Solidarity with the soldiers who lay down their arms

Image courtesy of the war resisters support campaign

War Resisters Brandi and Josh Keys speak with Tyler McCreary about life and death in the US army, the war in Iraq, and the War Resisters Support Campaign

Can history repeat itself? In 1969, when Canada opened its border to deserters and draft dodgers from the US war on Vietnam, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau declared that “those who make the conscientious judgment that they must not participate in this war… have my complete sympathy, and indeed our political approach has been to give them access to Canada. Canada should be a refuge from militarism.”

It’s difficult to imagine the accommodationist Paul Martin making such a declaration today, but substantial pressure is building for precisely that. More and more US soldiers are going AWOL, and many have fled north seeking refuge from the same militarism that sent their parents’ generation off to Vietnam. And with the looming spectre of another military draft, a brave few resisters and deserters are seeking a provision for themselves and those who follow to live in peace.

Tyler McCreary: What does it mean to be a war resister?

Brandi Key: We are resisting participation in the Iraq war. My husband went and served for eight months, and based on what he saw, he decided he could no longer participate in the war.

Josh Key: Actually, I guess you’d consider me an American deserter, because I deserted. I went to war, and then I left.

Tyler: So why did you originally join the US military?

Josh: I was working as a welder in 2002. We had two kids at the time; I was making about $7.25 an hour, and it wasn’t paying the bills. So I did what the billboards and commercials say: go join something bigger than yourself and make a good life.

Tyler: So did you join with the intent of going to Iraq?

Josh: No. They told me that because I was the head of a family, I’d be assigned to a regiment that would never be sent overseas.

Tyler: When did you learn that you were going to Iraq?

Josh: April 1, 2003.

Tyler: What was your reaction?

Josh: I was ready to go and fight a war. For the protection of my family, my country. And to get rid of the evil tyrant, Saddam Hussein.

Tyler: So what did you think about Saddam Hussein when you first went over?

Josh: I thought he was a madman who has killed millions of his people. We were told he’s a mass murderer, he’s killed his own people. He has weapons of mass destruction with the capability to hit the US. We were told there were links between him and Al Qaeda, which was the reason for 9/11.

Tyler: At what point did this story start to come apart for you?

Josh: It started with the things I had to do there. I saw nothing but death, destruction and chaos on our behalf. I felt like I was there more to antagonize the Iraqi people rather than for any purpose.

Tyler: So what did you do while you were in Iraq? What was your position?

Josh: I conducted raids, did traffic control, and I patrolled the streets. I was a combat engineer. I specialized in landmines and explosives.

Tyler: The news, by the time it gets to us, is very filtered -.embedded reporters, press conferences from the green zone, and so on. But you served most of your time in the Sunni Triangle, in the red zone. What was it like there?

Josh: They had us going non-stop, all the time. We’d get maybe two or three hours of sleep a night if we were lucky. Every night they would shoot illumination rounds over the city, so it was like daytime all the time. And every two seconds you’d hear tank fire. And Apache helicopters are the loudest, most vicious things I’ve ever heard in my life. All night long they would circle the cities. They would drive us so crazy because we couldn’t sleep. Twenty-four hours a day, tanks running up and down the streets. And you know, tanks are so heavy that the houses start rocking. You’ve got Apaches in the air. You’ve got F-16s flying over all the time. I don’t know how Iraqis could sleep. I couldn’t even sleep and I was a soldier there.

Tyler: What was the reaction of the Iraqis to the American troops? When we first saw the Americans go in, we saw crowds swarming the troops.

Josh: They did that a lot, especially at first. You’d go down the street, and it was like you were getting a parade everywhere you went. I talked to an Iraqi professor about that, and he said it was something Saddam Hussein instilled in people when he was in power. If they did not come out to greet the military, the soldiers could go in and rough up their families, rape, pillage, whatever. So they weren’t actually glad to see us; they were just scared we were going to do the same thing.

Tyler: So the American military presence isn’t bringing a sense of security to the people of Iraq. Did you see the US presence as able to protect Iraqis from crime?

Josh: Actually I didn’t. There’s no law there.

Tyler: Any kind of order? They’ve been setting up checkpoints and trying to defend areas. What kind of order do you think that’s instilling?

Josh: Martial law. After nine o’ clock, there could be nobody on the streets. If they’re on the streets, you kill them. That was the procedure. That’s what they told us. If you’re pulling guard and somebody’s walking across that street after nine, you don’t have the option to do nothing. You’re supposed to shoot him on sight. That’s not democracy, and you’re not promoting it.

Tyler: What do you think the long-term effects of all this will be?

Josh: Catastrophic. For myself, I know that for eight months I just antagonized them. I completely destroyed their homes. For what? I don’t know. I was supposed to be there to promote democracy. Those children, the babies, the next generation of Iraqis - does America think they’re going to love us for bringing democracy to them? After all that killing and pillaging, people actually think there aren’t going to be worse terrorists later on than there are now?

That actually terrifies me, because, you know, I was there and I had to do it and we all participated in it. And all those kids, the faces I saw, kids with guns held to their heads….

