The first American Deserter of the Iraq War has been sent home as of Tuesday in a move that many find surprising given that roughly 200 men and women have found refuge in our neighbor to the north since the war began in 2003.

Most Canadians have no issue with deserters, what with Canada not having backed the war in the first place, but with it’s current conservative government in place the rules about who qualifies for asylum in the country have changed greatly since, say, the days that Bill Clinton went running for the border, thus making it more difficult for those seeking a safe refuge from further deployments to war.

The man has been arrested and while the charge of desertion can carry penalties up to and including death by firing squad (no, really), it’s suspected that prison and something much like a felony charge will be his penance.

Perhaps the most surprising fact in this story, isn’t so much Canada turning away someone seeking asylum, but the face that roughly 200 men and women packed up their lives and left the all-volunteer military of the U.S. to run into the north and start over, rather than stay in the States locked into their contracts.

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