The Deserter's Tale

by Joshua Key

The memoir of an Oklahoma-born soldier who enlisted to help his family and was deployed to Iraq describes the horrific conditions to which Iraqi civilians were subjected, his forced participation in raids on accused terrorists he believes were innocent, and his decision to seek asylum in Canada. 50,000 first printing.

Genres: Nonfiction, War, Memoir, Military Fiction, Biography, Politics, United States

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2007

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I skimmed the first couple of chapters. He's obviously trying hard for moral justification due to his childhood. Sorry, that won't fly. He's also dumber than a can of rocks.

“It wasn’t right to kill puppies with a hammer, which is why I shot and buried a litter of pups before my grandfather could get at them in his old-fashioned way.” Ridiculous. Leave aside all the rest & think about it. A quiet whack on the head is kinder than multiple loud shots & causes instant loss of consciousness, if not death. The next pup has no idea what happened to the previous one rather the horrific fear of the loud noise. Later on he describes the scene in more detail & proves my point.

“Iraq took all of the fun out of guns for me, but even in the days when I still loved shooting I stopped hunting after dropping that deer with a four-inch bullet through the neck.” Why? It seems as if he is trying to establish some sort of moral high ground here, but I don’t get it. He blasts a snake with a shotgun like a crazy person, talks about being hungry, & yet has a problem with shooting a deer. I'm sure he's eaten plenty of venison. Where does he think it came from? It’s a “cartridge”, not a bullet. The bullet is the bit of inert metal that strikes the target & it certainly wasn’t 4” long unless he was shooting a small cannon.

His memories of shooting, poor gun handling, & especially his mention of gun accidents are ridiculous & obvious attempts to garner sympathy from people who don't know anything about guns. I was raised with guns & very little supervision, too. They're a power tool & we always treated them as such. Never had any accidents even though my cousins, friends, & I ran around like wild Injuns from an early age. Most of us had our first BB guns & pocket knives when we were 6 or 7, .22's & shotguns before we were teens. As young teens, we'd shoot a brick of .22 shells each in less than a week while hiking through the woods.

I shot a lot of snapping turtles, although I never used an Uzi on them. I only shot one once & don't know anything about the various models, but I wouldn't have used the one I tried for turtles. The Common Snapping turtle is a dinosaur. They're incredibly tough & crafty. I generally shot them from at least 75 yards away with a .22. (We kept an old single shot .22 by the back door & shot them as we saw them on the ponds else they'd clean out the ducklings & goslings in short order.) Only a head shot would kill them with that light of a bullet, though. I don't think the Uzi had the accuracy to hit them squarely nor am I sure the 9mm bullet would kill them. I've used a .222, .223 (AR-15), .270, .303, .3030, & .308. I NEVER had them flip up out of the water. Never - not even with a 220 grain, soft nosed .303 bullet plowing into them. Often enough, even with a huge hole in them, they'd dive for the bottom only to float up in a day or two. Sometimes they'd never come up & that meant they'd had the strength left to dig themselves in. Like I said, they're tough.

I won't go into further details, but his childhood has obviously been told in such a way as to garner maximum sympathy & create excuses for his subsequent actions. Yuck. I hate facetious arguments. If he wants to make a case for deserting, fine. Do it. His childhood has nothing to do with the situation he was in over there, though.

I don't doubt that he saw some horrific things in Iraq. Soldiers are a bunch of young, scared men who need proper leadership not to turn into a gang of macho thugs especially in a confused situation. Peer pressure in a unit is incredible - far worse than anything in civilian life save for possibly in gang territory & even then running away might be easier. I believe he was in a very bad situation & doubt there was much recourse for him. Oh, the Army & other authorities will tell the public there is, but the reality is far different, so I'm not going to judge him for deserting. It might not have been the right way to handle it, but I can see where that might be the most easiest & most attractive option to him. Hell, it might have been the right & best way. I can't say.

While I'm sure many of the scenes & situations are partially or even mostly true, they're likely skewed as much as his childhood stories. Even the most innocuous situations can seem horrific or hilarious depending on how the story is told. He's not writing this himself, but relaying it through another. On top of that, he's obviously justifying his actions, so everything he narrated to this writer is suspect, at best.