I was in a raid in Habbaniya, a little village outside of Fallujah - I don’t even know why the hell we were there. We ran the gate down with the tank. We ran up and blew the door off. As always, I was the first person in. There were two males sitting on the floor. And they didn’t respond to anything; they didn’t even hear the explosion. The other guys came in and started kicking and beating them, and I said, “hey, y’all, there’s something wrong with these guys.” But they kept on, they kept on. Turns out both guys were mentally retarded. And I said, “are you guys happy with yourselves? You just beat up two mentally retarded guys - for what? You wouldn’t even take a second to see if something was wrong with them.”

And that same day, one of my friends accidentally shot a little girl down the street. It drove him nuts. He didn’t mean to. Basically, he got trigger-happy. He said, “I thought I saw somebody throw a grenade,” when actually somebody probably threw a pebble.

Tyler: The occupation has been brutal for the people of Iraq, and also for the soldiers stationed there. Were there any casualties in your company?

Josh: We didn’t have any casualties in my company while I was there, but my brigade was in the Second Squadron, and the Second Squadron had lots. Numerous friends of mine went home with blown-off legs, or had their eyes punched out by explosions, or were ripped to shreds in attacks on Humvees. Over forty thousand soldiers have been maimed in Iraq. They’re flown in after nightfall so nobody sees how many wounded get off the planes.

One of my friends had his legs blown off. He was seventeen years old. His parents signed the papers for him to join the military. When he arrived at Fort Carson three days before we left to go to Iraq, I thought, “There’s no way they’re going to send this guy.” He didn’t know anything. We had all done a lot of training with explosives and landmines and things. They sent him over three months later, and he went home with his leg blown off. He’ll never be the same.

Tyler: People are beginning to raise questions about the effects of being in the military on the soldiers themselves. Just because you’ve come home without being wounded doesn’t mean that you’re not affected.

Josh: I always tell people that my problem was that I was never a killing machine. I was trained to kill to keep myself alive, but I’m not a person who can kill and just not think about it. I have a conscience. That’s where I messed up.

After our first fire-fight, our superiors laughed and said “now you’ll be in the army forever.” Because how can you be integrated back into civilian life, knowing you killed people? You’ve got to stay where you can always kill. That’s how they keep people. Myself, I was like, “okay, whatever, you’re crazier than hell here.” But some guys just feed on it. They know that the army’s the only thing they’re going to have, and they’re the yes-people who do whatever they’re told. And they’ll kill and kill and kill, and won’t even think about it until they’re fifty years old and have a nervous breakdown and kill themselves.

Tyler: You must have seen some terrible things in Iraq. Were there particular events that stand out for you?

Josh: Yes. There was one incident in Ramadi, Iraq. I was on a “quick reaction force” - you’re like the SWAT team for the military. We got the call, we went, it was on the banks of the Euphrates River. We took a sharp right turn, and I saw heads on one side and bodies on the other. At that time, I was the lowest-ranking individual in my squad, so I was told to get out and find evidence of a fire-fight. When I turned to get out of the hatch, there were two American soldiers kicking the head around like a soccer ball. At that time I sat back inside of the tank and said, “I won’t be part of this.” And that’s when it started touching me that we could do anything we wanted. Nobody was regulating anything. It was just death, destruction, and chaos.

My squad leader once said that if we could, we’d set down our weapons now and say, “No, we’re not going to participate in this any longer.” What would happen then? He pointed at me, another guy in my squad that was married, and himself. And he said, “They would put us in military prison, not pay our families, and how would our families make it?”

Two weeks later, I saw that happen. The colonel came to visit, at which point we were told, “you’re not authorized to ask him a question.” We were still wearing Vietnam-style flight vests. And a guy in my platoon asked the question, “Why haven’t we received the new ones?” Well, the colonel didn’t respond. The next day, my friend got pulled into the commanding officer’s tent. He had half his pay taken for six months for asking that question. That’s when you realize you really can’t resist, or your family would pay the price. You can’t do anything except what you’re told to do.

Tyler: What was the situation for families back home? Brandi, you were living on base, weren’t you?

Brandi: Yes, I was living at Fort Carson in Colorado. Before Josh left, they held a community meeting to tell us about all the different ways they were going to support us while our spouses were away. And at first they told me he would only be gone six months, so I decided to stay at Fort Carson. But of course none of the promises they had made came true, so there I was with three kids, by myself, and they kept telling me that he was going to come home, but he never did.

[Pause] I’m sorry, I haven’t talked about this in a long time. Nobody usually asks this question.

Any time something would happen to their platoon or their squadron, there’s a “family readiness group” of loved ones and spouses of the soldiers that would let us know what was going on. So they would call and tell us, “they got mortar attacked,” like the time when three guys each lost a leg. So they say “three guys have lost a leg,” but they can’t tell you who it is until their family members have been notified. So you don’t know if you’re waiting to get notified, or what’s going on. This happened at least three times, and I finally told them, “Don’t. I don’t even want to know anymore.” One time it took two days to find out, before they’d notified the family members. So for two days, you’re sitting there not wanting to answer your door, because that’s how they notify you. It was really bad. I mean, it was really bad.

