{"id":2337,"date":"2008-08-22T14:04:08","date_gmt":"2008-08-22T18:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=2337"},"modified":"2008-08-22T19:55:35","modified_gmt":"2008-08-22T23:55:35","slug":"deserter-goes-on-trial-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=2337","title":{"rendered":"Deserter goes on trial today (UPDATED)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Robin Long, the first deserter to be deported from Canada since the Vietnam War goes on trial today at Fort Carson, Colorado. He&#8217;s made a deal to plead guilty so it should be a short trial (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/article.cgi?f=\/n\/a\/2008\/08\/21\/national\/a094142D46.DTL&amp;feed=rss.business\" target=\"_blank\">SFGate<\/a> link);<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Pvt. Robin Long, 25, of Boise, Idaho, faces up to three years in prison and a dishonorable discharge, civilian defense attorney James Branam said Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Long went to Canada in 2005, but authorities there denied his request for refuge and deported him in July of this year.<\/p>\n<p>Branam said Long has reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to desertion with intent to remain away permanently, a lesser charge than desertion with intent to shirk hazardous duty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Left blames the Conservative Canadian government and their commitment to the Afghanistan War for the deportation. But Canada said, after Jimmy Carter&#8217;s sweeping amnesty for draft dodgers, that US cowards couldn&#8217;t depend on Canada harboring them again.<\/p>\n<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/iconocurmudgeonclast.blogspot.com\/2008\/08\/no-sanctuary.html\" target=\"_blank\">Icono-Curmudgeon-Clast<\/a>;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Members of the Colorado Springs peace community filled up the courtroom on base with supporters, and will begin new counseling to war resisters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So here&#8217;s some counseling that you can get from me for free;<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->If you can&#8217;t find the courage to live up to your obligations and you really feel the need to be a cowardly chickenshit, go to Cuba. I mean, if you&#8217;re really worried about being persecuted by a corrupt and unfeeling government in the United States and you want to go somewhere that won&#8217;t deport you, Cuba only makes sense. Whichever Castro gets to decide these things there won&#8217;t let you be deported&#8230;even if you want to be deported.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure I&#8217;m not the first to recommend this to you. Now, unless you&#8217;re just going to Canada for the media attention and the comforts of living in the good old US of A, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, maybe even Russia would welcome you.<\/p>\n<p>But see, if you&#8217;re going to Canada to live in the US-lite&#8230;.all of the comforts without the judgmental persecution&#8230;that&#8217;s just being hypocritical. Hitch hike to Mexico City and hop a flight to Havana and show everyone how really committed you are to the cause of war resistance instead of just driving across a lightly guarded border and parading for the press.  Be a man for once.<\/p>\n<p>Someone tell Hinzman he&#8217;s still got time to prove to me he has a pair. I wonder if either of these cowards are IVAW yet.<\/p>\n<p><strong>UPDATE:<\/strong> Thanks to <a href=\"http:\/\/cancelthebee.blogspot.com\/2008\/08\/army-deserter-who-fled-to-canada-gets.html\" target=\"_blank\">McClatchey Watch<\/a> for dropping by to tell us\u00a0 the little weasel got 15 months;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Pfc. Robin Long, who fled rather than reporting for duty at Fort Carson in 2005 told court-martial judge Col. Debra Boudreau that he left the country because of moral objections to what he termed an &#8220;illegal war.&#8221; The judge came back with a 15-month sentence after prosecutors argued that Long &#8220;abandoned his duty, his honor and his country.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That&#8217;s about 15 months less than I would have given him but it&#8217;s a lot more than I expected from the politically sensitive US Army. I&#8217;m sure he&#8217;ll be a martyr and we can look forward to &#8220;Free Robin Long&#8221; chants in future protests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robin Long, the first deserter to be deported from Canada since the Vietnam War goes on &hellip; <a title=\"Deserter goes on trial today (UPDATED)\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=2337\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Deserter goes on trial today (UPDATED)<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,37,30,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antiwar-crowd","category-ivaw","category-phony-soldiers","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}