By Camilla Mortensen, Eugene (Oregon) Weekly. May 22, 2008
PFC James Burmeister enlisted in the military because he thought he would be doing “humanitarian work” in Iraq. But he was manning a machine gun, using ammunition so large his targets — humans — would “literally explode,” the day in Baghdad that his Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb. He was knocked unconscious, and bits of shrapnel were embedded in his face.
Burmeister went AWOL (absent without leave) and fled to Canada…. Now the 23-year-old soldier from Eugene waits at Fort Knox, Ky., to discover whether the Army will prosecute him, release him without access to medical care for his injuries or try yet again to send him back to a war he doesn’t want to fight.
Read more… (Eugene Weekly link)
“I support war resisters and I think the peace movement should, also, with our money, energy, and morally. I wish my son, Casey, had refused to go.”