It's only sort-of-nonfiction & not worth my time to finish reading.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Canada has always been a destination of choice for men and women wanting to escape military service, especially for citizens of the USA. I used to wonder why in hell we didn't send them back, especially during the 'nam era. Nowadays, looking back from the high hill of my advanced age I regard everything more in shades of grey, and I can see that all of those tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Vietnam conflict needn't have died. I am in sympathy with those who evaded being unwillingly drafted to fight in a conflict that was unnecessary and unjust.

None of the foregoing means that I support anyone dodging their obligation to defend their country in time of attack; that's cowardice and those found guilty are deserving of some serious punishment. But what if the conflict you are dodging is one in which your country is an unjust aggressor? If you are truly morally opposed to the war, and if your country is not endangered by your departure, are you wrong in taking off at the high port?

Joshua Key booked it to Canada after initially serving part of a tour of duty in Iraq. After making it across the border he applied for refugee status and related his story to author Lawrence Hill, resulting in the publication of this book. Mr Key does not pretend to be a nice guy: he readily admits to theft, assault, and all manner of juvenile idiocy. He is definitely not the type of fellow you want your daughter bringing home to meet the parents. I could identify with his background: rural, little education, joined the Army because it was his only shot at a decent career. Being a naïf, he joins the Army that doesn't get sent out of CONUS (wink,wink) and sure enough, next thing you know he's in Iraq.

Soon, his unit is detailed to search houses of Iraqi citizens. The searches were invariably unopposed by the occupants but they blow the doors open anyway and storm in:

Inside the houses, we knocked over wardrobes, kicked in doors, ripped through mattresses, and threw bookshelves to the floor. We busted locks, threw over refrigerators, and broke lanterns and lamps. Radios and televisions were thrown around and smashed.

In the first raid, the second, the third, and the fourth, I wondered why we never managed to find anything. We tore hell out of those places, blasting apart doors, ripping up mattresses, breaking locks off furniture, and ripping drawers from dressers. With all of our ransacking, we never found anything other than the ordinary goods that ordinary people keep in their houses. (p.72,73)

The troops take the logical step from B&E to theft on Page 74:

I stole whatever I wanted in the initial raids, but I stopped doing that after my first few weeks in Iraq. The more uneasy I felt about what we were doing there, the less I wanted to make matters worse. Others in my platoon looted to their hearts' content. One fellow collected gold jewelry and mailed it home to his wife. Another lugged a television straight out of an Iraqi house. Others took ornate knives, and I saw one soldier make off with a beautiful rug. Who was going to stop us? We were the army of the United States of America, and we would do whatever we pleased.

As his tour progresses, Key notices that the citizens are becoming less friendly, and that they take fire from unseen shooters more frequently. His unit is unsuccessful in coming to grips with the shooters, so their frustration is vented on the populace. The result is predictable. Key eventually comes to the conclusion:

It struck me then that we, the American soldiers, were the terrorists. We were terrorizing Iraqis. Intimidating them. Beating them. Destroying their homes. Probably raping them. The ones we didn't kill had all the reasons in the world to become terrorists themselves. Given what we were doing to them, who could blame them for wanting to kill us, and all Americans? A sick realization lodged like a cancer in my gut. It grew and festered, and troubled me more with every passing day. We, the Americans, had become the terrorists in Iraq. (P138/139)

I know some milbloggers scoff at Key's claims and have branded him a liar. The point out his apparent lack of familiarity with military rank and weaponry to support their suspicions, and it's true that he makes a few mistakes from time to time. For example, on page 20 he mentions shooting a four inch bullet from a "Remington seven-millimeter rifle" into the neck of a deer. This is the second mention of the four inch bullet in the book, so it's likely not a misprint. Now the cartridge designed to be chambered in a 7mm Rem Mag is usually something under four inches in its entirety, and the actual projectile would be roughly 1/4 of that length, so I can see someone calling bullshit on that. He also claims not to have read anything about the Geneva Convention before disembarking in Iraq, but I have a hard time believing that soldiers of any modern industrialized nation have not been schooled in the Geneva convention...but I think of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay and I wonder.....?

