The Deserter's Tale - Hardcover

"The case of Joshua Key . . . is unique. He is the first U.S. soldier who actually served in Iraq to claim sanctuary from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, based on his 'personal experience with atrocities' in Iraq. . . . Combatant Key will be able to raise the question of the war's legality as a defense." -- Michael Roberts

"The American Army is having a lot of trouble attracting new recruits, in part because of the war in Iraq--its horrors, the lies, and the sixteen hundred Gls who are dead. Joshua Key enlisted. But after eight months in Ramadi and Fallujah, taking advantage of home leave, he deserted. . . . He left behind the hardship of war, the blood, the lies. Like thousands of others."

"If anybody invaded America and did to us what we did to the Iraqi people, I'd be right up there with the rebels and insurgents, trying to blow up the occupiers. I would hole up in my hometown in Oklahoma and rig mines in trees (they kill more people when they go off overhead) and set them to explode when tanks passed below. I'd lob all the mortars and rocket-propelled grenades that I could get my hands on. No doubt about it, if somebody ripped apart my home and my family in the United States, I'd be a force to be reckoned with, and I'd keep giving the occupiers hell until I was dead and gone, twice over."

*Starred Review* In 2002, Key, a good ol' Oklahoma boy with a wife and two children (but no money), enlisted in the U.S. Army so he could learn a trade and provide for his family. He was assured that he would be sent to a "non-deployable" military base: he would never see combat. Instead, he was sent to Iraq to hunt for terrorists, a mission that involved beating civilians, kidnapping innocents, and destroying homes and families (all of which he relates in precise, damning detail). Stateside, on a two-week furlough, Key decided he couldn't go back to Iraq, couldn't participate in what he decided were mindless atrocities being committed in the name of world peace. Thus, he did what so many Vietnam protestors did: he took his family to Canada, where he now lives, a wanted man in his own country. This memoir, which can fairly and accurately be called a searing indictment of America's "war on terror," is vividly written ("Hayes slammed her in the face with the stock of his M-16"), but as difficult as it sometimes can be to read, we respect Key's courage to tell the story without sugarcoating. The book is timely, important, and haunting. David Pitt
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