Thread: Michael Moore slams Canada for not taking deserters. "Not the Canada we used to know"

Michael Moore slams Canada on war dodgers - Yahoo! Canada News

Moore claims Canada has changed, as we welcomed Vietnam refuseniks with open arms, including permanent residence to this day, but have denied US servicemen refusing to go to Iraq refugee status.

The article gives the main reason... dodging the draft is far different than joining the military and THEN going AWOL. But secondly, we weren't ourselves at war during the Vietnam era. That said, I think he has a point. Why the double standard. Most Canadians approve of letting these guys and their families stay and contribute, as the previous generation has done. There are draft dodger communities in BC to this day. What's the hold up?

Certainly Dick Cheney was scary, and he would have had all 33 million of us personally and professionally destroyed if we'd done it 5 years ago... no arguing that. There would have been hell to pay back in 2003 or 2004. But it's been years since they made their choice, and some of these guys are going to go back to jail. Let the poor bastards stay and get work and pay taxes.

We like keeping them and if they go back they'll be a drain on US resources to prosecute and imprison them for refusing to participate in what the majority of Amerians actually agree was a bad war.

Let them join the CF... we have a need of recruits. They'd probably be more than willing to report to Afghanistan, Bosnia, Cyprus, Camp Mirage etc. Thee are guys that wanted to be in the military. Let them join ours and earn their citizenship.

As the OP and article notes (w/ slightly different wording, of course), a "draft dodger" is fleeing coercion and de facto slavery.

A volunteer soldier in breach of their contract with their employer is not in the same situation.

Pardon my French (pun intended), but if we're invading Canada, shit's fucked up so bad the rest of the world is in little condition to care.

The version of events from the Fallout series comes to mind.

Originally Posted by Inspector Gently

Michael Moore slams Canada on war dodgers - Yahoo! Canada News

Moore claims Canada has changed, as we welcomed Vietnam refuseniks with open arms, including permanent residence to this day, but have denied US servicemen refusing to go to Iraq refugee status.

The article gives the main reason... dodging the draft is far different than joining the military and THEN going AWOL. But secondly, we weren't ourselves at war during the Vietnam era. That said, I think he has a point. Why the double standard. Most Canadians approve of letting these guys and their families stay and contribute, as the previous generation has done. There are draft dodger communities in BC to this day. What's the hold up?

Certainly Dick Cheney was scary, and he would have had all 33 million of us personally and professionally destroyed if we'd done it 5 years ago... no arguing that. There would have been hell to pay back in 2003 or 2004. But it's been years since they made their choice, and some of these guys are going to go back to jail. Let the poor bastards stay and get work and pay taxes.

We like keeping them and if they go back they'll be a drain on US resources to prosecute and imprison them for refusing to participate in what the majority of Amerians actually agree was a bad war.

Let them join the CF... we have a need of recruits. They'd probably be more than willing to report to Afghanistan, Bosnia, Cyprus, Camp Mirage etc. Thee are guys that wanted to be in the military. Let them join ours and earn their citizenship.

What do you think Cheney would have done? The prime minister stiffed the potus on Iraq and nothing happened.

Originally Posted by chuck_schmidt

What do you think Cheney would have done? The prime minister stiffed the potus on Iraq and nothing happened.

Yeah.. but our special forces have been there, as have our 'support' military, and they still are. We're just not supposed to be smart enough to know about it.

I think Chretien just called the WHite House and said "George I the we just, you know, are not the able to , you knaw, as it is, the numbers dont politics for us to go. We can't not the going now, for the reasons of politiis you know. How do they say.... the mob she rules, yes?"

Originally Posted by Stefan Bandera

I just do not see a military person even in the world of the "all volunteer" army as having just a "contract with their employer ". Are you considering our military people as nothing better than mercenaries ? I see that as a very insulting attitude and it is usually the the right wing whack job and/or chicken hawk dirt bag who has that attitude. Now I know that you do not consider yourself as being a member of either of those groups so do you really have such a low and despicable opinion of our military people ?

Uh. What? I don't even...

Right. I'll try to respond to this somehow...

I have no negative opinion of volunteer soldiers, and I want them to be paid decently in wages and benefits; I do not think this makes them "mercenaries."

I do think that conscription is tantamount to slavery and should never be practiced.

I also have no inherently or automatically negative opinion of PMCs in general (though in practice, some have behaved deplorably) and I am assuming by your response that you do.