[Reader-list] Conscientous Objectors in the War against Iraq

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Here is a posting of an article by Gabriel Packard forwarded by Coco Fusco on 
the Undercurrents List, about conscientious objectors (soldiers who refuse 
combat ) in the war against Iraq. 

I thought it would be of interest for those who have been part of the ongoing 
discussions on the Iraq war in this list

cheers

Shuddha
___________________________________________________________


IRAQ: Hundreds of U.S. Soldiers Emerge as
Conscientious Objectors

Gabriel Packard

NEW YORK, Apr 15 (IPS) - Although only a handful of them have
 gone public, at least several hundred U.S. soldiers have applied 
for conscientious objector (CO) status since January, says a 
rights group.  

 The Center on Conscience and War (CCW), which advises military
 personnel on CO discharges, reports that since the start of 2003 
- when many soldiers realised they might have to fight in the 
Iraq war - there has been a massive increase in the number of 
enlisted soldiers who have applied for CO status. 

 ”The bare minimum is several hundred, and this number only
 includes the ones that have come to my group and to groups we're 
associated with,” CCW official J.E. McNeil told IPS.  

 ”There will be others who will have gone through different
 channels, and some people do it on their own,” she added. 
 
 Generally, COs possess a sincere conviction that
forbids them  from taking part in organised killing. This objection may apply 
to all or to only particular aspects of war.   Only a small percentage of 
people who apply receive a CO  discharge. But military statistics lag about 
one year behind,  and the decisions on CO applications take on average
six months  to one year - sometimes as long as two years - so the
exact  number of COs in the present war will not be known for
some time. 

 Also, military figures do not count applications from  servicemen who are 
absent without leave, so they will not  include Stephen Funk, a marine 
reserve who was on unauthorised  leave before he publicly declared himself a
conscientious  objector and reported back to his military base in San
Jose,  California, Apr. 1. 

 Funk, 20, realised that he was against all war during his
 training, which including having to bayonet human-shaped dummies 
while shouting, ”kill, kill”.  

 Since publicly declaring his opposition to war, he
has become a  symbol of resistance both in the United States and around the 
world.   ”Since Stephen went public,” says Aimee Allison, a CO from the
 first Gulf War who has been supporting Funk, ”some people from 
Yesh Gvul (a group of Israeli soldiers who have refused to fight 
in the occupied territories in Palestine) have contacted me to  pledge their 
support for Stephen and to show solidarity and to  thank him for making a 
stand.”  

 ”People in other countries are proud that an American can stand
 up to the hegemony and the violence of the war in Iraq,” she  adds. 
   Soldiers in other countries, including Turkey, have refused to
 fight in the current war sparked by last month's U.S.-led  attack. Three 
British servicemen were sent home from the Persian  Gulf after objecting to 
the conduct of the invasion and a U.K.  member of parliament, George 
Galloway, says he ”is calling on  British forces to refuse to obey the 
illegal orders” involved in  the war. 

 As it is in the British army, CO discharge is a  long-established practice 
in the U.S. armed forces and always  peaks in wartime. CCW says there were an 
estimated 200,000 COs in  the Vietnam War, 4,300 in the Korean War, 37,000 in
World War II  and 3,500 in World War I.  

 The military granted 111 COs from the army in the first Gulf  War before 
putting a stop to the practice, resulting in 2,500  soldiers being sent to 
prison, says Bill Gavlin from the Center  on Conscience and War, quoting a 
report from the 'Boston Globe'  newspaper. 

 During that war, a number of U.S. COs in Camp LeJeune in North
 Carolina state were ”beaten, harassed and treated horribly”, Gavlin says. In 
some cases, COs were put on planes bound for  Kuwait, told that they could 
not apply for CO status or that they  could only apply after they'd already 
gone to war.  

 As far as Gavlin knows, that type of treatment has not happened
 this time. But he has counselled service members  who were 
harassed. For example, one woman was told that if she applied for  CO status 
she would be court marshalled. It is not an offence to  apply, and her 
superiors did it, Gavlin says, ”to intimidate  her.” 

 Funk is being treated ''with kid gloves'' in his home camp,
 where he is on restricted duty, according to Allison. But he is  poised to 
be transferred to a ''remote'' camp, a standard  procedure for COs, says 
Gavlin.  

 Allison says she was both supported and condemned when she
 became a CO. ”Privately I received overwhelming personal support 
from the other members of my unit,” she says. ”But  publicly I was 
isolated by my unit.”  ”I was a senior at Stanford at the time, and again,
in private  I got lots of support - for example anti-war groups
on campus  asked me to speak at events,” she adds. ”But there
were also  detractors on campus and in the broader community.” 

 Even though conscientious objection is well established, Funk -
 like many others - found it difficult to find information about 
it within the military system. ”It took him six or seven months,” 
says Allison. ”And eventually he was searching the Internet ....  
and found the G.I. Rights website.” 

 G.I. Rights is a network of nongovernmental organisations
 (NGOs) that give advice and information to service members about 
military discharges and about complaint procedures. CCW belongs 
to this network.  

 The NGOs advise soldiers on whether they meet the
criteria for  CO status, and help them complete a CO application.
The process involves filling in a 22-question form, being interviewed by a 
military chaplain, a psychologist and an investigating officer. 
To succeed in getting CO status, soldiers must demonstrate that 
their beliefs about war have changed since they enlisted. 

 Soldiers that have this change of heart fall into three main
 groups, says McNeil.   The first group contains ”those who go into the
military  understanding war and are willing to accept it”, she says. ”But 
then something happens during their service and they are no 
longer OK with war.”  

 The second group contains people who have ”sought out spiritual
 growth and have come to believe that God doesn't want them to 
participate in war.”  

 The third, and biggest, group, she says, is made up of young,
 often naive, people who join the military in their late teens. 
They are often poor whites, blacks or Hispanics, who either have 
limited employment opportunities, or are looking for a way to 
fund their college education.  

 Because military recruiters target poor youth in urban centres
 - the so-called ”poverty draft” - this is probably the  fastest-growing 
group of COs as well as the biggest, added  McNeil.  . (END/2003)