Let those deserters into Canada !! (I'll say)

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/07/04/refugee-ruling.html

CBC News : Friday, July 4, 2008 | 7:18 PM ET

An American war deserter could have a valid claim for refugee status
in Canada, the Federal Court ruled on Friday.

In a decision that may have an impact on dozens of refugee claimants in
Canada, Federal Court Justice Robert Barnes said Canada's refugee board
erred by rejecting the asylum bid of Joshua Key. He ordered that a new
panel reconsider the application.

Key was sent to Iraq in 2003 as a combat engineer for eight months
where he said he was responsible for nighttime raids on private Iraqi
homes, which included searching for weapons.

He alleged that during his time in Iraq he witnessed several cases of
abuse, humiliation, and looting by the U.S. army.

When Key was back in the U.S on a two-week leave, he said he was
suffering from debilitating nightmares and that he couldn't return. A
military lawyer told him that he could either return to Iraq or face
prison.

Instead, Key took his family to Canada and applied for refugee status.

While the immigration board concluded that some of the alleged conduct by
the U.S military included a "disturbing level of brutality," it said
the conduct did not meet the definition of a war crime or a crime against
humanity.

Barnes said the board erred "by concluding that refugee protection for
military deserters and evaders is only available where the conduct
objected to amounts to a war crime, a crime against peace or a crime
against humanity."

Citing a case from the U.S. Federal Court of Appeal, Barnes said
officially condoned military misconduct could still support a refugee
claim, even if it falls short of a war crime.

"The authorities indicate that military action which systematically
degrades, abuses or humiliates either combatants or non-combatants is
capable of supporting a refugee claim where that is the proven reason for
refusing to serve," Barnes wrote.

Barnes said the board imposed a legal standard that was "too
restrictive" on Key, who lives in Saskatchewan.

Key's lawyer, Jeffry House, said the ruling expands a soldier's right to
refuse military service.

"It's a huge victory for numerous soldiers who are here and maybe
others who are thinking of coming here," House said.

A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Diane Finley said they were
reviewing the court decision.

Something to think about! US military bases worldwide 2001-03

Peace Pledge Union, 41b Brecknoch Road, London N7

Uniformed, active US military: Last hope for the US Constitution and the Republic By John Stanton Online Journal Contributing Writer

The uniformed, active duty members of the United States military are now the only force potent enough to stop the corporatization of America's public goods: its land, its air, its water, its people, its institutions, its infrastructure, and its rapidly deteriorating social compact.

They are the only force capable of stopping America's politicians and their corporate handlers from transforming America and the world into a living, breathing Dante's Inferno. And they are the only organization self-critical enough to bleed out commanders who long for perpetual warfare.

The clock is ticking fast though. The uniformed US military is allowing itself to be transformed into a corporate monster. Even now, some military leaders act just like the callous CEOs in private industry. They throw away lives like a CEO blithely chops away 1,000 livelihoods. As it stands, within a decade the uniformed services will be totally polluted with over-the-horizon leaders who see their service to the country as little more than a CEO training exercise. At that point, the uniformed services will become little more than corporate muscle that is used to eliminate local or regional resistance to the corporate takeovers.

The uniformed services are now openly abused by the politicians and their corporate handlers as policy and propaganda shields to mask dreadful national security strategies that are based solely on profit-taking motives. That tactic was perfected in October 2007 when the uniformed military served as a policy and propaganda shield to disguise the influence of the Turkish government and corporations operating though the American Turkish Council led by Brent Scowcroft. The latter group spearheaded the charge to defeat a US House of Representatives resolution that would have recognized the slaughter of the Armenians by the Turks from 1915 to 1917. The uniformed services served as the public excuse for defeating the resolution because it s passage would ostensibly cause the Turks to stop the uniformed services' logistics and supply operations transiting through Turkey. However, a look at the corporate membership of the American Turkish Council (atc.org) gives up the real answer: corporate market-share and profits were at stake as Turkey threatened to take its business to Europe or China.

Even now, the policy and propaganda shield is being used to compare Turkish troops killed by the rebel Kurd group PPK in Northern Iraq/Kurdistan with uniformed US military troops killed by rebels throughout Iraq and in Afghanistan. The theme is obvious: we are like them and must fight the extremists together. That even though the matter of the Turks and Kurds is as dangerous as the Israeli and Palestinian issue (Israel supports the Turks). Once again, the uniformed military finds itself used for political ends. Further, politicians, and all the presidential candidates among them -- managed as they are by their corporate handlers -- are aching for an invasion of Iran. Yet again, the uniformed military is used as a policy and propaganda shield to motivate the American public into supporting an invasion of Iran. One day Iranian operatives are killing US troops in Iraq and the next day they are funding the Taliban at the expense of uniformed troops.

How long until the uniformed military carries out its core duty to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States? The uniformed military is the only US government institution that has the tenuous trust and respect of the American people. The US Senate, House, presidency and judicial branches -- advised by their corporate handlers -- have used the uniformed US military to serve their own individual interests, not those embodied in the Constitution of the United States or the Declaration of Independence.

