Customer Reviews

The Deserter's Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

The only thing about this piece of fecal matter that is correct is the authors name, the rest of it is garbage that only exists in the mind of a individual who is only trying to become a media darling for the left.

He makes claims that he witnessed atrocities while in Iraq, but then he never reported them to higher command. He claims a soldier in his command was given half months pay for six months because he asked a question and yet the UCMJ only allows an article 15 to dock a soldier for two months.

I could go on and on about the inaccuracies and outright lies, but there are plenty of milbloggers who have already taken it apart so you can reference them. This book was clearly written just to give the left exactly what they wanted to hear and the truth be damned.

I bought this book because I have a son in the armed forces who has already been to Afghanastan and is scheduled to go to Iraq in Dec '07. I wanted to get a feel for what my son might go through by seeing Iraq through another soldiers eyes. This soldier purports himself to be a true American, would die for his country, and so on. What he did after 5 and a half months was walk away from his Company, and his Country and not only became a war criminal, but turned his wife and four children into criminals. Nowhere in the book could I find one resonable excuse for what he did. Military life is hard, service in Iraq in the early days was often shameful, but he had other avenues, and he should have explored those before going to Canada. So far Canada has turned him down for political aslyium, and I hope his appeal is turned down as well. Keys need to come back and face those he left behind. I'm also sorry that the money I spent on the book is helping to support him even a little.

Oh, I did talk to my son about the concerns I had in the book, he told me that someone was lying. So, if you do go ahead and read this book, keep that in mind.

Other "facts" I found disturbing is how he was able to use his own name and not once, but twice, file and receive a tax return. The "facts" in the book are not facts at all. I talked to my son about what I read, and he did not have to sign a paper stating he would be shot by firing squad if he went AWOL. He was also never beaten with a sock, and never asked to beat anyone with a sock. He's had 13 troops in his division go AWOL, and some took their punishment and stayed or took their punishment and left. There was no need for Keys to jump the border.

When a person shows his utter lack of honesty, character or courage, by violating his oaths, deserting the military and hiding out in another country, only an imbecile would believe him capable of telling the truth. Yes, some Americans have been so propagandized into self-loathing that they will buy anything which reinforces their hatred for their country - but even these would, hopefully, have enough still functioning brain cells to recognize a crapfest of lies when they stumble across one.

In this case, the meaningless and inaccurate terminology, the complete ignorance of the simple names of everyday military armament, the lack of even a basic grasp of the titles of military officers and non-coms, is so pathetic that it is unworthy of even an unresearched Hollywood TV movie.

The garbage about a guy trying to commit suicide with a rifle grenade is hysterically funny, since anyone who even makes it out of basic knows that the grenade will not arm for detonation until it travels a set distance beyond the soldier... and it is NOT fired from an M-16.

Oh - and you don't have 'gunnies' in the Army.

The drivel about bloody fetuses scattered around the floor might make for entertaining reading for campfire stories told to brain damaged psychopaths - or brain-dead publishers - and the stories of the crazed US soldiers kicking around severed heads like soccer balls, is lifted directly from Hamas propaganda.

All in all, if a person is cursed with an IQ below 30, needs to get rid of some money in a hurry, and wants to help a scumbag deserter with no honor and no capacity for truth, then he or she could buy this book and gratify their America-bashing, military hating hearts in their own little corner of some demented universe. But a better buy would be a giant 12 roll pack of really nice toilet tissue. It would be softer, more honest, and more comfortable than the pages of this book, and suited for the same purpose.

The author of this great steaming pile of fabrication, if he ever wore a uniform, plainly never graduated from basic, and certainly never saw a combat theater. Preposterous inaccuracies drip from every page- the closest this clown ever got to a battlefield was on his X-Box. A "gunnery sergeant" in the Army? An "M-16 grenade launcher?" Setting off a fuel-tank explosion by shooting the ground leakage? This bozo has watched too many Die Hard flicks.

Of course the anti-war people are lapping it up, because it 'confirms' every anti-military hate stereotype they hold. But it's all crap. Just another product of the Great Leftist Lie Machine.

I've been in the military for 20 years and what the author describes has no relation to anything I've ever witnessed or heard. In fact, take what he says and turn it around 180 degrees and you'd have more truth. What he says about the JAG briefings...out and out fallacies. The JAG briefings I've received make it very clear that we follow the Geneva Convention or we will be prosecuted and locked away.

What a sack of lying sh..!

I recommend reading this book, but at the same time I don't quite know where to place it or Mr. Key. Let's say it's a very long way from Stephen Decatur's famous toast, 'Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.' Instead, as even the title says, Mr. Key deserted from the US Army, then fled the country with his wife and family.

He reports that he couldn't stand the inhumanity of the war our Army was waging against the Iraqi people. This makes me want to ask him (or others in his unit) several questions:

He was with 43rd Combat Engineer Company. It's not the normal engineer activities to go do the kind of patrols. Why weren't they doing engineering jobs like bridges and waterworks?

Why didn't he report these atrocities to his commanders, his congressman, the press. He was taught in basic training that he should have refused to obey unlawful orders.

Why didn't he simply refuse to obey orders, get court martialed and explain why?

All in all, Mr. Key comes out as not the brightest bulb in the string. I don't know Lawrence Hill, but his list of publications seem to indicate a far left wing orientation.

Nothing this author claims has an iota of documentation nor does his narrative sound in any way shape or form believable to this Marine veteran. Since when has the Army had "Gunnery" sergeants for starters?

I picked this up at my local library because I am not going to spend my money on what amounts to a slanderous, unsubstantiated case against our military members.

You can read Tom Clancy, Robert Heinlein or JRR Tolkien for stories that have more truth in them.

From the information available to me, my experience living on military bases as a kid, serving as an adult, and the numerous people I know personally who fought in Iraq, the author is, in my opinion, a deserter, traitor, and liar.

This is the worst book ever written. Seriously. Not even *just* that the stories aren't true, but that he can't even get details about the militry right. There is no "M-16 Grenade Launcer" that is an M203. There was no threat the grenade would go off, it has an arming distance. There are no "Gunnery Sergeants" in the army, they are in the Marine Corps. It literally is like a book written by a guy who spent an entire 9 hours watching crappy hollywood movies and then adopted them. A .50 cal round would not ignite gas like that. I could literally go on and on and on with all the fallacies in this book, but you people who so want the story to be real will say it is, and those of us with actual military experience in teh GWOT recognize it for what it is, sheer crap.

You need to move this book to the Fiction section where it belongs, because that is what most of this story is.

I laugh at everyone who thought this book was "good" or whatever. Do not believe anything in this book, nothing is factual. You are reading fallacies based upon stupidity.