Rebel soldier

Saturday, Pottermania will break out again all over the world. There's nothing wrong with escaping into a fantasy world from time to time, but basically it's a waste of time. There are so many things to learn about the real world. Moreover, they can also be a page-turner. Pick up “Road from Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejía” and it will be difficult to put the book down before turning the last page.

A good book review is “From Foot Soldier of Empire to Rebel for Peace – Camilo Mejía's War”.

Camilo Mejía was born into a Nicaraguan Sandinista family and ended up in Miami, struggling to juggle attending college and working odd jobs to pay for it. Like so many other young men and women, he was tempted to sign up for the army, lured by promises of scholarships to put him through college, earn a decent degree and start a career. Camilo ended up in the Florida National Guard, but as a non-citizen, he could not serve more than 8 years in the U.S. military. Never mind, the army broke its own rules. Camilo's contract was supposed to end in May 2003, but in January 2003 it was illegally extended through a “stop-loss order” till... 2031. Worse was still to come: Camilo ended up in Iraq, in Ar Ramadi in the center of the Sunni triangle.

He tried to be a good soldier, but the brutality and racism of his fellow soldiers, the immorality of his superiors who send them into battle with the only aim of earning medals for themselves, the illegal detention camps where Iraqi prisoners were humiliated, the deliberate murder of Iraqi civilians ... all this made Camilo turn into a rebel soldier. He applied for a two-week leave to the U.S. never to return to Iraq. After staying AWOL for five months, he surrendered to the military to avoid charges of desertion, but was still court-martialed and sentenced to nine months in prison.

Camilo Mejía was illegally retained in the army, fought for justice and was thrown into prison, while the war criminals Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Powell and Rice go unpunished. American injustice for all to see.