The premeditated policies of the current US government are literally killing the American people and creating foreign enemies that future American youngsters will be asked to kill.

America can't even run a legitimate presidential election.

Two decades of this madness is enough. The uniformed military needs to be true to its oath of office. It's the domestic enemies that are destroying the country. The US Army oath for officers states,

" . . . I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter . . ."

It's time.

John Stanton is a Virginia based writer specializing in political and national security matters. His most recent book is Talking Politics with God and the Devil in Washington, D.C. Reach him at cioran123@yahoo.com.

Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal

New Council on Foreign Relations paper on remodelling the US military

(And then there is that little matter of paying the mercenaries)

The U.S. Army, built around divisions of ten thousand to fifteen thousand soldiers since World War I, began a radical reform of its organizational structure in 2004 that designates the much smaller “brigade”—with three thousand to five thousand soldiers—as the linchpin of the army’s structure. The reforms, which took on new urgency as the strain of maintaining a large combat force in Iraq grew, reflect the fact that a unit of the size of today’s “Brigade Combat Teams” (BCTs) can bring to bear the destructive power equal to that of a much larger division of decades past. At the end of the reform process—by early 2008—the army will field forty-three BCTs, which operate independently, in comparison to the thirty-three brigades available in 2004, which under the old structure were designed to operate primarily as part of a division.

The new brigades are intended to be “modular,” meaning their smaller battalion- and company-level components can be mixed and matched by the brigade’s commander to suit the particular mission. (This Backgrounder provides a fuller examination of modern military unit structures.) In theory, the new brigades require fewer support troops, making them more self-sufficient and, theoretically, increasing the percentage of forces available to deploy in combat roles. In practice, some experts wonder whether the unforeseen length of the deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan will blunt the value of some of the reforms.

More Deployable Combat Power

*snip*

Last January, however, under congressional pressure, Gates announced a plan (AP) to increase the active-duty army and Marine Corps end strength from the current authorized level of 547,400 army soldiers and 202,000 marines. In total, the plan adds 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 marines over the next five years. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of this expansion will amount to about $108 billion by 2013. Gordon Adams, former associate director of national security at the Office of Management and Budget, told CongressDaily that these burdens could turn into a budget buster for the Pentagon. “It will do nothing to alleviate force stress in Iraq, unless you assume we are there in large numbers for another three [to] five years,” he said. The army’s Fiscal Year 2008 budget projects major increases in personnel costs beginning in Fiscal Year 2009.

read more here ....

"No American president can stand up to Israel" By Paul Craig Roberts Online Journal Guest Writer Aug 16, 2007, 01:08

"No American president can stand up to Israel."

These words came from feisty Admiral Thomas Moorer, Chief of Naval Operations (1967-1970) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1970-1974). Moorer was, perhaps, the last independent-minded American military leader.

Admiral Moorer knew what he was talking about. On June 8, 1967, Israel attacked the American intelligence ship, USS Liberty, killing 34 American sailors and wounding 173. The Israelis even strafed the life rafts, machine-gunning the American sailors leaving the stricken ship.

*snip*

Remember Me

If anyone droppin' by needs a good shakeup, then READ this email and then watch the video.

I am the mother of a Marine officer. I may NOT agree with the "reasons" the US in Iraq. I may think war is hell, and my son and I may not even get along, but I WISH I could say these words in the video to him. I LOVE YOU. I REMEMBER. and I want to say, I am glad you made it through the combat zone.


Posted by: "STACEY"
Date: Fri May 4, 2007 8:14 pm ((PDT))

Osiyo my family,

Before I start, I want to apologize for my tone and some not so nice words that I may write.

Most of you know my feeling towards bush and this lands gov. Putting all that aside.

I have just seen this video. It will really make you think. Please take the time to watch this and see what I saw.

I did my time for the army and was released after 17 years. I was in the Infantry as a Mechanized Infantryman. After my time as an Inf. Soldier, I became a Military Police Officer. I saw more then my share of death. I was a part of many Honor Guards. I saw way too many Families crying because they lost a family member or friend and I cried right along with them. I laid my own Father to rest after he passed over. The last soldier I help lay to rest was my wife Stacey's GrandFather. I don't want to lay an more to rest. I'm tired.

All I want is everyone of these Men and Women home.

Am I proud of each and everyone of them? Ya damn right I am. Not because of where they are, or what is going on. But because they are willing to die for every sorry ass here in this land that doesn't deserve it.

Like the SOB that says illegals need to go home.
Or the SOB that says I can't believe the way I want to.
Or the SOB that says your not the right color.
Or the SOB that says I have to fly only the US Flag.

These people put their lives on the line for us. Right, Wrong or Indifferent. It makes no difference. They deserve nothing less then our love. and support.

Kirk Little redHawk
Cherokee Warrior

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ervaMPt4Ha0