to his uniform. and he is a COWARD.

happeninhank
08-03-05, 02:24 PM
he choose to join the army i'am sure glad he didn't choose
to join the marines as far as i 'am concerned the guys a
f ***en coward don't they still shoot deserters