LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Since going to Canada to avoid another deployment to Iraq, Corey Glass has considered returning to the United States. But after hearing that a fellow former soldier who surrendered to the military and was ordered to return to his unit instead of being discharged, Glass may not return at all.
"They're not going to win the hearts and minds like that," said Glass, 24, who signed on with the Indiana National Guard in 2002.
Kyle Snyder, a one-time combat engineer who joined the military in 2003, disappeared Wednesday, a day after surrendering at Fort Knox and 18 months after fleeing to Vancouver instead of redeploying to Iraq.
Snyder, 23, of Colorado Springs, Colo., said a deal had been reached for a discharge, but he found out he would be returned to his unit at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
His troubles are complicating efforts for those among the 220 American soldiers who fled to Canada and want to return to the United States, according to lawyers, soldiers and anti-war activists.
"Nobody's going to come back from Canada anymore," said James Fennerty, a Chicago-based attorney who represents Snyder and other AWOL soldiers.
Several soldiers who went to Canada have said they don't want to return to Iraq. Sgt. Patrick Hart, who deserted the Fort Campbell, Ky.-based 101st Airborne Division in August 2005, a month before his second deployment, said he felt misled about the reasons for the war.
"How can I go over there if I don't believe in the cause?" But now the idea of returning to the United States is appealing to Hart, because he would like to see family and friends.
"I could see going back under some kind of amnesty program or something like that," Hart said. "But I don't trust them. My enemy isn't foreign now. It's domestic."
Here's a newsflash for Glass, Hart and the other dishonorable cowards who ran away like spoiled pansy kids: Many of us here don't particularly care to have you come back. You signed up to be soliders, I'm sure that you had no qualms against helping yourself to all of the benefits that real soliders are entitled to--college courses, PX shopping, and all of the other programs set up to confer benefits on our troops--but now you don't want to do your part, and rather than honor your commitment, you sneak out of our country and into another like thieves in the night and then you badmouth the United States and act as if you were some sort of victims?
Please do the rest of us a favor and stay in Canada. As far as I'm concerned, you left your right to be called a citizen of this country behind right along with your obligation to finish your military commitment and your honor. I wouldn't welcome you into my community as a neighbor and if we ever met I'd take great pride in putting a very pro-American boot in your ass.
I don't want to hear any of this crap about how you don't agree with the war in Iraq. As a soldier serving this country, you don't get to make those choices. No soldier does and it's expected when you sign up that you'll go where this country needs you. You see, it's not all about you, but about the needs of this country. And you knew that when you enlisted and promised to serve so crying about it now isn't going to work.
You didn't just run out on your word, cowards. You ran out on all of us. So please don't cry about not being able to come back here to see family and friends now. You're criminals who deserve prison time (or a firing squad for deserting in time of war) and you made that choice to run away and disgrace yourselves for all time. You made your beds, cowards. Now lie in them and don't ever bother us again.
And James Fennerty, that goes for you too. If you think that these sad sacks of garbage are such good people, how about you go live with them instead of trying to find some way to get them back here without facing the consequences that desertion carries and their actions deserve?
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