From AWOL to Exile

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Even though everybody who enlists swears that he or she is not a conscientious objector, annual C.O. applications to the military, while still very rare, have nearly tripled since 2002, to 61 in 2003 and 67 last year. Anderson's attorney, Jeffry House, 58, says he gets a few inquiries every day from U.S. soldiers interested in fleeing to Canada. A Wisconsin native who went to Canada in 1970 as a draft dodger, House says he has five American clients applying to be refugees. Extrapolating from those and additional cases he knows about, he estimates there may be 75 to 100 U.S. soldiers hiding in Canada, although there is no way to confirm that number.

The incident that eventually spurred Anderson to seek House's counsel took place just before he earned his Purple Heart. While trying to quell a disturbance outside a police station one night, his unit came under heavy attack. Anderson says he saw a car that appeared to be emitting sparks drive into the middle of the melee. Instructed to start shooting, Anderson held his fire--and the car turned out to be carrying only a startled family. Afterward, Anderson claims, his sergeants told him, "'Next time, you open fire, just in case.' Basically they have a standard procedure that if you're fired upon, you fire at everybody that's around." Without commenting on specific rules of engagement, a Pentagon spokesman vehemently rejected Anderson's description of the rules.

For now, Anderson has been given lodging by a teacher in Toronto, where he remains in a state of legal limbo. His case and those of most of his fellow resisters are on hold until Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board decides the fate of another deserter, Private Jeremy Hinzman, 26. Raised in Rapid City, S.D., and unsuccessful in two attempts to gain C.O. status, Hinzman arrived in Toronto with his wife and infant son at the beginning of last year, two weeks before his unit, the 82nd Airborne, was due to go to Iraq.

Although various appeals could drag out the process for months or even years, the long-term prospects for Hinzman, Anderson and the rest aren't too good. Unlike 35 years ago, Americans can't just stay in Canada indefinitely as landed immigrants. To be accepted as refugees, they have to show that they face a risk of actual persecution upon returning to the U.S. And one of their principal claims, that the war in Iraq violated international law, has been ruled irrelevant by the immigration board. That doesn't faze Hinzman, who is also prepared to argue that by serving in an "illegal war" he would be a participant in war crimes. Even if he and Anderson can never attend family members' weddings or funerals back home, they are certain they are doing the right thing. Hinzman says, "They tell you in boot camp that if you are given an illegal order, it is your duty to disobey it." No matter what anyone else might call them, in their own minds, Hinzman, Anderson and their peers are still good soldiers, just following orders. --Reported by Steven Frank and Paul Gains/ Toronto and Sandra Marquez/ San Diego