Tyler: So when Josh returned on leave, you started discussing other options?

Josh: Yes. On November 15, 2003, they gave me a two-week leave. They told me I could come home and see my wife and kids for two weeks, and then I had to return to Baghdad for an undisclosed amount of time. When I came home, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I know I wanted to talk to my wife.

While on base, I made a phone call to the military lawyer, and I asked him, “Is there anything we can do? Could you give me a job working on base so I don’t have to return to Iraq? I could just stay on base and finish my time. He told me I had two options. Either I get back on the plane and go to Iraq, or I go to prison. We had to decide what we were going to do. We thought about it for a few days. You have to think hard about something like that. You have to wager the consequences. If you’re going to do it, do it for the right reasons and what you really believe. And that’s what we did.

Brandi: So they gave us the two options, but we found out later that there’s a GI hotline, there’s Conscientious Objector status, there are other things that he was supposed to have told us.

Tyler: So the military was not making you aware of all the options, not following their own rules?

Josh: From what I’ve been told, there are a lot more options that we weren’t aware of, that the lawyer failed to mentioned to us. They’re not doing what the military is supposed to do. A lot of people are staying in for way longer than what they’re supposed to, people are getting called back in, it’s a pretty faulty situation right now. There was a forty-seven year old man, his son was in his low thirties. His son was in the Marines and was sent to Iraq. Well, his father got a letter from the military telling him to get his bags packed - you’re going to Iraq with your son. And this guy’s been retired for years.

I know of another story. The brother of the people we lived with in Toronto is a US citizen. When he was younger, he signed up with the National Guard and learned how to be a doctor. He has been retired for numerous years, and they called him up and now he’s in Iraq too.

Brandi: And he’s in his fifties; he owns his own practice, and they called him back. And another war resister broke his back and his hand in basic training, and they were still sending him to Iraq, saying “Well, you’ll recover while you’re there. And somebody else can carry your gun.”

Josh: It’s getting outrageous, you know? There are guys in prison in the US right now for being cowards. That’s what they’ve labeled them, because they won’t go back to Iraq. Not because they have post-traumatic stress or mental illness, because they can’t function as regular civilians anymore. No, they put them in prison and call them cowards.

Tyler: Are lots of people going to prison for refusing to serve?

Brandi: I think most people just go underground. I don’t think many people actually try to fight it, because no one, as far as I know, has ever won a case about leaving the Iraqi war.

Josh: I’d say there are probably ten or less sitting in prison for cowardice. But over 8,000 are in hiding.

Tyler: And you were in hiding in Philadelphia for fourteen months?

Brandi: Yes. We were living in motels, moving from motel to motel with three kids, and then I got pregnant again. Josh was working, and he had to use his social security card and driver’s license because he couldn’t get a job otherwise. And it came to tax time, and we were just going crazy because we were always thinking, “they’re coming to get us.”

Tyler: And you came to Canada in March?

Josh: We came across at Niagara Falls. My lawyer said it would be best if we came to the city and claimed refugee status, rather than doing it at the border.

Tyler: Have other people gone through this process before you?

Brandi: Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey have already gone to hearings. Jeremy Hinzman was denied, and is appealing. Brandon is still waiting to hear the verdict. But Josh is the only one who went to Iraq. That might make a difference, as he can actually testify to the things he saw. But getting refugee status for an American is a hard thing; that’s why we are trying to get a provision for all war resisters to come to Canada as a class.

Tyler: This would be similar to what happened with US draft dodgers coming to Canada during the Vietnam war?

Josh: Yes. We were on Saltspring Island about a week ago, and I met a man who was one of the first twelve who came in the Vietnam era. And he had to do the same thing we’re doing now. They had to fight it and fight it, until more and more people came and they finally made a provision for it.

Tyler: How many American war resisters have come to Canada so far?

Josh: There are sixteen that are here now, claiming refugee status.

Brandi: At one of our talks, we met a war resister who has been here underground, who didn’t know he had help.

Josh: And he said that he knew a lot of other guys that are here underground. But they’re not going to come out until they’ve got some concrete assurance. And what can I say to that? I can’t tell them to go through everything I’m having to go through. If you really want your concrete assurance, then just stay where you are, don’t get yourself in trouble, and wait until it comes. That’s all I can tell them.

Brandi: If you want to fight it, then you have to go through what we’re going through. But we’re doing it for all war resisters, both the ones who didn’t go to Iraq - they’re the smart ones, we like to call them - and the ones who did, and are suffering from it. They all should be able to come to Canada and live normal lives, peacefully, without persecution for making the decision to resist.

Josh: You know, it’s a shame what we’ve had to do, but we’ve all been pushed into it. And our country thinks badly of us. There are only a few of us who know the real deal. And we’re all justified in being here. Everybody should have the chance to be in a place where they don’t have to go commit war crimes if they don’t want to. Those who have a conscience and know they’re going to have to live with it the rest of their lives should have a place to come.

Brandi and Josh Key and their four children live on Gabriola Island, BC. Josh’s refugee hearing, scheduled for September 2, was indefinitely postponed at the last minute after a federal government intervention. Visit the War Resisters’ Support Campaign at to learn more.