Just had to post this to the list, what the heck
do they think the military does??????
SargeTom (MSG)Army Reserves
Active Duty 'Conscientious Objectors' On The Rise
By Michael Betsch
CNSNews.com Editorial Assistant
October 17, 2001
(CNSNews.com) - An increasing number of U.S.
military personnel who enlisted
prior to Operation Enduring Freedom are now
seeking conscientious objector
status, claiming they were misled by their local
recruiter and military
advertising, according to groups that assist
people in obtaining
conscientious objector status.
Many of the enlisted personnel who are now
seeking honorable discharges
argue they didn't sign up to defend America;
they just wanted to learn a
trade or earn money for college.
Those seeking discharges based on conscientious
objections to the current
war on terrorism and military action in
Afghanistan insist that military
advertising failed to present the reality of
military conflict, focusing
instead on money for college, job training,
leadership and disciplinary
aspects of the military.
Bill Galvin, a counseling coordinator at the
Center On Conscience and War,
said his organization has seen "a significant
increase" in military
personnel who claim to be conscientious
objectors since the Sept. 11 attacks
on New York and the Pentagon.
Galvin defines the term conscientious objector
as those "who would identify
moral or ethical qualms about being in the
military or being a part of war."
All conscientious objectors must explain what
happened since they joined the
military that would now cause them to say they
can't do this, said Galvin,
who provided anecdotal information about a rise
in the number of active duty
military personnel now seeking discharges based
on conscience.
He claimed that recruiters paint an attractive
portrait of patriotism for
potential recruits and "play up the training or
the money for college. They
don't play up fighting, because that's not what
gets people to join."
Others who work with conscientious objectors
agree that military recruiting
ads that downplay or ignore the inherent
violence in military action have an
air of deception.
"There's very little in military advertising
that talks about combat, that
talks about killing, that talks about fear,
loneliness and all of that
stuff. It's not there," said Titus Peachey, a
director of peace education
for the Mennonite Central Committee U.S.
According to Peachey, potential recruits, many
of whom are teenagers, "are
at a very vulnerable age" when they meet with
military recruiters that visit
high school campuses.
He added that the teens are lured into military
life by the "sharp uniforms"
worn by recruiters and the "very attractive
packages" offered by the
military.
Peachey said he's counseled a number of military
men and women who've called
the G.I. Rights Hotline seeking assistance with
applying for and receiving
conscientious objector status.
They enlisted, Peachey said, only because they
felt the military "seemed
like the way out," of their pre-enlistment
lives, and an easy way to get an
education and a job without considering the
reality of war.
"It seems logical that a high school kid would
think about the possibility
of fighting in a war," during a time of
hostilities, he said. But in
peacetime, war is "the farthest thing from their
minds."
Army spokesman Lt. Col. Ryan Yantis said such
arguments are thin. "It's made
very clear to every recruit when they come in
through the recruiting and
enlistment process that they're joining the
Army," said Yantis.
Those who enlist or receive commissions from the
Army "are grown-ups who are
making adult decisions," said Yantis, who also
said he was not aware of a
particular increase in the number of Army
personnel seeing discharges
because they object to war.
But sometimes, grown-ups make "mistakes," Galvin
commented. "We get lots of
calls from people who are just in their training
status saying, 'what did I
get myself into?'"
According to Yantis, recruits claiming to be
conscientious objectors fail to
recognize that their situation is nothing new,
and he said medics and other
conscientious objectors in non-combatant roles
have historically been a
"benefit of the military."
Yantis also said it would be "disingenuous," for
a soldier to say, "'Oh, I
joined up to be an infantryman. I never knew
that that meant I might have to
go to war.'"
He bolstered his argument by saying there's
little mistaking the words and
meaning of the oath that military personnel take
upon being sworn into the
armed forces.
Among other things in the oath, military
personnel promise to "support and
defend the Constitution of the United States
against all enemies, foreign
and domestic."
Another Army public affairs spokesperson, who
asked to not be identified,
said, "Anybody who has ever joined the military
at least ought to have it in
the back of the mind that at all times we could
go to war, that there's
never a guaranteed peace."
Now that the U.S. is actively engaged in
military operations, Peachey said
he thinks potential recruits "might think more
than once," about the
prospect of fighting in a war.
The reality, he said, is that a "significant
number of youth either ignore
or don't really think that deeply about," the
combat aspect of the military.
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