by TChris

Can deception turn a soldier into a slave? Former Denver Bronco Reggie Rivers argues that many U.S. soldiers never would have enlisted had they known that they would be sent to war under false pretenses.

And I don't think "slave" is too strong a word to describe someone who is not permitted to quit his job no matter how dangerous it becomes or how much he hates it. For most of us, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery and guaranteed that we have the right to withhold our labor. It doesn't protect soldiers.

Camilo Mejia learned that lesson when he refused to return to Iraq after deciding that he couldn't further an immoral war -- a very different campaign from the honorable and necessary war of liberation he was told he'd be fighting. Rather than participating in the violent occupation of Iraq, he's spending a year in prison for desertion. He may not be a slave, but he's sure not free.

According to Rivers, kids are induced to sign up for something that's very different from the reality in Iraq:

[O]ur kids get bombarded with formal and informal recruiting messages -- and they sign up. One day, they find themselves sitting in a Humvee in Iraq, with their best friend lying dead on the floor next to them, and they suddenly realize the deception of their recruitment and the shackles of their slavery.

As a general rule, if you're induced by a false representation to enter into a contract, you can get out of the contract. Should soldiers be entitled to ditch the military when they realize they've been sold a boat that doesn't float?