Where's the Rage?

. . . asks a blogger named Cliburn in a posting hosted by ProgressiveU.org.

An Iraq veteran currently serving in the US military, Clibrun has had second thoughts about returning to Iraq if his unit is called up again. And he’s considering applying for CO status.

His epiphany came during a recent weekend drill with his unit.

You can read his complete posting by clicking <here>.

Below are excerpts:

Where is the rage?

I had drill this weekend. Drill has been a forever-evolving presence in my life for the past six years. I went from looking forward to drill to hating it to missing it while I was in Iraq and back to looking forward to it when I returned. I used to hate drill, but found myself liking the weekends where I was reunited with those that I spent a year with in Iraq. Over the past few months, that has turned into dread, and I am questioning whether or not I can remain an effective member of the military.

. . .

Someone who had not deployed before asked if we would go again. "In a heartbeat!" one soldier replied. Others assured him that they would have no problem going back. Now, the eyes were on me.

"No, I am not going back to participate in that war."

The look of shock and awe on their faces quickly gave way to a flurry of questions about how I would get out, what I would do, how I could do that to my comrades, why I felt the way I did, what I thought I was proving, and why I thought I could make a difference. The question that got me on a roll, however, was none of the above.

"What are you going to do . . . become a conscientious objector?" one soldier and friend said with a smirk and a chuckle.

"In fact, I just may do that. That's what I am, essentially, isn't it?"

. . .

I thought I could this; I thought I could oppose the war and remain in the military. Change from within, I thought. I realized this weekend that that was a pipe dream, for me at least. I spend half my time in that uniform cringing at exaggerated stories, expressed pleasure in other peoples' pain, and empty, misguided proclamations of honor, integrity, and selfless service.

I am done with the military. I don't know how exactly I will leave the service just yet, but I know that I will. I entered the army in an honorable fashion and I will leave it that way, but leave it I will.

I leave Friday for Washington DC to take part in the September 15th protests in DC with tens of thousands of other concerned Americans, including representatives of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Families, and the ANSWER Coalition. I am taking more and more responsibility within IVAW to end this war, take care of our veterans, and provide reparations for the Iraqi people and it feels right.

I accepted the position of Regional Coordinator-Gulf Coast Region this week and look forward to working with other IVAW Regional Coordinators in the future. I am writing for their newsletter (Sit-Rep), which is being published for the first time this week. If anyone has any questions about the organization or wishes to join, please contact me.

In the meantime, I simply ask, "Where is the rage?!"

* * *

YouTube, the video Web site hosted by Google, is filled with amazing stuff. In addition to the skateboarding bulldog and Star Wars parodies, sometimes it’s even enlightening.

Click on this <link> to see an excerpt of Aimee Allison’s presentation to a national counter-recruiting conference held at the University of California at Berkeley, in October last year.

Allison knows whereof she speaks: Having been recruited and having served in the US military, she’s now a CO and active as a counter-recruiter, helping others not to make her mistake.

— Adam Simms

CO Watch: Perry O'Brien

PERRY O’Brien is a 26-year-old former US Army medic who won Conscientious Objector status after serving a tour in Afghanistan, and was honorably discharged in November 2004 after three years and two months of service.

Emily McNeill portrays O’Brien’s journey from medic to CO in an engaging two-part article posted on Campus Progress. Click <here> and <here> for her profile.

Deployed to Afghanistan in January 2003, McNeill writes, O’Brien’s medical work consisted mainly of tending to Afghan civilians. “It felt,” he told her, “like the Peace Corps with guns.”

The good vibes quickly changed, however, when he discovered that many of the civilians he treated were victims of internecine tribal conflicts and US military bombing campaigns — not the terrorists “Operation Enduring Freedom” was supposed to be counteracting.

Once his Afghan hitch was completed in August 2003 and he returned to the US, O’Brien, still in the military, began reading Buddhist works, particularly those of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese-born monk and peace activist.

“If the Afghanistan war was wrong — and presumably the Afghanistan war was started for good reasons,” O’Brien told McNeill, “I wondered what other war could be right, could be successful, morally speaking. I came to the conclusion that really wars are never morally successful. They always create more problems than they solve.”

During the course of the final year of his enlistment contract, O’Brien applied for CO status. Unlike many others who apply while in the military, he encountered superior officers who treated his convictions as serious.

O’Brien is currently studying political theory at Cornell University, and plans to apply to MFA programs in creative writing when he graduates next year. In the meantime, he has established a Web site for people considering CO status, and is active with Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Israeli Conscientious Objector Hadas Amit sentenced to 5th term in prison

(Note to readers: This is a long posting. Please bear with us.)

Tal Hayoun, of the Israeli peace organization New Profile, reported on Feb. 27 that Israeli Conscientious Objector Hadas Amit was sentenced on Feb. 18 to 21 more days in military prison.

This is the fifth prison term for Hadas.

However, she was sent home because the prison was full, and had to return to the military Induction Base several times, and sent home for the same reason. On Thurs., Feb. 22 she was sent home, and then called back on the same day to be imprisoned. She had to spend the night at the Induction Base and then was sent to prison on Friday (Feb. 23).

