Canada expels US woman deserter

[danmand]

Mrs Rivera had wanted to remain in Canada on humanitarian grounds
Canada has ordered the deportation of the first woman US soldier to have sought asylum in the country to avoid being deployed to Iraq.

Kimberly Rivera, a mother of three, had requested permission to remain in Canada on humanitarian grounds but her appeal was rejected.

She could face up to five years in prison when she returns to the US.

Some 200 deserters from the US military are believed to have fled to Canada, some living incognito.

Mrs Rivera served in Iraq in 2006 but deserted a year later after refusing to be redeployed.

The War Resisters Supporters Campaign, who are backing Mrs Rivera, said her experience in Iraq was "a huge awakening" which convinced her that "the war was immoral and that she could not participate in it".

Mrs Rivera and her family have been told they must leave Canada by the end of January unless the court order is reversed.

Last year, the Canadian parliament passed a non-binding motion granting asylum to deserters from the Iraq war.

But correspondents say the governing Conservatives opposed the motion, not willing to risk upsetting Washington over the issue.

So far Canada has deported only one US deserter, Robin Long. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison on his return.

 

[CapitalGuy]

Toronto Sun Column, 8 Jan

http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/michele_mandel/2009/01/08/7953646-sun.html

No sympathy for her
Hard to bleed for U.S. mom who should have known better than to join army

By MICHELE MANDEL

She is the first known female Iraq war resister to have fled to Canada, but Kimberley Rivera is hardly the poster girl for a movement that argues all American army defectors are conscientious objectors who deserve asylum.

Fact is, I've had some sympathy for the estimated 200 soldiers who have travelled north to escape deployment to Iraq -- men who objected on ideological grounds, who came to believe what millions of others would as well -- that despite their president's assurances to the contrary, there were no weapons of mass destruction, no ties that linked Saddam Hussein to al-Qaida, no reason to be part of a war unsanctioned by the United Nations and opposed by most nations, including Canada.

Like the majority of Canadians -- 64% in the last poll -- and a non-binding motion passed by Parliament last June, I think they should be allowed to stay.

But try as I might, I can't drum up much empathy for this young Texas mom of three who was ordered deported on Jan. 27 by an immigration judge yesterday.

Rivera should have known what she was getting herself into when she went into an army recruiting office in 2006 and signed up for active duty. By that time, most everyone was aware of the non-existent nukes, the quagmire of violence and the war's vague underpinnings. No one promised it was going to be pretty or safe or easy to miss her young family.

But with just a high-school diploma and two little children at the time to support with her husband, Rivera concluded that a career in the army still beat her photo lab job at Wal-Mart. "I wanted my life to be better for my kids."

Her husband, Mario, insists the recruiter promised that she wouldn't be sent to Iraq and even if she were, it wouldn't be to a combat zone. "That's why he let me sign," the 26-year-old says, cradling their Canadian-born daughter Katie, born six weeks ago.

The Americans are running out of soldiers, forcing units to redeploy over and over again, and she wasn't going to be sent to Iraq?

Even Rivera wasn't that naive.

"In my mind, I knew I was probably going to Iraq," she admits after the rest of the media have packed up their cameras and left the news conference at the office of the War Resisters Support Campaign. "I was very gung ho. I wanted to make this a career."

Her goal was to be a warrant officer but when she didn't score high enough on her entrance exams, she was relegated to gate guard duty when her unit was deployed to Iraq in October 2006. After just three months, when she was home on leave, Rivera decided she'd seen enough and wasn't going back to serve out her remaining 12 months.

So what horrors did she see that led to her desertion?

Her blue eyes slide away into the past. Yet the first thing she offers is her problem with phoning home. After initially being allowed to call her husband every day, staying on the free line for at least an hour, the military later cracked down and limited calls to just 15 minutes.

Ah, the rigours of war.

The Texas native then speaks of her sadness at losing soldiers whom she befriended who didn't come back to the base and her discomfort at hearing the disturbing boasts of those who did.

But what haunts her most of all is the face of a terrified Iraqi girl who was shaking with terror as she accompanied her father to the base. "I was seeing my little girl," Rivera explains.

That look of fear changed her life, she says, and her entire opinion about what Americans were doing to Iraqi civilians. It's an epiphany that hardly seems clear but she insists you had to be there. "I don't think you fully understand what you're getting into until you're actually in it."

Still, I'd argue that coming under intense mortar fire weighed a tad more heavily on her decision not to go back. "There was the stress of not knowing if you're going to live," she admits. "I felt I was just waiting to be killed off."

So after learning about the War Resisters Support Campaign from the Internet, she and her husband hightailed it to Canada in 2007 with their son Christian, now 6, and daughter Rebecca, now 4, and settled in Parkdale where they've been overwhelmed by a welcoming community.

Now with their new baby, they are praying to stay.

If returned to the States, Rivera knows she faces prison. Robin Long, the first war resister deported back to the U.S., is currently serving a 15-month sentence. There are four others facing deportation this month alone.

