[Peace-discuss] Fw: [laborsmilitantvoice] "There's No Way I'm Going to Deploy to Afghanistan"

Tue May 26 21:52:59 CDT 2009

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Richard Mellor 
To: laborsmilitantvoice at yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 8:25 AM
Subject: [laborsmilitantvoice] "There's No Way I'm Going to Deploy to Afghanistan"

Published on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 by Inter Press Service
"There's No Way I'm Going to Deploy to Afghanistan"

by Dahr Jamail

MARFA, Texas - "It's a matter of what I'm 
willing to live with," Specialist Victor Agosto 
of the U.S. Army, who is refusing orders to 
deploy to Afghanistan, explained to IPS. "I'm not 
willing to participate in this occupation, 
knowing it is completely wrong."

Agosto, who returned from a 13-month deployment 
to Iraq in November 2007, is based at Fort Hood 
in Killeen, Texas.

While in Iraq, Agosto never left his base, located in northern Iraq.

"I never had any traumatic experiences, never 
fired my weapon," Agosto told IPS in a phone 
interview. "I mostly worked in information 
technology, working on computers and keeping the 
network functioning well. But it was in Iraq that 
I turned against the occupations. Through my 
reading, and watching what was going on, I 
started to feel very guilty."

Agosto added, "What I did there, I know I 
contributed to death and human suffering. It's 
hard to quantify how much I caused, but I know I 
contributed to it."

Having served three years and nine months in the 
U.S. Army, Agosto was to complete his contract 
and be discharged on Aug. 3. But due to his 
excellent record of service and accrued leave, he 
was to be released the end of June. Nevertheless, 
due to the stop-loss program, the Army decided to 
deploy him to Afghanistan anyway.

Stop-loss is a program the military uses to keep 
soldiers enlisted beyond the terms of their 
contracts. Since Sep. 11, 2001, more than 140,000 
troops have had tours extended by stop-loss.

A copy of his Counseling Form from the Army, 
dated May 1, reads, "You will deploy in support 
of OEF [Operation Enduring Freedom] on or about 
[XXXXX] with 57th ESB. This is a direct order 
from your Company Commander CPT Michael J. 
Pederson."

Agosto posted copies of the Counseling Statements 
issued by the Army on his Facebook page. 
Counseling Statements outline actions taken by 
the Army to discipline Agosto for his refusal to 
obey a direct order from his company commander.

On one of them, dated May 1, Agosto's written 
statement appears: "There is no way I will deploy 
to Afghanistan. The occupation is immoral and 
unjust. It does not make the American people any 
safer. It has the opposite effect."

In another, dated May 18, he wrote: "I will not 
obey any orders I deem to be immoral or illegal."

On that day, Agosto was ordered to get his 
medical records in preparation to deploy to 
Afghanistan. He refused to do so. The Army 
threatened to take punitive measures, but Agosto 
wrote on the Counseling Statement, "I am not 
going to Afghanistan. I will not take part in SRP 
[Sealift Readiness Program]."

If Agosto continues to refuse orders, he almost 
assuredly will face court martial, and likely 
jail time.

When IPS asked Agosto if he is willing to take 
whatever consequences the Army is prepared to 
mete out, he replied, "Yes. I'm fully prepared 
for this. I have concluded that the wars [in Iraq 
and Afghanistan] are not going to be ended by 
politicians or people at the top. They are not 
responsive to the people, they are responsive to 
corporate America."

Agosto added, "The only way to make them 
responsive to the needs of the people is if 
soldiers won't fight their wars, and if soldiers 
won't fight their wars, the wars won't happen. I 
hope I'm setting an example for other soldiers."

Agosto has overtly refused to follow any order 
that has anything to do with his taking an action 
that would support the occupation of Afghanistan. 
For a time, according to Agosto, he was given 
simple orders to clean the motor pool, or pull 
weeds.

"They switched that recently," he told IPS, "I've 
continued to be fairly defiant, so on Tuesday I 
have to meet with Trial Defense Services, which 
then begins the process of getting an Article 15, 
which is movement towards being court-martialed, 
if these reprimands continue."

