Making tomorrows Military today: Loonies back at it again

Loonies back at it again

Today I was out working in the yard. I am on vacation until next weekend. I tilled up my yard, bought about 200 stones to do some landscaping with, on and on. The militantwife came out and said... "What is the oath of enlistment?" I tell her (you guys can find it here). I ask why. She tells me that it is something I will want to blog about tonight.

So I finish working in the yard, come in and sit down to this article. The first thing that I notice is that Hanoi Jane's hubby is at it again. Thomas Hayden is one of those Liberal "minds" from way back. He is using his "clout" as an ex- California State Senator to drum up support for this PENNSYLVANIA woman whose son was killed in Iraq.

That would be all fine and dandy, if she wanted like a city street named for him. But what does she want... She wants Canada to take in Deserters from the US Military as "Refugees". To save you from going to a Canadian Government site, here is what they call a refugee:

Through its refugee protection system, Canada offers safe haven to persons with a well-founded fear of persecution, as well as those at risk of torture or cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. Canadas refugee protection system consists of two main components:

The Refugee and Humanitarian Resettlement Program, for people seeking protection from outside Canada; and
The In-Canada Refugee Protection Process, for persons making refugee protection claims from within Canada.

Some of you are saying "well... He would be prosecuted for desertion when he comes back right?" Damn right and let me be on the Court Martial jury. In 1951, the Geneva Conventions specifically went over refugees. (PDF file)My favorite part is this. (pg 16 of 56)

A. For the purposes of the present Convention, the term refugee shall apply to any person who:

(1) Has been considered a refugee under the Arrangements of 12 May 1926 and 30 June 1928 or under the Conventions of 28 October 1933 and 10 February 1938, the Protocol of 14 September 1939 or the Constitution of the International Refugee Organization; Decisions of non-eligibility taken by the International Refugee Organization during the period of its activities shall not prevent the status of refugee being accorded to persons who fulfill the conditions of paragraph 2 of this section;

(2) As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

In the case of a person who has more than one nationality, the term the country of his nationality shall mean each of the countries of which he is a national, and a person shall not be
deemed to be lacking the protection of the country of his nationality if, without any valid reason based on well-founded fear, he has not availed himself of the protection of one of the countries
of which he is a national.

From webster.com

One entry found for persecute.

Main Entry: per·se·cute
Pronunciation: 'p&r-si-"kyüt
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): -cut·ed; -cut·ing
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French persecuter, back-formation from persecuteur persecutor, from Late Latin persecutor, from persequi to persecute, from Latin, to pursue, from per- through + sequi to follow -- more at SUE
1 : to harass in a manner designed to injure, grieve, or afflict; specifically : to cause to suffer because of belief
2 : to annoy with persistent or urgent approaches (as attacks, pleas, or importunities) : PESTER

Also from webster:

One entry found for prosecute.

Main Entry: pros·e·cute
Pronunciation: 'prä-si-"kyüt
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -cut·ed; -cut·ing
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin prosecutus, past participle of prosequi to pursue -- more at PURSUE
transitive senses
1 : to follow to the end : pursue until finished prosecute the war with... vigor -- Marjory S. Douglas>
2 : to engage in : PERFORM
3 a : to bring legal action against for redress or punishment of a crime or violation of law <prosecuted them for fraud> b : to institute legal proceedings with reference to <prosecute a claim>
intransitive senses : to institute and carry on a legal suit or prosecution

Hmmmmmm..... Oprah... Uma... Persecute... Prosecute...

You decide. I can see that the Canadian Government is laughing all the way to the bank, assuming they flew Air Canada to Ottawa.

Lets examine some of the statements by the woman.... since I am feeling cheery tonight.

A teacher, disc jockey and musician when he enlisted, Baker never thought he'd be called up for overseas duty with U.S. military forces, she said. The National Guard, he assumed, was for natural disasters and the like. "Recruiters are very persuasive - always promising college support and extra money," she said.

What a dipstick. This guy was my age. I am damn certain that he thought he would never have to go to war if he went into the ARNG. None of us who graduated in the 1994-2000 time frame EVER thought we would see a war, much less a ground war with Iraq... again! Politics aside, we never thought it. Slick Willy was all about Cruise Missiles and Predator unmanned aircraft. The Navy and AF were going to walk away with the pie and leave all of the groundpounders in the dust. Well, we were, we did and in 2001, Don Rumsfeld had a plan for restructuring the military to be a mobile fighting force that could be deployed in small groups anywhere in the world at a moments notice instead of what we have now. Well, shit happens and the muck got deep. Here we are, the National Guard is called up, the reserves are called up, the groundpounders are hurting, wanting people to join and paying out the nose to get them. Damn right we are persuasive. That is our freaking job. We are Salesmen for goodness sakes.I have to be better than the next guy. That is all we have. So, this guy was in the NG, re-enlisted (probably in 2001, if my math is right) and went to fight. He did it on his own accord. By a couple of accounts, he did it because he needed a supplemental income or college loan payback (which is 65 grand folks, come sign up!) which ever one makes him sound more pitiful. From the common dreams link above:

When Baker's unit was activated for Iraq, he didn't want to go, Celeste said. But he was honor-bound by his sense of responsibility - to the men in his unit and to the commitment he'd made when he joined.

"I said, 'Should I take you to Canada?' " said Celeste, recalling her Vietnam-era experience of helping military defectors escape the country.

"He said, 'No, I'll just be court-martialed. I'm going to go do this and come home.' "

My kind of guy. Mom is a wingnut that wants him to ruin his life by deserting. He said no, I am going to do my job and be ok. He left. Hell it is pointed out many times that he was the FIRST PA-NG soldier to be killed. Poor guy. It sucks, but he is in a very small minority that come home to be honored as fallen heroes. This guy gave his life for more than just "Bush's war". Give this guy a little respect. Hey Celeste Listen to this: Let your son rest in peace, defending his country and his people he loved as family. He did not want to be your political springboard. You can see that in his actions. Your other moonbats you raised, got arrested for protesting the war as far away from PA as they could (San Francisco).

Ok. In my job, there is a policy in place that says that I cannot run for public office, participate in any political party affiliations, while in an official status. There has to be a similar thing for Philadelphia city workers. Oh wait... Philadelphia... the liberal hippy douche capital of the east coast. Anyway, if you want to contact Celeste, here is her phone number at work. I am sure she will not be happy if you call her and offer condolences. She will probably tell you that her son died in vain.