I believe most of what I read in this book, because Key names people and mentions specific incidents, and I have heard too many similar accounts not to know that soldiers went apeshit in Iraq. Key himself is not the quickest of cats and has confessed to too many acts of idiocy for me to list here. Suffice it to say that I am completely convinced that he is thick enough not to know the difference between four inches and one inch and that it is easily within his capacity to confuse USMC ranks with US Army ranks. The book is reasonably well-written, obviously not by Key, and I will leave it to the reader to decide if his actions were justified. Welcome to Canada, eh?

[Mr. Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refusing to commit war crimes – and testifying

Reviewed by Dee Knight

The Deserter’s Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier
Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq, by Joshua Key

“TRAINED TO KILL – KILL WE WILL!” That’s what U.S. Army recruits must shout while marching to the mess hall for a meal. That’s all it took for Private Jeremy Hintzman to know he had to get out. He was the first U.S. war resister from the Iraq war to seek refugee status in Canada.

It took a little longer for Private Joshua Key, but he was not “gung ho.” If you fail to show sufficient enthusiasm, you’re “smoked.” “They made me do push-ups, duck walks, crawl around on my hands and knees, and stand at attention while every man in my platoon hollered that I was a ‘useless asshole’ and a ‘stupid shit’,” said Private Key in The Deserter’s Tale.

“One day, all 300 of us lined up on the bayonet range, each facing a life-size dummy that we were told to imagine was a Muslim man. As we stabbed the dummies with our bayonets, one of our commanders stood at a podium and shouted into the microphone: ‘Kill! Kill! Kill the sand n-----rs!’ We were made to shout out [the same thing]. While we shouted and stabbed, drill sergeants walked among us to make sure we were all shouting. It seemed the full effect of the lesson would be lost on us unless we shouted out the words of hate as we mutilated our enemies.”

That was basic training. Key remembers advanced training with the 43rd Combat Engineer Company. His “officers’ repeated warnings: ‘If you feel threatened, kill first and ask questions later.’ I had army chants buzzing through my head, like ‘Take a playground, Fill it full of kids. Drop on some napalm, And barbecue some ribs.’”

The real thing was yet to come. In Iraq, Key’s first duty assignment was to set off explosives to blast open doors of Iraqi people’s homes, join a six-person assault team storming in to terrorize everyone inside, and take prisoner any male over five feet tall. “We put our knees on their backs, pulled their hands behind them, and faster than you can bat an eye we zipcuffed them. Zipcuffs are plastic cuffs that lock on tight. They must have bit something fierce into those men’s skin… The Iraqi brothers were taken away to an American detention facility for interrogation… I never saw one of them return to the neighborhoods we patrolled regularly.”

Later Key had to pull guard duty in front of a hospital in Ramadi, for weeks on end. A little girl who lived near the hospital would run up to the fence he was guarding and “call out the only English words she knew: ‘Mister, food!’ ” Key said “she was about seven years old. She had dark eyes, shoulder-length brown hair, and – even for a young child – seemed impossibly skinny. She usually wore her school uniform – a white shirt with a blue skirt and a pair of sandals… She seemed fearless, full of energy, and not the least bit frightened by my M-249. She acted as if she didn’t even know that she lived in a war zone, and she ran to the fence the same way my own children might have approached a sand box, piping out, ‘Mister, food!’ ”

Key would tell the girl to go away, but when she insisted, he would give her his MRE rations (the nearly inedible “Meals Ready to Eat”). She would run away home. “Her visits were the best part of my days at the hospital, and she was the only person in Iraq… whose smile I enjoyed…. I wasn’t the only soldier in our squad who gave rations to the girl…”

Several weeks into his guard duty at the hospital in Ramadi, Key said “I was back at my post in front of the hospital. I saw the girl run out of her house, across the street, and toward the fence that stood between us. I reached for an MRE, looked up to see her about ten feet away, heard the sound of semiautomatic gunfire, and saw her head blow up like a mushroom…

“My own people were the only ones with guns in the area, and it was the sound of my own people’s guns that I had heard blazing before the little sister was stopped in her tracks. I saw her mother fly out the door and run across the street. She and someone else in the family bent over the body. I could feel them all staring at me, and I could say nothing to them and do nothing other than hang my head in shame while the family took the child away.”

