Joshua Key - The Deserters Tale

Praise for The Deserters Tale

The Deserters Tale by Joshua Key is destined to become part of the literature of the Iraq War.... Keys clear voice rings out, explaining why he deserted the army after seven months in Iraq, with anguish and a frankness that invests the book with quiet eloquence.... In this testament of his experience in military service in Iraq he is making a substantial contribution to history. Los Angeles Times

Stark and compelling... Whats most engaging about this book is its essential honesty.... The Deserters Tale ought to be required reading for soldiers heading overseas. Globe and Mail

Rich in detail... a fascinating saga. Winnipeg Free Press

This memoir, which can fairly and accurately be called a searing indictment of Americas war on terror, is vividly written... but as difficult as it sometimes can be to read, we respect Keys courage to tell the story without sugarcoating. The book is timely, important, and haunting. Booklist (starred review)

A tearjerker... Lawrence Hill, the award-winning Canadian novelist and journalist who helped Key write The Deserters Tale, does a marvelous job preserving Keys authentic voice. The writing is fluid, crisp, and compelling. The story is shocking. The Gazette (Montreal)

It is a story worth telling: how a gbod man became lost in an immoral system, and in the process lost his livelihood, his nation, and part of himself. Quill & Quire

Key describes without judging so the reader experiences along with him his journey towards rejecting the military.... As a chronicle of the experiences that led one soldier to this irrevocable step, Keys is a grim and necessary book. The Indianapolis Star

The narrative of The Deserters Tale has the strong backbone of an archetypal hero myth.... Its the combination of Hills sharp prose and Keys accounts of atrocity that make this book so potent. See Magazine

A hard-hitting autobiography which offers first-hand observations from the unusual perspective of a deserter. Midwest Book Review

The Deserters Tale is told in simple, compelling prose. Joshua Keys story may just be one perspective on the Iraq War, but in many ways the young war resister is also speaking on behalf of the voiceless thousands senselessly killed in this war. Relentlessly honest, and graphic, this book stands out as unique and significant amidst the shelves of books critiquing the Bush administrations foreign policy. It will surely stand up long after this war is over as a condemnation both of the pretensions of empire, and of the grotesque inequality that scars life in the United States. ZNET

The case of Joshua Key... is unique. He is the first U.S. soldier who actually served in Iraq to claim sanctuary from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, based on his personal experience with atrocities in Iraq.... Combatant Key will be able to raise the question of the wars legality as a defense. The Province Unwind Sunday Magazine

The American Army is having a lot of trouble attracting new recruits, in part because of the war in Iraq its horrors, the lies, and the sixteen hundred GIs who are dead. Joshua Key enlisted. But after eight months in Ramadi and Fallujah, taking advantage of home leave, he deserted.... He left behind the hardship of war, the blood, the lies. Like thousands of others. Le Monde

THE

DESERTERS

TALE

The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq

Joshua Key

as told to

Lawrence Hill

Copyright 2007, Joshua Key and Lawrence Hill

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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This edition published in 2012 by House of Anansi Press Inc

110 Spadina Avenue, Suite 801

Toronto, ON, M5V 2K4

Tel. 416-363-4343

Fax 416-363-1017

www.houseofanansi.com

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Key, Joshua

The deserters tale: the story of an ordinary soldier who walked away

from the war in Iraq / Joshua Key ; as told to Lawrence Hill.

ISBN 978-1-77089-072-5

1. Key, Joshua. 2. Iraq War, 2003 Personal narratives, American. 3. Iraq War, 2003

-DesertionsUnited States. 4. Military desertersUnited StatesBiography.

5. AmericansCanada. I. Hill, Lawrence,1957 II. Title.

DS79.76.K49 2007 956.704438 C2006-906876-3

Interior photos: courtesy of Joshua Key.

Map: Matthew Ericson.

Jacket Design: Ingrid Paulson

Jacket Photograph: Alex Majoli/Magnum

We acknowledge for their financial support of our publishing program the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).

I dedicate this book to my wife, Brandi Key, and to our children, Zackary, Adam, Philip, and Anna. I wouldnt have made it this far without them.

Joshua Key

THE

DESERTERS

TALE

Prologue

I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD LOSE MY COUNTRY, and I never dreamed it would lose me. I was raised as a patriotic American, taught to respect my government and to believe in my president. Just a decade ago, I was playing high school football, living in a trailer with my mom and stepdad, working at Kentucky Fried Chicken, and hoping to raise a family one day in the only town I knew: Guthrie, Oklahoma, population ten thousand. Back then, I would have laughed out loud if somebody had predicted I would become a wanted criminal, live as a fugitive in my own country, and turn my wife and children into refugees as I fled with them across the border.

Before I could survive and escape the war in Iraq, I had to survive my own childhood. I shot a .357 Magnum on my ninth birthday, brought down my first deer by the age of twelve, and could clean, load, and shoot any of dozens of firearms that my stepfather kept in our trailer. I was an excellent shot before I was old enough to shave. I drank alcohol of every kind, trashed two cars on country roads, and fought anybody who was willing.

Even in my earliest years, I knew right from wrong. It wasnt right to kill puppies with a hammer, which is why I shot and buried a litter of pups before my grandfather could get at them in his old-fashioned way. Iraq took all of the fun out of guns for me, but even in the days when I still loved shooting I stopped hunting after dropping that deer with a four-inch bullet through the neck.

Even though I was taught that it was shameful to get licked in a fight and come home beaten, I knew it wasnt right to gang up on someone, pick on a smaller person, or keep on punching after your opponent had fallen. I knew it was wrong to attack any person who was weak or defenseless, and everything about my early years at home reinforced that belief.