US war resister Cliff Cornell faces a court-martial Tuesday at Fort Stewart in Georgia. His civilian attorney will be James Branum who noted Cornell was expelled from Canada February 5th. He turned himself in to the US military on February 10th.
"I'm nervous, scared. I'm just not a fighter. I know it sounds funny, but I have a really soft heart," Russ Bynum (AP) quoted Cliff explaining. Lyndell Nelson (WSAV) quoted him stating he would resist all over again if he had it to do over, "Yeah, because I am not over there taking part in this illegal war, I'm not over there killing innocent people or taking part in the torturing that is going on."
Cliff went to Canada in January 2005. He had hopes of asylum and and hopes of a life. In Mission Rejected, Peter Laufer's 2006 book on resistance, Cliff makes a brief appearance on pages 68 and 69. He and "Ivan" (neither were comfortable, at that point, with giving their full names, Ivan is Ivan Brobeck) were joking around, Ivan was on skateboard and Cliff was laughing about tossing him out the window. Darrell Anderson appears on those pages (and elsewhere in the book) and he called it correctly after he left Canada and returned to the US. Some of us disagreed with that call (C.I. was the only one publicly defending Anderson during that roundtable), we see now he was right.
So for four years Cliff waited and waited for Canada to welcome him. Or at least grant him a legal status which would allow him to remain. Instead the government ordered him to leave. Despite all the back slapping and self-congratulations going on, nothing was actually happening. Except maybe some people were using today's war resisters to refight Vietnam.
Cliff faces a hearing Tuesday. He knows it is likely, if the past pattern holds, that he'll be sentenced to serve time.
He shouldn't have to serve any time and he is at least the third Iraq War resister to be deported from Canada. (Robin Long and Daniel Sandate are the two before Cliff.) Dee Knight (Workers World) reported in March:
Cornell's attorney, James Branum, told Workers World he waived an Article 32 pretrial hearing on the desertion charges in hopes of negotiating a reduced charge. "Cliff Cornell is a conscientious objector who voluntarily turned himself in," Branum said.
Branum wants the hearing officers to take that into account and not charge Cornell with desertion. He noted that the base commander can be influenced to reduce any sentence the hearing officers might impose. The court-martial is expected in one to two months.
Despite waiving the Article 32 hearing, Cliff is being charged with desertion. Again, the court-martial will take place Tuesday at Fort Stewart. And if nothing changes, court-martials will continue to take place.
The illegal war is not ending anytime soon (doubtful that it will end in 2011 even) and unless Andre Shepherd gets asylum in Germany, there will be no country granting refugee status for resisters in the near future. (There are other ways to get status in other countries and those resisters who have gone underground have been successful at that. Even in Canada.) For six years the illegal war has dragged on and it may very well see another six years. Along with the dead and wounded, with the mourners and the survivors, it is the resisters who pay personal costs for the illegal war. Cliff Cornell is another victim of George W. Bush and Barack Obama's illegal war.