http://nefac.net/node/1063BY MICHAEL MARTINEZ
Chicago Tribune
NEW YORK - (KRT) - In Iraq last April, freshly promoted Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia led squads of Florida National Guard soldiers in the fight against insurgents in the deadly Sunni triangle.
But Mejia became increasingly pained by his war experiences, and when he went on leave last fall, he decided not to come back. The staff sergeant - one of about 600 soldiers counted as AWOL by the Army during home leaves from Iraq - was eventually labeled a deserter.
Now, after five months in hiding, Mejia plans to surrender on Monday in Boston on the eve of the war's first anniversary, and he aims to become the first Iraq war veteran to publicly challenge the morality and conduct of the conflict. At a time when Americans increasingly hold grave concerns about the bloody war, Mejia intends to seek conscientious objector status to avoid a court-martial. snip
"It was part of a general feeling that we had no right to be there, and every killing, whether provoked or not provoked, was unjustified because we had no right to be there." snip
Desertion during wartime can be punishable by death, but execution is unlikely, said Mejia's attorney, Louis Font, noting that there was never an official act of war declared by Congress, though the use of force was authorized in a resolution. Since the Civil War, only one American soldier has been executed for desertion: Pvt. Eddie Slovik, who was shot by a firing squad in 1945.
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