“Her death haunts me to this day,” Key said. “I am trying to learn to live with it.”

The bulk of Private Key’s duty in Iraq was “busting into and ransacking homes… Before my time was up in Iraq, I took part in 200 raids… We never found weapons or indications of terrorism. I never found a thing that seemed to justify the terror we inflicted every time we blasted through the front door of a civilian home, broke everything in sight, punched and zipcuffed the men, and sent them away…”

American terrorists
“It struck me,” Key said, “that we, the American soldiers, were the terrorists. We were terrorizing Iraqis. Intimidating them. Beating them. Destroying their homes. Probably raping them. The ones we didn’t kill had all the reasons in the world to become terrorists themselves. Given what we were doing to them, who could blame them for wanting to kill us, and all Americans? A sick realization lodged like a cancer in my gut. It grew and festered, and troubled me more with every passing day. We, the Americans, had become the terrorists in Iraq.”

Joshua Key was a dirt-poor 19-year-old from Guthrie, Oklahoma, trying to put food on the table for his young wife, Brandi, and their two infant children by delivering pizza. He was lured in by an Army recruiter promising a decent wage, a stateside job, and money for training so he could realize his dream of becoming a welder.

His experiences in Iraq “got me thinking,” he said. “How would I react if foreigners invaded the United States and did just a tenth of the things that we had done to the Iraqi people? I would be right up there with the rebels and insurgents, using every bit of my cleverness to blow up the occupiers. I would dig a hole in my hometown in Oklahoma and rig mines in the trees and set them to blow up when the enemy passed below. I would lob all the mortars and rocket-propelled grenades I could buy. No doubt about it. If somebody blasted into my home and terrorized my family, I would become a force to be reckoned with…”

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

One soldier's blunt and straighforward account of his time in Iraq. While I think these kinds of "one person's view" accounts can be an important part of establishing accurate histories, they remain only one person's view, and we should be careful about generalizing.

That said, the events Josh Key describes in the Deserter's Tale are horrific and depressing. It's obvious that beginning of the book is entirely accurate, with military recruiters preying on poor kids and making promises that they cannot keep. The description of Iraq itself is deeply dispiriting, with Key's experience showing the U.S. military machine as brutal and violent, making little distinction between civilian and military targets. Some of the events Key writes about are postitively sadistic.

I think his decision to desert and flee to Canada is certainly defensible on moral grounds, and I hope his quest for amnesty in Canada is successful. There's plenty of knee-jerk patriotic responses on Amazon, so much so that I suspect there is some kind of organized campaign to discredit the book. Well, I wouldn't encourage anyone to base their entire view of the mess in Iraq on this book, but it's hard to deny that it's a compelling and disturbing account of the attitude of an occupying army, and the destruction of a nation.

[John Bartlett · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Deserter’s Tale: the story of an ordinary soldier who walked away from the war in Iraq is an unadorned yet honest and compelling account of the Iraq war as told to author Lawrence Hill by a man who changed from patriot to deserter in just seven months.
Overburdened as we are by official spin on this war, Joshua Key’s vision into Iraq under American occupation makes essential if disturbing reading. This uneducated, conservative husband and father from Oklahoma entered the army at the age of 25 to lift his family out of poverty. However, the war he experienced was not waged against the ‘evildoers’ and terrorists he had been told to expect. Instead he saw Iraqi civilians being beaten, maimed and shot for very little justification.
Returning to American on leave, Key realised he could not morally defend his return to Iraq and so went underground, seeking asylum with his family in Canada. His case is still pending in the Canadian courts. Key proclaims ‘I will never apologise for deserting the American army. I deserted an injustice and leaving was the right thing to do.’ This is a book with far greater moral authority than President George W. Bush could ever summon.

[Dave · Rating 1 out of 5]

After 106 pages it's time to stick a fork into this obvious fabrication. Either author is a complete idiot (entirely possible, being from Oklahoma) or just a pitiful liar. There are so many factual errors or "mistaken recollections" that the entire "tale" no longer rings true. I cannot even in good conscience take this one to HPB to even recover a buck or two. It is headed straight for my trash can.