Imprisonment of conscientious objectors such as Hadas Amit is a violation of international law and of basic human rights. Repeated imprisonment of conscientious objectors is an especially grave offence, as it means sentencing a person more than once for the same offence, and has been judged by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to constitute a clear case arbitrary detention.

In a letter to the military authorities, announcing her refusal to perform military service, Hadas wrote:

"If I were to be recruited into the army, this would absolutely and in all respects contradict my convictions and my way in life, since violence, killing, nationalism and vandalism are not part of them. I am not willing to wear the uniform of an organisation responsible for killing and destruction, acting in a way detrimental to its environment. Every State, the State of Israel included, should act by peaceful means alone, and even if attached, not to respond with fire. In any situation, Israel's case included, it is wrong to sustain a military force trained for war and killing -- this is altogether contrary to the pursuit of peace and coexistence with our neighbours in the Middle East."

Hadas appeared before the military Conscience Committee in November 2006, but was rejected. Hadas reported that during her hearing she was constantly interrupted and had to suffer degrading and disrespectful comments. A member of the committee demonstratively left the room, and two other members were exchanging notes, with her sitting between them, while she was trying to answer questions directed to her.

In a statement made on the eve of imprisonment Hadas wrote:

“I refuse to enlist in the IDF [Israel Defence Forces], as the D of ‘IDF’ symbolises nothing but killing to me. Who is it that decided that I am not seeking peace, and put me with my back to the wall? I could either lie or pay the price of my principles. It is for morality and justice and the love of humankind that I shall be sitting in prison.”

War Resisters International notes that since early 2005, women COs in Israel are referred to the same internal military Conscience Committee as male COs (despite official legal recognition of women’s right to CO), and there is no right of appeal on the Committee’s decisions. Accumulating evidence strongly suggests that the military Conscience Committee is fundamentally biased against women. It seems difficult for the members of this committee (four men and one woman; all but one of the men are military career officers) to perceive a woman as a person with principles, with a conscientious stance, and with commitment to this stance. As a result (although official figures are not released), the committee rejects a far higher percentage of applications by women than by men, and many of the women applicants describe their committee hearings as a degrading experience.

Letters of support to Hadas are extremely important to help her maintain her morale.

Letters of support to Israeli government and military officials, as well as news media, will alert them that there is international awareness of this fundamental violation of the right to conscience.

Hadas Amit’s prison address is:

Hadas Amit

Military ID 6175691

Military Prison No. 400

Military Postal Code 02447, IDF

Israel

Fax: ++972-3-9579348

Prison authorities block some of her mail from reaching her. Therefore, letters of support and encouragement can also be sent to Hadas via e-mail to amitdrch@gmail.com. These will be printed out and delivered to her on a family visit.

Here is a model letter (suggested by New Profile) that may be adapted for transmittal to Israeli officials and news media outlets. (Fax numbers and e-mail addresses are noted below.):

Dear Sir/Madam,

It has come to my attention that Hadas Amit, Military ID 6175691, a conscientious objector, has been imprisoned again for her refusal to perform military service, and is held in Military Prison No. 400.

The imprisonment of conscientious objectors such as Hadas Amit is a violation of international law, of basic human rights and of plain morals. The repeated imprisonment of conscientious objectors is an especially grave offence, as it means sentencing a person more than once for the same offence, and has been judged by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to constitute a clear case arbitrary detention.

Moreover, Hadas Amit's imprisonment comes after she had to undergo a degrading and unfair hearing procedure by a military committee, naturally biased against her as a conscientious objector, and doubly biased against her as a woman conscientious objector. Enacting such a procedure is in its own right a violation of the basic standards of fairness.

I therefore call for the immediate and unconditional release from prison of Hadas Amit, without threat of further imprisonment in the future, and urge you and the system you are heading to respect the dignity and person of conscientious objectors, indeed of all human beings, in the future.

Sincerely,

Letters to Israeli government officials may be sent (preferably by fax, because Israeli officials tend to ignore their e-mail boxes, and e-mail often bounce; a letter sent by fax would probably be more effective.) to:

Mr. Amir Peretz

Minister of Defence

Ministry of Defence

37 Kaplan St.

Tel-Aviv 61909

Israel

E-mail: sar@mod.gov.il or pniot@mod.gov.il

Fax: ++972-3-696-27-57 / ++972-3-691-69-40 / ++972-3-691-79-15

In addition, War Resisters International has set up a web-based mailing service through which a standard e-mail letter (with added comments) may be sent to the Israeli Minister of Defence on Hadas' behalf. The form is available on the WRI website at: http://www.wri-irg.org/co/alerts/20061218a.html.

