- NEW YORK (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,ä 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,ä 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, äkill, killä.
-
- Since publicly declaring his opposition to war, he has
become a symbol of resistance both in the United States and around the
world.
-
- äSince Stephen went public,ä says Aimee Allison,
a CO from the first Gulf War who has been supporting Funk, äsome 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.ä
-
- äPeople in other countries are proud that an American
can stand up to the hegemony and the violence of the war in Iraq,ä
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 äis calling on British forces to refuse to obey
the illegal ordersä 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.
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- 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 äbeaten, harassed and treated horriblyä,
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, äto intimidate her.ä
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- 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.
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- Allison says she was both supported and condemned when
she became a CO. äPrivately I received overwhelming personal support
from the other members of my unit,ä she says. äBut publicly I
was isolated by my unit.ä
-
- äI 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,ä she adds. äBut there were also
detractors on campus and in the broader community.ä
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- Even though conscientious objection is well established,
Funk - like many others - found it difficult to find information about
it within the military system. äIt took him six or seven months,ä
says Allison. äAnd eventually he was searching the Internet .... and
found the G.I. Rights website.ä
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- 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.
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- Soldiers that have this change of heart fall into three
main groups, says McNeil.
-
- The first group contains äthose who go into the
military understanding war and are willing to accept itä, she says.
äBut then something happens during their service and they are no longer
OK with war.ä
-
- The second group contains people who have äsought
out spiritual growth and have come to believe that God doesn't want them
to participate in war.ä
-
- 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 äpoverty draftä - this is probably the
fastest-growing group of COs as well as the biggest, added McNeil.
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