ISBN: 9781933392042 Year Added to Catalog: 2006 Book Format: Paperback Number of Pages: 5 3⁄ Book Publisher: 8, 240 pages Old ISBN: 2006-04-26 Release Date: April 27, 2006 Web Product ID: 68
Joshua Key, husband and father of four, spent eight months in Iraq and saw far too many innocent people killed. He concluded that the war was immoral. Back home on leave, he took his wife and children and went underground to avoid redeployment. He now lives in exile in Canada.
Ryan Johnson joined the Army when he was barely past his teens. While in training, he heard war stories from soldiers on leave from Iraq. He heard tales of horror, bloodshed and deep trauma, all for a cause he did not believe was right. He deserted and is now seeking refugee status in Canada.
Clara Gomez was 17 when she was contacted by military recruiters who were under pressure to sign up people for an endless â??war on terror.â? The recruiters used heavy-handed tactics that she found unnerving. She signed up while still in high school, then fought the military and successfully rescinded her decision.
Aidan Delgado signed up for the Army Reserves on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. A year later, he was in Iraq, ending up at Abu Ghraib prison. Convinced by what he experienced in Iraq that U.S. policy is wrong, he returned to the U.S. where he filed for conscientious objector status and received an honorable discharge.
Clifton Hicks was barely 19 when he joined the military and within months, found himself in Iraq, only to watch a lot of innocent Iraqis being killed. Traumatized by the violence and death, while stationed in Germany between tours of duty in Iraq, he successfully filed for conscientious objector status and was honorably discharged.
Daniel joined the Marines shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. During two tours of duty in Iraq, he saw some of the heaviest fighting and received eight decorations of valor. His experiences convinced him to defy redeployment. Daniel used cocaine for the first time in his life in order to deliberately fail his drug test. He was sent home with an Other Than Honorable Discharge and is now battling the Veterans Administration to get treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Robert Zabala graduated at the top of his class from Marine Corps boot camp. But then during training he was repulsed by the mindless and relentless emphasis on killing, by superiors who were ruthless and by soldiers trading snapshots of dead Iraqis like baseball cards. He filed for conscientious objector status and is awaiting a decision.
Portraits by Kate Gridley. Drawn from photographs taken during interviews conducted by Peter Laufer.
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