[Peace-discuss] FW: You Can Get Out of the Military, Even if You Enlisted - Soldiers Speak Out

[Marianne Brun]

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Datum: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 00:46:40 -0500 (EST)
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Betreff: You Can Get Out of the Military, Even if You Enlisted - Soldiers
Speak Out  

You Can Get Out of the Military, Even if You Enlisted

Soldiers Speak Out, Get Out

* Pro-Soldier, Anti-War: My Experiences as a
Conscientious Objector and the Launching of Peace-
Out.Com by Perry O'Brien

* A Matter of Conscience by Sgt. Kevin Benderman

==========

Pro-Soldier, Anti-War
My Experiences as a Conscientious Objector and the Launching of
Peace-Out.Com
by Perry O'Brien
Published on February 8, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0208-20.htm
 
I joined the Army on August 27th, 2001, just two weeks
before the terrorist attacks of 9/11. As naive as its
sounds, I wasn't thinking about going to war when I
signed up. I was thinking about jumping out of planes,
learning medical skills, and getting a tangible
experience that would be somehow more "real" than the
previous two years of college. Enlisting was totally
spontaneous, and I never took time to sit down and
consider how I really felt about war.

A year and half later I found myself working in a field
clinic in Kandahar, Afghanistan. As a company of
medics, my unit saw the worst consequences of war:
mutilated children, traumatized civilians, dead
soldiers. Even then, at least for the first few months
of my deployment, I didn't take time to consider the
implications of what I was doing; I was too busy doing
my job. It was the Afghani children that finally got me
thinking. No matter how many casualties I saw, there
was always a sense of universal wrongness when a 5-
year-old child came into our clinic with a ragged
amputation. "How are all these kids getting hurt," I
wondered, "Why are people letting this happen? What's
wrong with this country?"

Then we heard figures, that up to 3,000 innocent
civilians had been killed by American bombs. How many
had been injured?

I thought to myself, 3,000 is about the number of
people that were killed on 9/11. Were we getting even?
I started to feel like an Army mechanic, fixing things
that my comrades in the Air Force and Infantry had
broken. But they weren't "things," of course, they were
people, and after they left our clinic they were going
home to their families. How many would return to
devastated craters, or get home only to learn that one
of their sons, fathers, or brothers had been spirited
away by American soldiers?

We used to see those prisoners, too, doing medical
checkups to ensure that the Afghanis didn't develop any
new injuries during their stay with us. Of course, we
never knew what happened to them before they got to
Kandahar. During the examinations the prisoners were
naked, shivering even if it was warm, with hands zip-
tied and eyes covered. Sometimes they had sandbags over
their heads. Sometimes they had been tortured by the
Afghani militia and needed more extensive care. If
these guys weren't terrorists before, I thought to
myself, they sure might be leaning in that direction
after we released them.

What were we doing here? I used to accept the idea of a
war on terrorism, but isn't war a form of terrorism?
Are we just laying the groundwork for another attack,
and another war, and on and on? Have wars ever solved
more problems than they created?

I left Afghanistan with many troubling questions, and
it took me over a year to find satisfactory answers.
When I did, I filed to become a conscientious objector.
I was lucky. I had the education to present a clear,
coherent case, and my unit was supportive, even if they
didn't exactly agree with my philosophical perspective.
I was given an honorable discharge in November of 2004.

There are many, many soldiers in all branches who feel
the same way I do about war. Most of these soldiers are
not aware that the option of discharge or alternate
service as a conscientious objector is available to
them. Of those who come to the conclusion that war is
unethical, many feel their only options are
insubordination, deception, or desertion. Some of them
face imprisonment without ever realizing that there is
a perfectly legal mechanism within the Army to
recognize their opposition to war.

Last week, I, along with several other conscientious
objectors from across the country, launched
www.peace-out.com, a comprehensive online resource for
soldiers wishing to become CO's. <Peace-out.com>, which
was generously designed and launched by The Difference
Machine <http://www.differencemachine.com/home.html> ,
includes a step-by-step guide to the complex CO
application process, including the complete text of my
application, and a list connecting prospective CO's
with those who have successfully been through the
process.

I feel that it is particularly important for those of
us in the peace movement to give aid and support to
soldiers, regardless of how they feel about war. As
much as we are antiwar, we must also be pro-soldier.

Perry O'Brien lives in Portland, Maine. He can be
reached at perry.obrien at gmail.com and
peace.out.now at gmail.com.

