I'm not naive enough to believe that Canada's courts are going to hand Stephen Harper a political IED by granting American soldiers asylum here, but any publicity about soldiers who are refusing to fight in Iraq helps bring this depraved war closer to an end. It should be abundantly clear by now that everything that's happening in Iraq right now is about protecting Bush and the Republicans politically--it cetainly isn't about saving Iraq--so even if once upon a time it was possible to imagine one was fighting for a freedom and democracy, that fairy tale is now standing crucified on a box in Abu Ghraib, and the soldiers fighting and dying aren't doing so for a mistake, they are doing so for a squalid band of thieves and liars. The only question is whether they admit it to themselves. If they do, their course of action is pretty clear.

Citizens writing polite letters have failed, citizens marching in the streets have failed, scandal after scandal has failed, and "opposition" politicians have failed to make a dent in this Adminsistration's demented military adventurism. (Next up: Iran.) The only actors with the ability to bring this criminal administration to heel are the ones now paying the price, and they can do so simply by saying "no". As I've said before, the sooner we stop "honoring" them for facilitating a criminal war, and instead encourage them to honor their higher loyalty to the human race, the sooner Americans can again stand unashamed before the community of law-abiding nations. That would be real heroism.