AMERICAN DESERTER IN GERMANY

Meet Andre Shepherd, American Deserter:


He has chosen to live the good life in Europe, via a legal loophole, while better men and women than him stand by their obligations.

This worthless piece of human debris apparently brainwashed himself, seduced members of the German punk rock / anti-war movement.

These are your friends, Andre Shepherd. You have thrown in your lot with them.

I lived in Germany and observed this crowd - they are the same long-haired, maggot-infested bunch one finds in any country of the Free World; Che T-shirts, Arab keffiya's, etcetera. Nothing original about them, never had an original thought in their lives; they glorify totalitarian dictators like Fidel Castro and terrorist scum like Yasser Arafat. In 2003 they marched in support of Saddam Hussein - the guy who operated a national level torture machine that included rape rooms, people fed into wood chippers and acid showers.

The deserter Andre Shepherd is currently supported by Ulli Thiel, a 65-year-old peace activist in Karlsruhe. Mr. Thiel and his wife set up a bank account in the soldier's name, and they deposit about $262 a month so he has spending money. Mr. Shepherd says he hopes to finish his university degree in Karlsruhe if he wins asylum and that he could happily spend the rest of his life in Germany. "It's just amazing here," he said one morning recently in Mr. Thiel's living room as his German host poured him a cup of coffee.

The United States has had traitors and deserters in every war we have been in - Andre Shepherd is the latest to don the Yellow Badge of Cowardice.

FOOTPRINT OF THE AMERICAN CHICKEN

Situation Update: German immigration authorities heard Mr Shepherd's case, and are currently examining his eligibility for asylum. A decision should be reached within the next few months. If asylum is knocked back, Mr Shepherd will appeal to the courts, a process which could take up to five years.

In the meantime, Mr Shepherd can legally stay in Germany, but cannot return to the United States. The decision to desert was not an easy one, Mr Shepherd says. "Your home country will always think you are a traitor, whether you were justified or not," he explained.

YOU THINK?

There is no honor in what you do, Andre Shepherd. You enlisted in the middle of two wars and THEN you decided what you are doing is wrong? Let me tell you what you did: you turned your back on your country and your comrades in time of war. For the rest of your life, every morning as you look in the mirror, a little voice will be going in the back of your throat as you try to convince yourself that what you did was OK . . .

Every day, for the rest of your miserable life, you will have to justify your actions to yourself, to your friends and family, and to your children and grandchildren when they ask, "Daddy, what did you do in the big Iraq War?"

"WAR IS AN UGLY THING, BUT IT IS NOT THE UGLIEST OF THINGS. THE DECAYED AND DEGRADED STATE OF MORAL AND PATRIOTIC FEELING WHICH THINKS THAT NOTHING IS WORTH WAR IS MUCH WORSE. THE PERSON WHO HAS NOTHING FOR WHICH HE IS WILLING TO FIGHT, NOTHING WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HIS OWN PERSONAL SAFETY, IS A MISERABLE CREATURE AND HAS NOT CHANCE OF BEING FREE UNLESS MADE AND KEPT SO BY THE EXERTIONS OF BETTER MEN THAN HIMSELF." - John Stewart Mill

ROGERs RANGERS

Part of an ongoing series of posts about the history of US Army Special Forces to include more than 200 years of unconventional warfare history; "Swamp Fox" Francis Marion, the Confederate partisan cavalry raiders of Colonel Mosby and Colonel John Morgan, the WWII OSS Jedburgh Teams, OSS Detachment 101 in Burma, the Alamo Scouts, and the 8240th Partisan Infantry in the Korean War. Since 1952, Special Forces have served in Vietnam, El Salvador, Panama, Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and in the current conflict in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Philippines, and the Horn of Africa.

Special Forces traces its lineage back to before the Revolutionary War. Rogers' Rangers was an independent militia company of Rangers attached to the British Army during the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years War. The unit was informally trained by Major Robert Rogers as a rapidly deployable light infantry force tasked with reconnaissance and conducting operations against distant targets.

Rogers' Rangers operated primarily in the Lake George and Lake Champlain regions of New York. The unit was formed during the severe winter of 1755 by provincial forces entrenched at Fort William Henry. The Rangers frequently undertook winter raids against French towns and military emplacements, traveling on crude snowshoes and across frozen rivers.

Their military tactics were so bold and effective that the unit became the chief scouting unit of British Crown forces in the late 1750s. Rogers' Rangers were one of the few non-Indian forces able to operate in the inhospitable region due to the harsh winter conditions and mountainous terrain.

Never fully respected by the British regulars, the Rangers were nonetheless highly valued for gathering intelligence about the enemy. Ironically, several members of Rogers' Rangers became influential leaders in the American Revolutionary War and a large number of ex-Rangers were present as patriot militiamen at the Battle of Concord Bridge.

After the events at Lexington and Concord,, Robert Rogers offered his help to the commander of the Colonial Army, George Washington. Washington refused, fearing that Rogers was a spy because Rogers had just returned from a long stay in England. Rogers was infuriated by this and did indeed join the British—forming the Queen's Rangers (1776) and later the King's Rangers.

Also claiming descent from Rogers' Rangers is the U.S. Army Rangers.

US ARMY 234th BIRTHDAY

Mudville Gazette has a comprehensive post on what today is all about.

Me? I did twenty-five years in that outfit. Best damn Army in the world, in the entire HISTORY of the world - bar none.

The military life is the good life, and your worst day in Special Forces is better than your best day in the Regular Army. If someone waved a magic wand and I could do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing.

De Opresso Liber,
S.L.