"If I take the Article 15, I'll take a reduction 
in rank and pay. I don't' know what is going to 
happen. I agreed to sweep the motor pool and pull 
weeds, but nothing else that I feel directly 
supports the war. I'm not going to follow orders 
I'm not comfortable with."

Agosto's case is not unique. The group Courage to 
Resist, based in Oakland, California, actively 
engages in assisting soldiers who refuse to 
deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan.

"Although the efforts of Courage to Resist are 
primarily focused on supporting public GI 
resisters, the organization also strives to 
provide political, emotional, and material 
support to all military objectors critical of our 
government's current policies of empire," reads a 
portion of the group's mission statement.

IPS spoke with Adam Szyper-Seibert, an office 
manager and counselor with Courage to Resist.

"Currently we are actively supporting over 50 
military resisters like Victor Agosto," 
Szyper-Seibert told IPS, "They are all over the 
world, including André Shepherd in Germany, and 
several people in Canada. We are getting five to 
six calls a week just about the IRR [Individual 
Ready Reserve] recall alone."

U.S. Army Specialist André Shepherd, who went 
AWOL after serving in Iraq, has applied for 
asylum in Germany after refusing military service 
because he is morally opposed to the occupation 
of Iraq.

The IRR is composed of former military personnel 
who still have time remaining on their enlistment 
agreements but have returned to civilian life. 
They are eligible to be called up in "states of 
emergency." The Army is currently undertaking the 
largest IRR recall since 2004, despite the recent 
inauguration of a so-called anti-war president.

Szyper-Seibert said that the number of soldiers 
contacting Courage to Resist has been increasing 
dramatically in the last year, and particularly 
in recent months.

"The number of soldiers contacting us is 
increasing," he explained, "With five to six 
IRR's contacting us a week, plus others going 
absent without leave [AWOL], the numbers are all 
climbing, as compared to a year ago. Since May 
2008, we've had a 200 percent jump in how many 
soldiers are contacting us."

According to Courage to Resist, there have been 
at least 15,000 IRR call-ups since Sept. 11, 
2001, for deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Sgt. Travis Bishop, who served 14 months in 
Baghdad and is also stationed at Fort Hood, 
recently went AWOL when his unit deployed to 
Afghanistan.

Like Agosto, Bishop feels it is immoral for him 
to deploy to support an occupation he morally 
opposes.

"I love my country, but I believe that this 
particular war is unjust, unconstitutional and a 
total abuse of our nation's power and influence," 
Bishop's blog reads, "And so, in the next few 
days, I will be speaking with my lawyer, and 
taking actions that will more than likely result 
in my discharge from the military, and possible 
jail time... and I am prepared to live with that."

The reason he made this decision is addressed in his blog.

"My father said, 'Do only what you can live with, 
because every morning you have to look at your 
face in the mirror when you shave. Ten years from 
now, you'll still be shaving the same face.' If I 
had deployed to Afghanistan, I don't think I 
would have been able to look into another mirror 
again."
Copyright © 2009 IPS-Inter Press Service

-- 
"Capitalism teaches the people the moral 
conceptions of cannibalism are the strong 
devouring the weak; its theory of the world of 
men and women is that of a glorified pig-trough 
where the biggest swine gets the most swill." 
-James Connolly 1910.

Richard Mellor
AFSCME Local 444 retired
Oakland CA
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/unionguy510
http://www.clnews.org

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I Get Paid $450/day. Find out How. Part Time!. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mom Power: Discover the community of moms doing more for their families, for the world and for each other 

Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) 
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional 
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity
Visit Your Group 
Yahoo! News
Fashion News

What's the word on

fashion and style?

Dog Groups
on Yahoo! Groups

Share pictures &

stories about dogs.

Yahoo! Groups
Weight Management Challenge

Join others who 
are losing pounds.
. 

__,_._,___

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG. 
Version: 7.5.560 / Virus Database: 270.12.26/2116 - Release Date: 5/15/2009 6:16 AM
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/attachments/20090526/e5ab5f7a/attachment-0001.html