First female deserter to go on trial today

Kim Rivera, the first female deserter in US history, is going on trial now after being deported from Canada last year.
Female Fort Carson soldier who fled to Canada faces trial Monday

Rivera, for those with short memories, was a Wal-Mart employee from Mesquite, Texas who married another Wal-Mart employee and started having kids. Eventually the two of them decided that they needed more money and better benefits so both tried to enlist in the US Army. Both were turned away initially for being too fat and out of shape, but Kim managed to lose enough weight to get accepted on her second attempt. So in 2006, when our troops were being sent to both Iraq and Afghanistan, Kim Rivera signed on the dotted line, enlisting as a soldier in the infantry. Then she pocketed an eight thousand dollar enlistment bonus and went off to Iraq, where, by all accounts, she served a safe and uneventful tour as a gate guard, never seeing any sort of action.

Returning to the US on a two-week leave in 2007, she suddenly developed "conscientious objection" when told that she'd have to return to Iraq, so she went AWOL and her and her presumably still fat husband skedaddled for Canada and applied for refugee status. The Canadian government eventually denied their request and booted them out of the country, and the US Army snatched her back up at the border. She's now facing five years in military prison and a dishonorable discharge.

Me, I'm fine with both punishments. Aside from demonstrating a total lack of honor and integrity, by deserting, she weakened her unit and increased the danger to other Americans still serving there. And far from just trying to live quietly afterwards, once she thought that she was safe from any consequences, she became a voice for the desertion movement and encouraged other Americans to run out on their units and their commitments. Five years really isn't long enough for this pudgy Jane Fonda wanna-be, as far as I'm concerned. I think that she needs to bust rocks or dig holes every day that she's in custody, and she should be sent over to Afghanistan and made to serve her sentence there instead of in some air-conditioned detention center here in the states. Plus, as a taxpayer, I want our eight thousand dollars back.

Canada doesn't want our cowards and losers either

Bad news for the cowards and shirkers who fled the United States for a supposed safe haven in Canada rather than fulfill their commitment to the US Armed Forces. The Canadian Supreme Court says that they don't qualify for refugee status in that country, paving the way for their return here and some (hopefully) long prison sentences. This means that we may wind up getting dirtbags like Jeremy Hinzman, Brandon Hughey and Kim Rivera back after they and other cry-babies who enlisted in the army to get all the benefits that we offer our soldiers only to run away like sniveling bitches when they were called upon to actually perform the duties of a soldier. Now this is both a blessing and a curse. I for one will enjoy watching them all get sentenced to prison and I sincerely hope that they do many years behind bars. However, I also know that they will eventually be released and to be quite honest, I don't want them in my country.

And I mean that most sincerely. These people are liars, traitors, and punks who cannot be taken at their word or depended on when the chips are down. They do not represent America and do not rate American citizenship or deserve to spend one free day in this country ever again. I'd actually like to see Canada just keep them, and failing that, I'll be the first to propose that if they are brought back and sentenced, that they be stripped of their American citizenship and deported immediately, preferably to someplace like Iraq. I don't want to share the freedoms and rights and heritage of this country with pathetically useless slaps like Jeremy Hinzman. I want to see every one of these deserters barred from ever re-entering this great country and if they ever do set foot back here, I want to see them either imprisoned at hard labor for the rest of their lives or deported and expelled. As an American, I have no problem with dissent or people speaking out against my country's policies, but I cannot condone someone who promises to serve, and who reaches out and takes the things meant for those who stand to defend America and our way of life only to run away and denounce this great country from abroad when the time comes for them to live up to their end of the agreement.

If Canada wants our trash, they're welcome to it. But apparently even Canada won't stomach these cockroaches. and for once I can't blame Canada.

Court decision: Army 1; Coward 0

According to this AP story, Loser-of-the-week Agustin Aguayo lost his bid to get out of a military prison after going AWOL the night before his unit was to deploy to Iraq. Aguayo joined the Army in 2002, when it was obvious to anyone that many of the troops would soon be in action. However he claims that he only joined the military to get the educational benefits that our country offers to it's soldiers and that he never thought that he'd actually have to fight. Apparently as soon as he got his orders for Iraq, he and his best friend (cowards of a feather stick together) applied for conscientious-objector status. The Army noted that they only applied after receiving their deployment orders and turned them down. So Aguayo ran like a yellow punk while the rest of his unit went to Iraq.

Aguayo recently appealed to the US District Court in Washington, DC, asking to have the Army's decision overturned and his prison stay ended. But the court sided with the Army and Aguayo will continue to sit in a military prison on charges of desertion and missing a troop movement until his trial next month. He could get up to seven years in prison if convicted, and personally I'm hoping that he gets the whole seven.

Our military offers many nice benefits, it's true. But they are offered as compensation and reward for an enlistee putting himself at risk and deploying if and when he is called upon to do so. I have less than zero respect for those losers who enlist to get those benefits who then refuse to do their part when called upon, The educational benefits and other perks are part of a quid pro quo deal, and you don't get to grab them without having to do your part in return if called.

I'll always support jailing cowards who go AWOL to avoid doing their sworn duty, and I'll even support stripping the citizenship of any coward who flees the country to avoid performing his duty, as some enlistees have done. Granted many where undoubtedly encouraged by former President Jimmy Carter, who gave amnesty to the cowards who did that during Vietnam. Let's hope that we never again get a weak President who makes a similar mistake in regards to the cowards who recently ran to Canada after their units were ordered deployed. Like Agustin Aguayo, they are a disgrace to this country and should spend years in prison should they ever darken our shores or set foot on our sacred soil again.

Cowardly whiny-baby American military deserters in Canada want to come home... Oh Boo Hoo.

Do you believe this? A story in today's New York Post about some of the US military deserters who abandoned their units and their fellow soldiers and fled to Canada to avoid going to Iraq.

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?