FROM AWOL TO EXILE

摘要

Only a few months after army Specialist Darrell Anderson received a Purple Heart last summer for his service in Iraq, his heart wasn't in it anymore. By Christmas, while on leave at his parents' home in Lexington, Ky., Anderson, 22, was dead set against the war. Haunted by memories of civilian casualties, he had become a nervous wreck. So early last month, a few days before he was due to return to his unit's base in Germany and prepare for a redeployment to Iraq later this year, Anderson rented a car and drove to Toronto. Since arriving, Anderson has joined several like-minded U.S. soldiers fighting an uphill battle to gain refugee status in Canada. "I joined the Army to get money and defend my country, not to kill innocent people and fight for a war that is unjust," says Anderson, who earned his medal for the minor injuries he sustained April 11, when a homemade explosive device sprayed shrapnel all over his armored vehicle during a patrol in Baghdad.