==========

A Matter of Conscience
by Kevin Benderman
http://www.bruderhof.com/articles/benderman-k.htm


Sgt. Kevin Benderman (40) is a U.S. Army mechanic with
ten years of service under his belt, including a role
in the assault on Baghdad. While there, his outfit was
ordered to open fire on children who were throwing
rocks at unit personnel. Troubled by this and other
similar incidents, and facing a second tour of duty in
Iraq, Benderman applied for conscientious objector
status in December 2004. The U.S. Army has charged him
with desertion. He has been called a coward by his
commanding officer, and his chaplain has told him that
he is ashamed of him. Born in Alabama, Sgt. Benderman
currently lives in Hinesville, Georgia, with his wife,
Monica, and stepson Ryan.

Having watched and observed life from the standpoint of
a soldier for ten years of my life, I always felt there
was no higher honor than to serve my country and defend
the values that established this country. My family has
a history of serving this country dating back to the
American Revolution, and I felt that to continue on in
that tradition was the honorable thing to do.

As I went through the process which led to my decision
to refuse deployment to Iraq for the second time, I was
torn between thoughts of abandoning the soldiers that I
serve with, or following my conscience, which tells me:
war is the ultimate in destruction and waste of
humanity.

Thoughts that we could, and should, consider better
ways to solve our differences with other people in the
world have crossed my mind on numerous occasions. And
this was the driving force that made me refuse
deployment to Iraq a second time. Some people may say I
am doing so out of fear of combat; I am not going to
tell you that the thought of going back to that place
isn't scary, but that is not the reason for my decision
to not return.

I want people to know that the longer I thought about
just how stupid the concept of war really is, the
stronger I felt about not participating in war. Why do
we tell our children to not solve their differences
with violence, then turn around and commit the ultimate
in violence against people in another country who have
nothing to do with the political attitudes of their
leaders?

Having read numerous books on the subject of war and
having heard all the arguments for war, I have come to
the conclusion that there are no valid arguments for
the destructive force of war. People are destroyed,
nations are destroyed, and yet we continue on with war.
The young people that I went with to the combat zone
looked at it like it was a video game they played back
in their childhood.

When you contemplate the beauty of the world around us
and the gifts we have been given, you have to ask
yourself, "Is this what humanity is meant to do, wage
war against one another?" Why can't we teach our
children not to hate or to not be afraid of someone
else just because they are different from us? Why must
it be considered honorable to train young men and women
to look through the sights of a high-powered rifle and
to kill another human being from 300 meters away?

Consider, if you will, the positive things that could
be accomplished without war in our lives: prescription
medication that is affordable for seniors, college
grants that are available for high school seniors - I
could name a list of reasons not to waste our resources
on war. The most important being to let the children of
the world learn war no more.

I've received e-mails from people who said that I was a
coward for not going to war, but I say to them that I
have already been, so I do not have anything to prove
to anyone anymore. What is there to prove anyway - that
I can kill someone I do not even know and who has never
done anything to me? What is in that concept that
anyone could consider honorable?

I first realized that war was the wrong way to handle
things in this or any other country when I went to the
war zone and saw the damage that it causes. Why must we
resort to violence when things do not go our way? Where
is the logic of that? I have felt that there are better
ways to handle our business than to bomb each other
into oblivion. When you are on the water in a boat and
you have a chance to see dolphins playing with each
other as they go about their business, you realize that
if they can live without war, then humanity should be
able to as well.

Can't we teach our children to leave war behind in
history where it belongs? We realized that slavery and
human sacrifice were obsolete institutions, and we left
them behind us. When are going to have the same
enlightened attitude about war?

I look at my stepchildren and realize that war has no
place with me in giving them what they need to survive
the trials and tribulations of early adulthood. And if
you look at all the time soldiers lose in the course of
fighting wars, such as birthdays and anniversaries,
their children going to the senior prom and college
graduations, and other things that can never be
replaced, then you have to come to the understanding
that war steals more from people than just the sense of
humanity - it also steals some of that humanity from
their family.

I have learned from firsthand experience that war is
the destroyer of everything that is good in the world;
it turns our young into soulless killers, and we tell
them that they are heroes when they master the "art" of
killing. That is a very deranged mindset in my opinion.
It destroys the environment, life, and the resources
that could be used to create more life by advancing our
endeavors.

War should be left behind us; we should evolve to a
higher mindset even if it means going against what most
people tell us in this country, such as that we can
never stop fighting with other people in the world. I
have made the decision to not participate in war any
longer, and some people in this country cannot
comprehend that concept, but to me it is simple. I have
chosen not to take part in war, and it was easy to come
to that decision.

I cannot tell anyone else how to live his or her life,
but I have determined how I want to live mine - by not
participating in war any longer, as I feel that it is
stupid and against everything that is good about our
world.

For additional comments from Kevin¹s wife, Monica
Benderman, click here.
<http://www.bruderhof.com/articles/benderman-m.htm>

==========
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