[Valerie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought the style of writing was easy to follow but overall, this story is just one of thousands who feel the same way;yet they stick it out and do what they swore to thier country...right or wrong.Joshua Key is just a gutless deserting turd who makes me sick. He knew what may happen when you sign your name on the dotted line.I hope they ship his sorry behind back to the states where he can face criminal charges.

[Joyce Lionarons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whatever you think of his actions, this is a view of the fighting in Iraq you won't get elsewhere.

[Elsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man läser och blodet kokar. USA som skickar fattiga amerikaner som gått med i armén för att få en sjukvårdsförsäkring och kanske en utbildning för att döda andra fattiga i andra delar ar världen för att få billigare olja eller för att kapitalisterna ska få öka sina profiter på annat sätt. Tänkte även mycket på Engels ord om att ett folk som förtrycker ett annat aldrig själv kan bli fritt - samma mekanismer som används för att förtrycka det andra folket vänds också alltid mot det egna. Det är så särskilt tydligt i förhållande till den amerikanska imperialismen och den amerikanska statens våld mot sitt eget folk. Och nån dag - förhoppningsvis förr och inte senare ska dom få äta upp allt vad dom gjort. No war but class war

[Johan Larsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shows first hand the experiences of a soldier during the American invasion of Iraq. Heartbreaking and a page turner, altough I had to put the book down several times just to take in what I read.

[Jos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Verhaal van een Amerikaanse soldaat, Joshua Key, die onder druk van zijn geweten besluit te deserteren uit het leger. Na een vakantie met zijn familie in de Verenigde Staten keert hij niet terug naar zijn Eenheid in Irak. Joshua is een kansloze jongere die opgroeide in een trailer bij zijn moeder en een resem gewelddadige stiefvaders de revue zag passeren. Tot het moment dat hij een eigen gezinnetje sticht en probeert te overleven. Uiteindelijk tekent hij, bij afwezigheid van een alternatief, bij de strijdkrachten om zijn gezin uit de armoede te houden. In tegenstelling tot wat hem verteld is, word hij meteen uitgezonden naar Irak. In Irak word hij geconfronteerd met het geweld van de oorlog en bepaalde wantoestanden die er heersen. Dit en het gemis van zijn familie lijden er uiteindelijk toe dat hij deserteert uit het leger. Het begint vrij goed met en schets van de jeugd en wat achtergrondinformatie daarna word het al snel is een opeenstapeling van feiten om te eindigen met zijn vlucht, met zijn jonge gezin, naar Canada waar hij asiel vraagt op morele gronden. Het verhaal is vrij naïef geschreven, het wil een aanklacht zijn tegen de manier waarop de Amerikaanse strijdkrachten hun soldaten rekruteren bij de lager klasse, in dit geval "white trash, en tegen de oorlog in Irak in zijn geheel maar het mist diepgang.
Het komt nooit in de buurt van Good soldiers van David Finkel.
Alhoewel ik sympathie koester voor het hoofdpersonage en zijn verhaal vind ik dat hij zijn verplichtingen als soldaat had moeten nakomen, door dit niet te doen brengt hij zijn gezin nodeloos in gevaar. Hij wist per slot van rekening dat hij zich niet engageerde voor een lidmaatschap van een scoutsgroepje.
Maar ja, waar had hij dat allemaal moeten leren?

[Douglas Sisson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short book dealing with heavy subject matter: The Deserter's Tale provides a vivid (if not disturbing) look at modern combat and the organisational response to asymmetric warfare through the eyes of an American private in the Iraq war. The book is Joshua Key's first (and likely only) book and memoir, though readers will likely know the name of the writer Lawrence Hill (author of the 2007 'Book of Negroes'). In an elevator pitch: The Deserter's Tale tells the events that led to Joshua Key deserting the US Army and refusing to return to Iraq. Hill does a fantastic job of pulling Key's voice through the narration, leading to a story that is easy to understand and stripped of any flowery prose.

