Saturday, April 7, 2007

CO Watch: Marine lance corporal wins discharge

Marine lance corporal Robert Zabala has been declared a conscientious objector by a U.S. District Court judge — four years after Zabala joined the corps, and three years after applying for CO status.

Zabala, who recently graduated from the University of California-Santa Cruz, joined the marines in 2003, hoping he would “find security” in the wake of his grandmother’s death.

Given his family tradition, that thought is not as surprising as it might seem: A grandfather served in Vietnam, his parents and uncles served in the navy, a cousin is in the air force, and another is a marine.

Boot camp training in June 2003 — especially exercises intended to desensitize recruits to violence — awakened Zabala to his ethical objection to killing other people.

Two months into boot camp, a fellow recruit committed suicide on a rifle range. The recruits’ commander, a Capt. Sanchez, derided the dead trainee, saying “f*** him, f*** his parents for raising him, and f*** the girl who dumped him.”

Two military chaplains and a clinical psychologist found Zabala’s moral objections were legitimate and recommended that he be granted a discharge.

However, the discharge was held up by his platoon commander, Maj. R. D. Doherty, who contended Zabala was “insincere,” citing that Zabala did not file for CO status until almost a year after his boot camp training.

Court papers quoted Doherty as having told Zabala: “What did you think you were joining, the Peace Corps? I don’t know how anyone who joins the Marine Corps cannot know that it involves killing.”

Nonetheless, officers who reviewed Zabala’s CO application recommended his request’s approval. It was then rejected by a general, on grounds that Zabala’s objection to war was not based on religious devotion.

(Zabala follows some Buddhist-based traditions, but was not a practicing Buddhist when he enlisted.)

In overturning the Marine Corps’ rejection of Zabala’s application, Federal District Court Judge James Ware, who served 13 years in the U.S. Army reserves, said he was convinced that Zabala was sincere when he said he had struggled to “reconcile the demands of duty with the demands of conscience.”

Santa Cruz’s Resource Center for Nonviolence, for which Zabala did volunteer work while awaiting the court’s ruling, provided legal assistance through its G.I. Rights Counseling Project.

(Our thanks to Stefan Merken for bringing this story to our attention.)

— Adam Simms

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