[NV Greens] Fwd: [GPUS-PAX] The Iraq war's first conscientious objector

Thu Mar 24 00:30:10 PST 2005

>
>
>Some more CO info.Love,Jacqui
>
><http://www.portlandphoenix.com/features/this_just_in/documents/04538614>http://www.portlandphoenix.com/features/this_just_in/documents/04538614.
>asp
>
>DEPT. OF MORAL QUALMS
>The Iraq war's first conscientious objector
>BY DEIRDRE FULTON
>
>Iraq-war veteran Camilo Mejia, 29, signed up for military service 10
>years ago, hoping the army would offer new experiences and help him pay
>for college. Instead, after three years as an infantryman, five years in
>the National Guard, and five months in Iraq, Mejia got eight months and
>three weeks in an Oklahoma military prison.
>
>Mejia is the first Iraq vet to publicly refuse to continue military
>service; he did so in October 2003, citing moral and spiritual
>opposition to war. He spent several months "underground" before
>surrendering in March 2004 to military police at the Peace Abbey, in
>Sherborn, Mass. When Mejia applied for conscientious-objector status,
>his request was denied and he was found guilty of desertion in May 2004.
>Mejia and his lawyer are appealing the decision.
>
>Mejia was released from military prison last month, and on Tuesday, the
>Peace Abbey presented him with the Courage of Conscience Award, which
>honors people and organizations that embrace the principles of peace,
>justice, and nonviolence. The Phoenix caught up with Mejia the day
>before he received the award.
>
>
>Q: What were some of the main points of your 55-page
>conscientious-objector claim?
>
>A: It explains everything about why I'm a conscientious objector, from
>even before we went to war. It talks about me being a vegetarian, it
>talks about my feelings about the military.
>
>They pretty much just cheat soldiers, and cheat people into thinking
>they have certain benefits, or that they're well taken care of, when in
>reality it's really a mask that serves the purpose of war. For instance,
>pre-deployment training is supposed to get soldiers ready to go to war,
>and yet when you go through the training, you realize that it's nothing
>but a box that needs to be checked. You know, because units have to be
>certified. For instance, if you're supposed to qualify with your weapon,
>they'll take you to the range, and you'll shoot your weapon or whatever,
>but after a while, if you're not qualified, they're not going to keep
>working with you. They're just going to pass you. It's the same thing
>with first-aid training, it's the same thing with nuclear-biological
>training. There's not a sense that they're really concerned with your
>well-being.
>
>And there's no type of training dealing with human relations. You know,
>you're going to supposedly free a people from a dictator, and there is
>not a sense that you're there trying to bond with the people, trying to
>earn their hearts and minds.
>
>
>Q: When you first decided, in 2003, not to return to your unit and your
>fellow solders, were you scared?
>
>A: I was terrified.... I didn't know if they were going to push for the
>death penalty, I didn't know if they were going to push for 25 years
>incarceration, I didn't know if they were going to send a bunch of
>military policemen or FBI guys looking for me everywhere. I was
>terrified.
>
>And it was very painful not to return to those guys. Because when you're
>at war, you bond with people in a way that you cannot bond with people
>anywhere else.
>
>
>Q: Would you encourage other soldiers to follow the path you've blazed?
>
>A: Everyone has a different calling, whether you want to call it faith,
>or you want to call it conscience, or you want to call it something
>else. Not everybody is going to disagree with every war, not everyone is
>going to be a conscientious objector, not everybody is going to disagree
>with this war. But people can make a difference in their own way. For
>instance, if you agree with the war, if you're not a conscientious
>objector, you're in Iraq, and you have moral disagreements with the way
>your unit is treating Iraqis, then perhaps you can make a difference at
>that level, and treat people with dignity and respect. That's a great
>thing, and I encourage that.
>
>
>Q: What does the word "conscience" mean to you?
>
>A: I always tell about this incident we had.... Basically, there was
>this demonstration, and the demonstration turned violent, and they
>started throwing grenades at us, and we were given the order to fire at
>anyone who threw a grenade - this is considered a very hostile act, and
>this is considered justification for shooting. You could tell when they
>were going to throw a grenade because the whole crowd would hush and
>they would move to one corner. So, you see this guy emerge from the
>crowd, he appears in one corner, and he has something in his hand. He's
>swinging his arms, and he lets go, and it looks like a grenade, so we
>opened fired on him. And we killed him.
>
>I wonder if I killed him, if I missed him, if I hit in him in the
>shoulder or the knee. And it's really hard for me to deal with the fact
>that I might have shot him in the chest or in the head, or that my
>bullet might have killed him. And I ask myself why - he threw a grenade
>at us, and it was a 100 percent justified killing, legally.
>
>He was 100 meters away, maybe, and in every other aspect you're
>justified. But there's something inside of you that tells you this is
>wrong. The fact that he's too far, the fact that he has no chance of
>actually hurting anyone, the fact that if you look at the bigger reasons
>justifying the war you see that you're not justified in being there in
>the first place. It's that that moves beyond a military order, beyond
>international law. Something inside of you that tells you, "This is
>wrong" - that is conscience.
>
>
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand
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