The book is split into three distinct parts, the first being Joshua Key's home life as a poor child from an impoverished and unstable family in Oklahoma, as well as his training pre-deployment. The second (and longest) is a tale of Key's experience as a private in various venues of the Iraqi combat theatre, which most often had Key and other soldiers raiding civilian homes in often fruitless attempts to find weapons. This section is the most vivid and disturbing of the book as it contains descriptions of abuse toward Iraqi civilians and the frustration of the American enlisted at the lack of a formal enemy to combat. A situation Key has theorised to be the cause of much of the abuse, in tandem with his Army training to correlate Iraqi civilians (and all Muslims) as terrorists. The third is a brief detail of Key's experience after going AWOL.

It is important to read the book as one man's story of the events, that his perspective is often limited and sometimes obscured by lies from his superiors. Key is honest about his own theft and abuse toward Iraqi civilians, a habit that he tried to change as his story goes on. It is possible that some details have been stretched, the most glaring being his story of cow-tipping in Oklahoma, an urban legend that is entirely fictitious by all accounts (perhaps it is a dog-whistle, a subtle in-joke to other Southerners about how they are viewed by urbanites. I cannot say for sure, but the inclusion seems to take some veracity from the work.) However, I trust that the human rights abuses which Key so forcefully describes did happen as some of his venues of Habbaniyah and Al-Fallujah were only a short distance from the notorious Abu Ghraib.

I won't give away much of the details, as I think it is a book worth reading rather than spoiling, however, the final third of the book is a tale of desperation and anxiety. It is one that makes me worried for the mental health of his children in an unstable environment. Key is honest both about his own failings and the flaws of the people in his life, including his role models. Details, events, and personality traits present in the first portion of the book return in the final, only to be twisted by the things that Key experienced in Iraq. This is done elegantly at times, and cumbersome and repetitious in others as if there was a lack of new anecdotes.

Overall, I enjoyed The Deserter's Tale for providing an understanding at both the American frustration and for Key's honesty and perception as to why there is such anger toward Americans from the Iraqi people. Both sides have suffered in this war; Key is one life of the hundreds of thousands this war has affected. This Canadian hopes that his government won't fail Key in the same way that his own has.

[Creosoto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uno spaccato terribile della vita americana, fatto di violenza, povertà  e sogni mancati. Il racconto del disertore parte dall'infanzia dell'autore, descrive la "caccia al povero" che lo porta ad entrare nell'esercito, e la sua lenta presa di coscienza dell'assurdità  della guerra, fino alla scelta di disertare. La forza di questo libro sta nella semplicità : la semplicità  della trama, del linguaggio e del messaggio. Da leggere.

[HeatherCove · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m surprised by some of the reviews prior to mine. I picked this book up because I was interested in hearing an American take on the Iraq war. I am glad I read this book. I really enjoyed the read and appreciate his honesty throughout the book. Owning his wrongs. Doesn’t make any of it right but he fought his own demons. I recommend this book and hope others enjoy it as well.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was vivid and disturbing but it is impossible to write about war and not be disturbing. I am glad I read it but it was a difficult read as well. I have heard other accounts about things done by Americans in war and I expected some of what I read but not all of it.

[Susan Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

A great book that affirms the uselessness of war. That even if you win you lose because your mentally changed. I lost my naivete in the Vietnam war after Mai Lai. This is the same story in another war. Thanks for your courage to speak your truth.

[KR · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for writing research purposes. The book’s organization and prose are nothing special, but the events it describes are an important record.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of comments on this text seem to focus on whether Key was right to do what he did or whether his experiences are representative or typical. In his TED talk, Junger says that war cannot be broken down to one simple, neat truth, and that might be worth keeping in mind when starting this book. Deserter's Tale is also probably better approached as a memoir of the Invasion of Iraq rather than a referendum on desertion and/ or the invasion. Regardless, there are details here that I've encountered in other war memoirs and details that I've not seen highlighted in other texts about this conflict, which means this record is of value to curious readers.

The co-author (or person who conducted the interviews and then wrote this book) is the Lawrence Hill.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The deserter's tale (A Story of an Ordinary Soldier who walked away from the war in Iraq), by Joshua Key as told to Lawrence Hill http://lawrencehill.com/the-deserters...

I read his book (written by Lawrence Hill) from the library in October 2013 and found it very moving, and sad. Whether accuracy (i.e. the precise details) is 100% is not really important to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Key

As I was reading it, this review of another book (Thank You For Your Service) showed up: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts...

