Choosing to go to war is both a government's decision and one made by individual enlistees. But changing your mind once you're in the army is a risky decision with serious consequences. NOW talks to two soldiers who went AWOL and eventually left the army, but who took very different paths. NOW captures the moment when one man turns himself in and when another applies for refugee status in Canada, becoming one of the 20,000 soldiers who have deserted the army since the war in Iraq began. Each describes what drove him to follow his conscience over his call to duty and what penalties and criticism were endured as a result.

"I see things differently having lived through the experience,"former army medic Agustin Aguayo tells NOW. "When I returned from Iraq, after much reflection, I knew deep within me I could never go back."

The NOW Web site at www.pbs.org/now will offer more insight into the case made by conscientious objectors, as well as more stories of desertion in the ranks.