Freedom Underground: Protesting the Iraq War in America

The consequences of going AWOL (absent without leave) in the military are a maximum penalty of five years of confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and a dishonorable discharge. The maximum penalty for desertion in a time of war is death.

The Iraq War has become a divisive issue not only in the political arena, but with current soldiers serving in the Armed Forces. Statistics show that 11 soldiers and three Marines have killed themselves in the past seven months in Iraq. The GI Rights Hotline received nearly 29,000 calls in 2003 from soldiers trying to leave the armed services.

Vietnam War veteran and peace activist Carl Rising-Moore has started an organization called the Freedom Underground to help suicidal servicemen flee to Canada to avoid deployment (or re-deployment) to Iraq.

Freedom Underground catalogues Rising-Moore's background and his subsequent establishment of the modern underground railroad. So far he has personally shuttled two soldiers across the Canadian border and placed them with a safe Quaker organization. Rising-Moore and co-author Becky Oberg record those border crossings and the futures of many other soldiers who enlist the help of the Freedom Underground.

Carl Rising-Moore is a Vietnam veteran and peace activist. Becky Oberg is a former private in the US Army.