They're not shooting me for deserting the United Stated Army - thousands of guys have done that. They're shooting me for bread I stole when I was 12 years old.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I never talk about shooting anybody, but I do acknowledge I was a member of the IRA, and as a member of the IRA, I obviously engaged in fighting back against the British army.
I guess if you're stupid enough to join the army without thinking about getting shot at, then you really are a fool.
Desertion is the army's dirty little secret. Since the beginning of the Iraq war, more than 20,000 American soldiers have given up the fight. Most of them disappear while at home on leave, fading into a network of family and friends, and the army does not typically chase them down.
The Army was my bread and butter.
I've gone to war zones before and never got shot.
As a young man, every bone in my body wanted to pick up a machine gun and kill Germans. And yet I had absolutely no reason to do so. Certainly nobody invited me to do the job. But that's what I felt that I was trained to do. Now no part of my upbringing was militaristic.
What you experience in the army, aged 18 to 21, is what you take through all your life. You cross invisible lines: you shoot someone, get shot, break into people's houses. It's naive to think you won't carry anything into your life.
I'm very disturbed about the uptick in shootings and violence at our military installations across the nation.
I was court-martialled in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.
We are protecting civilians. We are unarmed. We are no threat to you. Please do not shoot.