Dustin Langley, New York
"I am ashamed to be associated with this mess, and I certainly did not join the army to kill women, children and old men. I just don't see how these innocent people could be a threat to the constitution of the United States. An American soldier should not be ashamed of what they do", said Sergeant Kevin Benderman of the US Army.
Benderman has said that he will refuse to deploy to Iraq as ordered. A 40-year old veteran who has received many awards, including four Good Conduct Medals, Benderman was deployed in Iraq from March to September of 2003. During that time, he says, "elements of my unit were instructed by a captain to fire on children throwing rocks at us".
He said that he realised that "the people that we are fighting now are for the most part people like you and me, people that are defending themselves against a superior military force and fighting to keep that which is rightfully theirs". He has also said the Iraqi people have the right to choose their own form of government, "just like we did in America after the revolution".
Benderman, who first entered the Army in 1987, has applied for a conscientious objector discharge. A decision on his application is still pending.
Benderman is not alone in his objection to the war. Twenty-two soldiers in his unit have refused to deploy to Iraq. Seventeen have gone AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave). Two have attempted suicide.
Discontent and low morale are becoming so widespread throughout the armed forces, especially the reserves, that even top officers are getting worried. In a recent memo, Lieutenant-General James Helmly criticised repeated "stop loss" orders, decisions extending reservists' tours in war zones, and calling reservists to active duty after they had returned to civilian life.
Helmly wrote that these policies have pushed the Army Reserve to the point that it is "in grave danger of being unable to meet other operational requirements" and is "rapidly degenerating into a 'broken' force".
Meanwhile, soldiers in Iraq face daily attacks from a popular resistance that now numbers more than 200,000, according to the head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. US deaths in combat are approaching 1400.
The soldiers want to come home, and the Iraqi people clearly want them to leave. In a letter from Kevin Benderman and Monica Benderman to President George Bush, they outlined the only way to end the violence in Iraq: "Until America leaves Iraq to the Iraqis, and brings its soldiers home, freedom cannot begin to materialize for the Iraqi people."
[Reprinted from Workers World newspaper <http://wwww.workers.org>.]
From Green Left Weekly, January 26, 2005.
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