This is the last paragraph, that really says it all: "Books like this aren't likely to bring an end to war anytime soon, but Thank You For Your Service should be mandatory reading, especially for young people who naively believe all those advertisements promising an exciting career in the armed forces".

As Canadian Forces used to say: There's no life like it. http://www.forces.ca/en/page/lifeinth...

Now that is an understatement. This is where I learned about this book - in a reference in a twitter I was skimming - http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/let...

I recommend reading the book, though it depends on one`s perspective, and not everyone supports what he has said or that he has written/spoken about his experiences.

Joshua and his second family currently live in Canada
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loca...

[Papalodge · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading this book I could not help but reflect on my military service. May, 1962 got my draft notice while studying for my final exams. Got my BS, four years down the drain by August, 1962. Kennedy got his bodies for his Bay of Pigs. However, Kennedy wasn't a draft dodger so you could respect him. Seeing the current commander-in-chief at any military base, or on any ship, in his make believe uniform, turns my stomach. The guy has no problem asking for support for the country, yet he didn't support the country when his time came. Today, were I still in the military, should I come face to face with him I would refuse to salute and take a court marshall rather than be subjected to his half-assed responding dismissive salute.
Francis Scott Key and Joshua Key, how differently they saw dawn's early light and the twilight's last gleaming.

[Jem43 · Rating 5 out of 5]

i am grateful for having read this tale of an ordinary young man under extreme circumstances. he has given us the much neede perspective of the savagery of war- for all people and the dehumanizing effect that soldiering often brings. From the deceitful recruitment tactics to the camraderie of violence to being numb as your conscience dissolves and the hope that this young mans tale gives us. the courage to desrt in time of war and with the penalties is remarkable and i must beleive there are many more out there who are rediscovering any lost humanity. Add one more voice to the plea for withdrawl

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book after an article in the Nashville Scene and am glad I bought it. I may choose it as a book club book, as long as no one will be offended....

UPDATE: I probably will not choose this is a book club book because I am certain that someone will be offended. However, I HIGHLY recommend this book and think every American should read it. Even though it's only one man's account and should be "taken with a grain of salt" I think there are truths in the book that bring up concepts most American's never think of... such as the idea that maybe we're not always the hero, but that we too could be seen as terrorists...

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not often I finish a book in one sitting but here it is at 4am and my eyes are practically bleeding but I had to keep going. I have a lot of respect for Mr. Key. Walking away from the Iraq war was probably the bravest thing he could do. The atrocities he saw his own people commit against innocent civilians was horrifying. If only we all had such courage the world would be a better place. A definite must read and easily five stars.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was reading this book, I found myself forgetting that it was a recollection of events that actually happened. Its not a scholarly account of what happened to this kid but it is poignant in its simplicity. Its unfortunate what some of these people involved in this war have had to go through on both side (troops and Iraqis).

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honest and detailed. It must have been very difficult for Joshua Key to recount all of the stories he had to tell since he copes with PTSD. It takes courage to do what he has done and to share his story with others. I hope it opens up the eyes of some of those who are wearing blinders to the truth of what went on with the "War on Terror".

[Lester · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book felt like I was listening to the story..didn't seem like it took very long to read..cuz I 'needed' to get to the end! Perhaps this would be a good novel for students to read in about grade 9 (13-14 years old)..right about the age when the armed forces people go into the schools giving talks and 'hoping for recruitment sign ups'. Thankx Joshua Key and Lawrence Hill.

[Jasmin · Rating 5 out of 5]

unbelievable, rude awakening even though I will never know how it really was to be in his shoes, this is a sad and very insightful view of someone else's life and struggle with his country, morals and beliefs.

[Pat Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Broke my heart - Both for the violence of war, invasion and corruption of Iraqui citizens as well as
American youth, and the personal strength and self-awareness of this young soldier and his family.

[Debra · Rating 1 out of 5]

the author of this book is speaking out of both sides of his mouth. To understand what I mean, you would have to read it, but I wouldn't waste money on it. I read it to try and gain an understanding of why someone would choose to desert his buddies, but I closed the book calling him a coward.

[Cardi · Rating 3 out of 5]

simply-written, direct and powerful memoir.