So while they are hoping their new incoming president may declare an amnesty for military deserters, Rivera would still rather stay in Canada.

But on a day when we lost yet another brave Canadian soldier who did not shirk the responsibility he had willingly signed on for, it was hard to put out the welcome mat for someone who did.

 

[Aardvark154]

How many Canadian deserters to you suppose fled to the U.S. 1916-1916 or 1939-1941 and where there many American hearts "bleeding for them" poor victims of the vicious Canadian war machine.

On the other hand I do know that significant numbers of Americans came to Canada to volunteer during those years.

 

[onthebottom]

Actually I'd be happy if they stayed in Canada.

All of them.

OTB

 

[danmand]

Actually I'd be happy if they stayed in Canada.

All of them.

So would I. Again we agree.

 

[Don]

Actually I'd be happy if they stayed in Canada.

All of them.

OTB

We don't want 'em. Take 'em back.

 

[onthebottom]

We don't want 'em. Take 'em back.

I'm afraid that's the right thing to do, but I don't think we really want them either.

OTB

 

[WoodPeckr]

But correspondents say the governing Conservatives opposed the motion, not willing to risk upsetting Washington over the issue.

The Cons know Dubya needs a 'new poodle' and are only too happy to assume the role.
Cons make such cute poodles.....

 

[onthebottom]

So would I. Again we agree.

Always nice when that happens.

OTB

 

[Larry_Fyne]

The US Armed Forces (like Canada's) is a volunteer service. Let me define that.... YOU go to THEM to enlist. It is 100% your initiative. One of the things that you read and have to sign is a description of what you may potentially have to do (ie. kill people or be killed; do what you are told; etc.). She knew full well what she was getting into - no matter what she says now. To run away because you don't like the job is desertion. Ship her back and the rest of her family too. We do not need leaches like that here.

 

[onthebottom]

The US Armed Forces (like Canada's) is a volunteer service. Let me define that.... YOU go to THEM to enlist. It is 100% your initiative. One of the things that you read and have to sign is a description of what you may potentially have to do (ie. kill people or be killed; do what you are told; etc.). She knew full well what she was getting into - no matter what she says now. To run away because you don't like the job is desertion. Ship her back and the rest of her family too. We do not need leaches like that here.

Not to mention she did all of the above in the middle of the Iraq war.....

OTB

 

[WoodPeckr]

bottie unlike you, some people do have a conscience

Not to mention she did all of the above in the middle of the Iraq war.....

OTB

Unlike you, there are those moral souls troubled by an immoral, unjust, wars of Empire, or is that a wars for Halliburton....

 

[landscaper]

If you volenteer to join the armed forces hopeing to serve your hitch and get out to collect the benefits after your hitch, are you really surprised that people are a little pissed when you try to default on your part of the deal? Go back take your medicine leave our refugee system for teh people who rally need it.

 

[Larry_Fyne]

Unlike you, there are those moral souls troubled by an immoral, unjust, wars of Empire, or is that a wars for Halliburton....

I'm sorry, when you are in the service of your country, your personal morals come second to the will of the country's.

There has always been congientious (sorry if spelling is wrong) objectors during war. However they were conscripted into service. This chick signed up for duty - check your morals at the door and pick up your rifle.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Not at all Larry.
US military Code along with the Geneva Conventions are completely against what you posted.
Your posting in more in line with Nazi thinking in WWII, you know that 'my country right or wrong and Deutschland über alles, sentiment ......

 

[onthebottom]

If you volenteer to join the armed forces hopeing to serve your hitch and get out to collect the benefits after your hitch, are you really surprised that people are a little pissed when you try to default on your part of the deal? Go back take your medicine leave our refugee system for teh people who rally need it.

I'm sure she'll be returned, convicted, dishonorably discharged and then go on the peacenick speaking tour....

OTB

 

[CapitalGuy]

Not at all Larry.
US military Code along with the Geneva Conventions are completely against what you posted.
Your posting in more in line with Nazi thinking in WWII, you know that 'my country right or wrong and Deutschland über alles, sentiment ......

Presumably, Larry's assumption was that the enlistee's government was sending her on a legal operation. If Iraq is illegal, please post the pertinent legislation that proves it.

 

[nottyboi]

Presumably, Larry's assumption was that the enlistee's government was sending her on a legal operation. If Iraq is illegal, please post the pertinent legislation that proves it.

There was no UN security council approval for the US attack on Iraq. It was even less legal then the Russian attack on Georgia....at least in that case Russian citizens were being attacked by Georgians.

 

[Malibook]

There was no UN security council approval for the US attack on Iraq.

Did any of these deserters volunteer to do a tour in Afghanistan instead?

 

[red]

Did any of these deserters volunteer to do a tour in Afghanistan instead?

good question.



in a volunteer army- why can't you de-volunteer? you can quit your job anytime you like, why not the same for those in the army?