Committing a crime does not make one a hero

One Canadian columnist gets it. Peter Worthington writes in the Toronto Sun:

A Sun colleague Thane Burnett wrote a column on American deserters being regarded as "heroes" when they flee to Canada. In fact, the word "hero" appears five times in the column and deserters are compared with blacks who fled to Canada to escape slavery.

First of all, comparing military deserters to escaping slavery is not only wrong, it's ludicrous and verges on the obscene, and gives undeserved respectability to slavery. That isn't Thane's fault -- it's the people he's quoting, and reveals a mindset that is dogmatic and immune to reason.

While I, and most Canadians, have no hostility to deserters who seek sanctuary here, most of us do not regard deserters of any form as "heroes," or heroic. Especially not today, when the U.S. has a volunteer military, and everyone who wears a uniform does so by choice. Those who enlist and decide when they are slated to go to Iraq that they're really "conscientious objectors" (or that their role in Iraq consisted of "killing children and civilians") are rationalizing and justifying their decision to run away.

Whenever we discuss these deserters we need to keep in mind that they are criminals. Unauthorized Absence is a violation of Article 86 of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Desertion is a violation of Article 85 of the UCMJ. Missing Movement of Ship or Unit is a violation of Article 87 of the UCMJ. During time of war, these offenses are punishable by death.