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(visit the link for the full news article)
André Shepherd is the first American GI to have applied for political asylum in Germany. Shepherd, who deserted to avoid going back to fight in Iraq, argues that the war there is in violation of international law.
To understand André Shepherd's story, it is helpful to know how the US military recruits its soldiers. Because there are far too few volunteers, recruiters target their efforts in schools in troubled neighborhoods, among the unemployed and in urban ghettoes. The recruiters' linguistic repertoire includes sentences like this: "You look like someone who likes to help other people." The ploy worked with Shepherd.
He was 26 at the time, and only one course shy of a college degree in computer science, but he needed several thousand dollars to complete the course. He tried everything he could to raise the necessary funds, from flipping hamburgers to selling vacuum cleaners, and he even slept in his car for a few weeks to avoid being a burden on his parent and siblings. But then Shepherd gave up on the idea of finishing college, knowing full well that without a degree his job prospects were slim, and that without a job he would be unable to afford a place to live.
On Jan. 27, 2004, Shepherd enlisted in the army. Joining the military got him training, a well-paid job as a helicopter mechanic, health insurance and his father's approval. He wanted to see the world beyond Cleveland. And he dreamed of a day when, instead of digging the sand out of the engines of Apache helicopters, he would be flying them. The friendly recruiter assured him that becoming a pilot was certainly "an option."
www.spiegel.de...
'No Longer Help America Murder Innocent People'
Shepherd soon began having doubts about the war. He noticed that no one, "not even the guys who were out on patrol every day, the pilots who risked their lives with each mission, had an answer to the question of what exactly we were doing in this foreign country," says Shepherd, "not to mention for what and whom we were fighting."
Back in Germany, in February 2005, he searched the Internet for the information that hardly any American newspapers were reporting at the time: about the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, the numbers of Iraqi civilians that were victims of the war, and Guantanamo. Watching YouTube videos, he witnessed for the first time the bloody nature of the so-called collateral damage considered par for the course during Apache missions. "What was a puzzle at first became an increasingly clear picture," says Shepherd. "That was when I realized that I didn't want to have anything to do with this war anymore."
When he received his orders to redeploy to Iraq, in the spring of 2007, Shepherd knew that he could "no longer help America murder innocent people." On the evening of April 21, 2007, he withdrew all of his savings from his bank account and cleared out his apartment on Philipp Zorn Street in the Bavarian town of Ansbach: two plastic bags full of clothing, a dartboard, a television and a new video console. A German friend helped Shepherd load his few belongings into a waiting car.
I am happy to see that SOME american soldiers have a conscience and are not willing to murder the poor ,weak AND Innocent . most other american soldiers are automatons who love murdering people
www.spiegel.de
(visit the link for the full news article)
I am happy to see that SOME american soldiers have a conscience and are not willing to murder the poor ,weak AND Innocent . most other american soldiers are automatons who love murdering people