Michelle Malkin
AWOL and AINO (American in name only)
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Fugitive U.S. soldier Jeremy Hinzman is an unrepentant embarrassment to his country of birth. Last year, he deserted from the 82nd Airborne Division, fled to Canada, and became the anti-war movement's sexiest man alive. Now, in a desperate bid for refugee status, this AWOL poster boy is collectively smearing our brave men and women in Iraq as war criminals to save his hide.
Do our neighbors to the north really want to become a paradise for America's
cut-and-run reprobates? Apparently so. At Hinzman's refugee hearing on
Monday, the National Post reports, "demonstrators braved the morning snow
and icy winds to show their support, carrying signs such as 'Canada should
welcome war resisters.'"
Perhaps too much drug-addled '60s nostalgia has burnt out the
bleeding-hearts pacifists' brain cells. But there is a Michael Moore-sized
distinction between Hinzman and the thousands of "resisters" who fled to
Canada during the Vietnam War. Unlike the American draft dodgers who crossed
the northern border more than three decades ago, Hinzman volunteered for
military service in January 2001. He joined of his own free will. Nobody
forced him to go to the recruitment office. Nobody dragged him to Ft. Bragg.
He happily cashed in his Army paychecks until deployment to Afghanistan was
imminent. After his application for conscientious objector status was
rejected, he grudgingly finished his stint in Afghanistan, declared
opposition to the coming war in Iraq, packed up his wife and infant son, and
waltzed into the open arms of Toronto's radical leftists.
It's been one big pacifist Kumbayah ever since-a dazzling procession of
campus tributes, rock star galas, and international media martyrdom. And
when he's not on his tour of self-promotional duty, Hinzman and his wife (a
feminist social worker who has also applied for asylum in Canada) are
savoring the good life in their newly-adopted home. Hinzman reports on his
own snazzy website:
"In the mornings, we usually take [son] Liam to various playgroups in our
neighborhood. In the afternoon, we alternate which one of us cooks dinner. I
also try to go for a run while Liam naps. In the evening we play with our
son and often go to various parts of Toronto and "people watch" to get Liam
out of the house. After he goes to sleep for the night, I try to read or Nga
and I watch a movie or do various other things. A great deal of this
routine, or lack thereof, will probably soon change after I get a work
permit and find some sort of employment."
Hinzman is enjoying his domestic tranquility on the backs of each and every
American military man and woman who is living up to his or her commitment to
uphold a sworn oath of duty. Hinzman and his lawyer plan to argue to
Canadian immigration officials that American soldiers are guilty of war
crimes and that forcing him to fight in Iraq would have likely made him a
war criminal. Among the witnesses testifying on Hinzman's behalf is former
U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey, the Winter Soldier of the 21st century,
who claims his platoon killed "a bunch of innocent civilians." Massey has
been making the rounds in the French media and other America-hating swamps.
Several others have followed Hinzman's trail, hoping Canada will buy into
their sob stories. But by embracing our cowards, Canada undermines not only
the War on Terror, but also its own asylum system. American deserters face
neither execution nor persecution if returned to the U.S. Just look at Petty
Officer 3rd Class Pablo Paredes, who on Monday refused to board his Navy
ship in protest of the war on Iraq.
Unlike Hinzman, Paredes is ready and willing to go to jail. After his
release, Paredes is sure to get a book deal, a CBS made-for-TV movie, a
party at Susan Sarandon's, and honorary Canadian citizenship-if he doesn't
apply for it himself first.
If Hinzman had half a brain and as much spine, he'd come back to the States
and face the music. But that would require an ounce of American character
that is as foreign to him as it is to his Canadian comrades.
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JWR contributor Michelle Malkin is the author of, most recently, "In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.)
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