“Sorry Uncle Sam, I can’t kill for your wars anymore.”
by Kevin Caron Jr.

Let’s pretend that war is a game like football or baseball. If you were the coach for the US team you would probably be sweating bullets for many reasons. Many of the play­ers are permanently disabled (dead), while even more are injured. Also your scouts (recruiters) have been hard pressed to fill the ranks, and if that wasn’t enough, you hear the chatter of dissention. The players have found the management to be corrupt and unfair. The team itself has been told to cheat and many are coming to face their consciences. In reality, however, the troops are not dissenters, but human be­ings. As children they were told that war was a game, from the guns that were their toys to the video games that simulated the action, explosions, and bloodshed. Only after seeing the awful truths of a criminal war and watching too many die without an ability to push the reset button, a realiza­tion appears that war is not a game at all. Now, for many, walls of illusions crumble as traumatized minds try to obtain peace and reach out for help.

Personal Testimonies

Testimonials reveal the truths of this unjust war.

Sgt. Kevin Benderman writes:

“The little girl’s arm was burned all the way [to] her shoulder and I don’t mean just a little blistered, I mean she had third degree burns the entire length of her arm and she was crying in pain because of the burns.”

Jeremiah Alder, a recruit who went absent without leave (AWOL) felt even more disillusioned by the military and its goals when he “met a lot of people who wanted to kill Arabs.”

Josh Sanders was met with insensitivity and active denial while hospitalized due to his service in Iraq: “They asked me if I missed my wife. Well, yeah I missed my wife. This is not the freaking problem here. Did you ever put your foot through a five-year old’s skull?”

Ryan Johnson heard stories like these and fled to Canada before deployment: “That’s the part that kind of started scaring me that, you know, there were people going over there and they were killing people, and they were coming back without any problems. But other people that I was talking to that had, you know, and actually came back and been really hurt by it, seen a lot of really bad things and done a lot of bad things that – that’s what began to get me thinking it wasn’t the best thing to do.”

These stirring testimonies are a small sampling of the voices of the more than 5,500 troops who have been classified as deserters since the invasion of Iraq. It’s not just exposure to war crimes but also the occupation built upon lies and prolonged deployment in dangerous ter­ritories that have caused the spirit of the troops to plummet. The GI rights hotline, a service that counsels troops looking to go AWOL or apply for conscientious objec­tor (CO) status, has been receiving 3,000 calls a month.

Being discharged as a CO is not a new idea. According to the Center on Conscience and War there were 3,500 CO’s in WWI; 37,000 in WWII; and 4,300 in the Korean War. These numbers increased dramatically during the Viet Nam War to 200,000. CO status became more difficult to obtain during the first Gulf War. The military passed 111 CO claims before pulling the plug, resulting in 2,500 troops in prison. Active duty military personnel have limited opportunities to register their protest over military policy and actions. Conscientious objection status is vital to maintaining troops’ rights.

Applying for CO Status

To claim CO status during active duty sol­diers must report their change of beliefs to the commanding officer. Many applicants report receiving harassment and condemna­tion from their units publicly, although they receive support from comrades in private. Testimonials have disclosed that officers have attempted to dissuade soldiers from applying for CO status by threatening them with court martial.

Obtaining CO status while active is difficult. Only a small number who apply will have claims granted, and only after waiting a year for the claim to be processed. A CO claimant must prove to a review board that they oppose war in any form for moral, ethical or religious reasons. Military duration is also a factor. The military is much more reluctant to grant CO status to officers in whom they have invested specialized training than a private who was possibly misinformed by recruiters about the reality of war.

Many support groups, like the GI Rights Hotline, provide counseling services in­forming troops of their rights concerning AWOL and CO status. One such group, American Voices Abroad, has been formed to council troops and military families stationed in Europe and Asia.

Kevin lives in Syracuse and is an organizer for the Military Alternatives Education Project (MAEP).