Copies of letters should also be sent to the commander of the military prison at:

Commander of Military Prison No. 400

Military Prison No. 400

Military postal number 02447, IDF

Israel

Fax: ++972-3-9579389

Copies should also be sent to the Military Attorney General:

Avichai Mandelblit,

Chief Military Attorney

Military postal code 9605, IDF

Israel

Fax: ++972-3-569-43-70

In addition, it will be useful to send copies of letters to the Commander of the Induction Base in Tel-HaShomer. It is this officer who ultimately decides whether an objector is to be exempted from military service or sent to another round in prison, and it is the same officer who is ultimately in charge of the military Conscience Committee:

Amir Rogowski

Commander of Induction Base

Meitav, Tel-HaShomer

Military Postal Code 02718, IDF

Israel

Fax: ++972-3-737-60-52

Letters to media in Israel and in other countries will be useful in pressuring the military authorities to let release conscientious objectors, as well as bringing their plight and their cause to public attention.

Here is contact information for the main media outlets in Israel:

Ma'ariv

2 Karlibach St.

Tel-Aviv 67132

Israel

Fax: +972-3-561-06-14

e-mail: editor@maariv.co.il

Yedioth Aharonoth

2 Moses St.

Tel-Aviv

Israel

Fax: +972-3-608-25-46

Ha'aretz (Hebrew)

21 Schocken St.

Tel-Aviv, 61001

Israel

Fax: +972-3-681-00-12

Ha'aretz (English edition)

21 Schocken St.

Tel-Aviv, 61001

Israel

Fax: +972-3-512-11-56

e-mail: letters@haaretz.co.il

Jerusalem Post

P.O. Box 81

Jerusalem 91000

Israel

Fax: +972-2-538-95-27

e-mail: news@jpost.co.il or letters@jpost.co.il

Radio (fax numbers)

Kol-Israel

+972-2-531-33-15 and +972-3-694-47-09

Galei Zahal

+972-3-512-67-20

Television (fax numbers):

Channel 1 +972-2-530-15-36

Channel 2 +972-2-533-98-09

Updates about Hadas Amit and other Israeli COs may be found on New Profile’s Web site (www.newprofile.org).

-- Posted by Adam Simms

Taking Aim at Jr. ROTC

Parents, students and teachers in Los Angeles are putting a dent in recruiting high schoolers for the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC), Sonia Nazario reported in the Feb. 19 edition of the Los Angeles Times.

JROTC, a program sponsored by the Department of Defense, functions like a school club, enlisting high school students and offering uniforms and special class activities, including phys. ed., map reading, target practice, marching drill, financial planning and how to make PowerPoint presentations.

Like ROTC, its college-level counterpart, JROTC’s attraction is that students who join the military after finishing the program can start off with higher pay and have a leg up in joining the armed forces’ officer corps.

Such perks are usually thought to be a powerful attraction to kids in the nation’s less advantaged areas, where a military career has long been seen as a route to social and economic mobility.

“Nationally,” Nazario noted, “59.9% of JROTC participants are students of color,” citing research conducted by California State University at Northridge. And, she continued, this is how JROTC’s numbers play out in Los Angeles. The program “is in nearly half of the city’s high schools, but none on the affluent Westside.”

Nonetheless, enrollment in JROTC has been dropping in Los Angeles –- despite increases elsewhere, and a massive infusion of funding from the DoD –- due to effective opposition by a grassroots group, the Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools, that now operates in 50 of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s 61 high schools.

Bolstered by a 1986 decision rendered by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which Nazario notes, “requires public schools that allow [military] recruiters on campus to give counter-recruiters a shot at addressing students,” the Coalition has been effective in getting students and parents to recognize that military life consists of not just guns and glory, but also coffins and educational budget cuts.

Among the points made by JROTC opponents at Roosevelt High School, in L.A.’s Boyle Heights, Nazario wrote, is that the program

drains resources from more important courses. Although the Defense Department pays half of JROTC instructors’ salaries, L.A. Unified pays the rest, as well as benefits, for a total of $3.1 million this school year. That money … should instead be spent adding more of the 15 academic courses students need to go to college.

That point was succinctly summed up on a T-shirt one teacher wore to class: “A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind.”

There are other statistics in the L.A. Times account, however, that should make people stop and wonder about the extent to which JROTC –- like much of the rest of the U.S. military budget –- is simply a waste of money:

• Only “40% of students who graduated from high school with two or more years of JROTC ended up in the military,” according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in 1999, the last time a comprehensive study of the program was undertaken.

• First Sgt. Otto Harrington, senior teacher for Roosevelt High’s JROTC program, told Nazario that few of his students join the military. Moreover, “Only 5% of his cadets would even qualify to enlist … because the rest are in the country illegally, couldn’t pass the military aptitude test, are in trouble with the law or are overweight.”

As it turns out, Sgt. Harrington doesn’t need a map reading course to decipher the lay of the land at Roosevelt High, Nazario writes at the end of her account. During the past three years, only three of the sergeant’s JROTC cadets have enlisted in the military. And he plans to leave both the high school and JROTC when the school year ends.

You can read the complete text of Sonia Nazario’s article in the Los Angeles Times, entitled “Junior ROTC takes a hit in L.A.,” at the Los Angeles Times' Web site: www.latimes.com.

-- Posted by Adam Simms