This is from a very interesting article in the Austin American Statesman this morning,
Link HERE. It appears there is a substantial rise in the number of conscientious objector ("CO")requests in Iraq, as well as a rise in the number of rejections for such a status. And they have
another article discussing one such CO from Austin that has been traveling with Cindy Sheehan after his tour in Iraq.
The CO Viges sums it up like this, when watching Christ suffer in the movie Passion of the Christ,
"I saw the amount of pain he was going through, that he knew he was going to die and still prayed for the people doing it to him," Viges said. That ideal, he thought, was inconsistent with military service.
The links require registration, but are free.
More below the fold...
The media has assumed, with almost surprising idiocy, that Christian and Republican are synonyms. But in knowing that the Catholic church was against killing of any kind that is not self defense and opposed the war in Iraq, and that killing is a mortal sin (with no real caveats in the ten commandments Evangelicals love to post everywhere), I've wondered how the Iraq war, particularly as it has spiraled into a "kill the insurgents", i.e., angry poor people, meshes with today's Christian soldiers. Well, increasingly it is not sitting so well, according to an article in today's Austin American Statesman.
In 2002, the year before the Iraq war started, 23 Army soldiers applied for conscientious objector status, and six were rejected, according to the Pentagon.
In just the first four months of 2005, 69 soldiers had applied, and 36 were rejected.
I have always wondered, growing up in the post Vietnam era, and watching my share of M*A*S*H episodes, how Conscientous Objector status is reached. I wonder how many people of faith know that their faith have been directly challenged by the government with the following list of questions...
"Can no war be just and necessary regardless of the situation?"
"How do you explain all the wars in the Old Testament?"
"Do you think America's millions who killed and died in wars were immoral to kill?"
"Didn't Jesus use violence in driving the money-changers from the temple?"
"What method would you use to resist evil?"
"Do you realize you are helping to destroy this society?"
The last question I find particularly offensive, and well, flat out wrong. I also find it offensive, in a so-called "volunteer army", that CO status should not be easier to get. Where is the Culture of Life for military boys who signed on to be a computer programmer and ended up with a gun in Fallujah?
According to a Department of Defense directive, an objection must be held with the devotion of a traditional religious conviction.
Interesting that it is only "traditional religious conviction"...wonder if scientologists qualify.
A soldier applying for conscientious objector status must show unwillingness, first, to participate in war in any form.
An applicant can't be willing to fight the war in Afghanistan but withdraw from the Iraq conflict.
Now isn't that interesting. Government I guess can't allow you to make the determination of what is a "just" killing and what is not just.
Also interesting was a report of one such individual in Austin, Benjamin Hart Viges, who served in Iraq and applied for (and received) CO status and is now traveling occasionally with Cindy Sheehan. He joined after 9/11, but his experience in Iraq made him seek CO status.
The long process Viges and these soldiers endure to become conscientious objectors often pits the gung-ho patriotism that prompted them to join the military in the first place against a near-religious conviction that war is wrong. Viges was working as a waiter in Seattle when terrorists attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. He joined the Army the next day.
"I felt personally threatened," he said. "I felt that if I was not directly involved in the solution, in killing off the enemy, I wasn't doing all I could."
But while in Iraq, he found he was not doing God's work.
About seven months into his tour, while he was manning his machine gun during a mission escorting U.S. contractors to a water treatment plant outside Baghdad, he froze.
"It was pretty country, but that day it all got messed up," he said.
The convoy was hustling through town when an alarm went up that insurgents were in the area. As he looked around, swiveling his weapon here and there, he caught sight of a man in a nearby doorway holding a grenade launcher. He had a chance to shoot, but he did not.
"He wasn't some killer, some monster," Viges said. "He seemed afraid.
"He was hoodwinked by someone, just like me."
I highly suggest reading these articles...very good articles...
If you are interested in seeking CO status, check out http://www.objector.org for more information.