Fruits of Desertion

From Citizen Smash, an open letter to deserting "war criminal" Pablo Paredes. I thought all his points were great, but I especially liked this one, since I hadn't thought of it before:

When you were planning your dramatic “statement,” did you think for a minute about how this would affect your shipmates? You are a fire control technician on the Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missile system. The Navy doesn’t have a bunch of spare FCs sitting in cold storage... Your job isn’t one that the Navy can afford to shrug off – somebody else is going to have to do it.
One of two things is going to happen. Either your shipmates are going to have to pull extra shifts to cover for your absence, or – more likely – somebody from another ship is going to get emergency orders to take your place in the coming days. Maybe that person is married; maybe he even has kids.
And you pulled this little stunt just in time for Christmas.

Puts all his self-righteousness in a little more perspective...

Update: Oxblog links to an article on another deserter and his story. Apparently, Canada is the only nation that allows Americans "refugee" status. And speaking of Canada...