EDITORIAL – Joining army sometimes means killing people

When Jeremy Hinzman signed up for the U.S. Army in 2001, he apparently didn’t know that being… When Jeremy Hinzman signed up for the U.S. Army in 2001, he apparently didn’t know that being in the military sometimes means killing people.

Canada ruled that Hinzman, who deserted and fled there after he became disillusioned with the war in Iraq, could not gain refugee status, considering that his life isn’t in danger if he returned to this country.

The ruling, which some see as Canada’s attempt to patch its frayed relationship with the United States, was handed down on Thursday. It marks a substantial change from Canada’s policy during the Vietnam War, when its prime minister offered refuge to American draft dodgers.

Iraq, while by no means a principled war, isn’t another Vietnam. Sure, it’s a conflict fought in an inhospitable climate that began as a diversion from an ideological war. However, as much as we object to our involvement in Iraq, it’s not Vietnam.

For one thing, we don’t have a draft. There is a backdoor draft, which recalls people on inactive service. But in terms of the same lottery-style, buy-your-way-out, one-way-ticket-to-death draft, we don’t have that — yet.

Hinzman signed up for the army, which would have sent him to college after his term was up. He was trained as a paratrooper, and stationed in Afghanistan in non-combative duties. During his tenure with the army, he converted to the Religious Society of Friends — the Quakers — and applied to be a conscientious objector, a status reserved for people with religious or ethical problems with warfare. After being denied this — he couldn’t vow that, if attacked, he would turn the other cheek — and having his request to be put on non-combative duties turned down, he fled to Canada with his wife and son.

While deciding what your religious and moral stances are is certainly a part of growing up, the army was right to be skeptical of Hinzman’s ideological switcheroo. According to CTV, Hinzman said that his epiphany that being in the military might entail violence came when he was forced to chant, “Trained to kill and kill we will.”

It’s sad that it took a nursery rhyme-style saying to solidify the point that an organization that handles things like weapons and war might involve harming other people. But come on: How did he not know that the military killed people?

The military does do some pretty sleazy things to get new recruits, including targeting poor kids who can’t afford a college education without it. The ads that portray joining the military as some sort of extreme sport don’t help much either.

But it takes an incredible level of naivete to think that if you enlist, you’ll never have a gun in your hands. Hinzman said that he planned to use the military to pay for college, a strategy that works for the most part, but isn’t a fair deal, as he was trying to use an organization much more adept at manipulation than he.

If he returns to the United States, Hinzman faces a jail term and a dishonorable discharge, not something that the father of a young child should have to go through. Still, in ruling that Hinzman didn’t qualify for refuge status, Canada acted reasonably. Hinzman’s life isn’t in danger, and that factor is the best litmus test for asylum-seekers.

There are millions of refugees fleeing from war-torn, poverty-stricken countries deserving of our mercy and our aid. Hinzman, however, shouldn’t be given asylum from his own bad decisions.