Refusing Military Orders

Not since the Vietnam war has the US engaged in such a widespread mobilisation
as for the Gulf War.  Already over fifty US servicepeople or reservists have
declared their refusal to go, as have several Australians.  In the context of
the Gulf crisis, selective objection can become a political force.

Governments tend to want to see conscientious objectors as exceptions - people
they can dismiss as having oversensitive or bizarre principles.  They find it
much harder to accept the refusal of people whose experience of the military
causes them to reject it, or who contest a particular aspect of the army's
role.  Yet most conscientious objectors are not absolute pacifists.  They are
people who object to serving in a particular army at a particular time.

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In the USA, resistance to military adventuring is already mounting. It is
supported by organisations such as Pledge of Resistance (set up to oppose
intervention in Latin America) and anti-militarist bodies with experience of
similar resistance in the Vietnam war.

At US bases both in the USA and in Europe, anti-intervention groups have
distributed leaflets to GIs containing the statement of one or other of the
Gulf resisters. US service personnel have the right to become objectors,
either by applying for release or for non-combatant service. The approval rate
is about 75% but selective or political objections are generally rejected.

In Australia, the one case brought to court over the Gulf so far has been
sailor Terry Jones. He had gone AWOL when his commanding officer failed to let
him know that he could apply for a transfer out of the Gulf task force.  Given
a suspended sentence and reduced in rank, he has been transferred and is
applying for an elective discharge.  Meanwhile, Senator (and War Resisters'
International member) Jo Vallentine is introducing a bill to clarify the
position for selective objectors and establish their right to a discharge.

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"I refuse to kill for oil": US soldiers say why they won't go:
The following statements were read out by US military personnel at a 20
October press conference organized by the War Resisters' League In New York
City.

Paul Dotson, Marine corps Reservist: "On Friday, October 12 of this year I
submitted an application for discharge from the military on grounds of
conscientious objection to war.  I cannot be a killer.  I refuse to kill.  And
I emphatically refuse to kill for oil in the Persian Gulf."

Stephanie Atkinson, Army Reservist: "I am AWOL right now, according to the
army.  But I say that I am a conscientious objector... We're losing over $24
million a day and a potential waste of life.  Thirty-two people have died
already in training accidents.  I think that we're spending the money in an
interventionist war to restore a royal family to the throne that we could be
spending in our own country, taking care of issues like AIDS, increasing
racial violence, the homeless..." (note: Stephanie was given a less than
honourable discharge on 10 November as proceedings against her were dropped.)

Sam Lewis, Marine Corps Reservist: "During training I was taught to march like
a soldier, how to treat my M16 as my life, how to shoot and stab targets,
without fully realising that these torn-up targets would one day be replaced
by flesh and blood.  In a sense, what I'm saying is that my whole purpose in
the Marines is to kill, to destroy, to annihilate anything out of existence. 
I was not conscious of it, but I am now, and I do not wish to be part of the
killing."

Ronald Jean Baptiste, Air Force Reservist: "It started from basic training
when all the Air Force members had to go and give blood.  And when I went to
give my blood, they wouldn't take it because I was Haitian...  When I spoke to
my commander Thursday afternoon and told him I wasn't going anywhere, you know
what he told me, he said, "you know this is a stupid war anyway".
edited from 
"The Right to Refuse Military Orders"
Peace News, December 1990