On January 11, Ernest McQueen, who served in the military for nearly two years until he left his unit in 1969, was arrested by police in Fort Worth, Texas. “The Marines are trying to send a message to their troops in Iraq that deserters will always be hunted down and prosecuted, even 40 years after they resist”, said Tod Ensign, legal director of Citizen Soldier, a GI and veterans’ rights advocacy group, according to the January 27 US Socialist Worker. McQueen said he was “gung-ho” about being a soldier when he enlisted at age 17. But then he learned of the 1968 My Lai Massacre, when US soldiers killed hundreds of Vietnamese villagers. He heard other stories from returning soldiers about the horrors of the war and said of his decision to join the army, “Wow. What have I done?” McQueen says he “just decided I didn’t want to be a part of killing anybody. That’s about as plain as I can say it.” He asked: “What more can you do to me? I’ve lived a good life ... I don’t think anybody that went to ‘Nam can honestly come back and say, ‘Yes, we did the right thing’. It was a mistake from day one, and the only people who don’t want to admit it’s a mistake is the politicians.”

From Green Left Weekly, February 1, 2006.
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