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Resisters to Warmaking: Past and Present

A talk given by Elizabeth McAlister at Baltimore’s Phil Berrigan Memorial Chapter of Veterans for Peace.  Also speaking was Joel Andreas, JHU Professor of Sociology and Author-Illustrator of Addicted to War: Why America Can’t Kick Militarism.

It is a joy to be with you tonight. And a special joy to be with Joel Andreas . We have a table just off the living room at Jonah House. "Addicted to War" has graced that table since it first came out – the older replaced by the newer edition. As someone who is forever trying to put images out there that might be useful to people, I've rummaged through it for ideas for graphics repeatedly. Aside from my search for images, I find the book sobering and accurate. And I congratulate you Joel, for taking on the most powerful and destructive military in the world. We put this book in the hands of the college students that spend time with us each spring. Far more readable than the many other books we recommend, it's like a combination of Howard Zinn 's Peoples History and William Blum 's Killing Hope . It breaks down complex and important history into bite sized morsels easily digested. Maybe we should be putting it in stockings and giving it as Christmas gifts! Joel, you tell people why the United States has been involved in more wars in recent years than any other country; you tell us who benefits from these adventures, who pays—and who dies.

Speaking of “who dies,” yesterday we celebrated the 2nd anniversary of Phil Berrigan 's death. We gathered in NYC and held a memorial on Sunday evening and yesterday gathered at the Isaiah Wall and walked in silent procession to Times Square where 29 of us blocked the recruiting office in the center of the square. We were held from about 11:00 a.m. until after 8:00 p.m. last night and then drove home. I think it was a fitting remembrance of Phil. We were less interested in what Phil did for a living; we were more inspired by what he ached for. And anyone who knew him (as many of us walking and acting yesterday did) knew that his ache was for an end of war, complete disarmament, real peace with justice for all.

Phil served in the U.S. military during World War II. I believe that he enlisted, following in the footsteps of three of his older brothers. Of that experience he would often say, unequivocally, that he didn't have a clue in those days. In his own words, he was a dim bulb - but a good soldier. When he realized that it was paratroopers who saw the most action, he volunteered for that training and came through it with flying colors. In the European theatre, he witnessed the devastation in Britain and throughout northern Europe . It was sobering.

When he came home from the service, his Jesuit brother Daniel was studying theology at a seminary outside Baltimore, and he went to see him. The atomic bomb had just been dropped, and the Jesuits held a victory parade, of all things, there at the seminary, because the Jesuits didn't know any more than Phil did. Since he was the only officer there, he led the parade, carrying an American flag. It was a very bad moment, a confession of total ignorance.

More, he believed President Truman when he said that we'd saved millions of American lives by dropping those two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki . But it caught up with him, because he'd seen so much Eventually, he had to put two and two together: If conventional bombing had done the demolition he witnessed, what must the atomic bomb must have done to Japan .

At first he wanted to stay in the military. Family talked him into leaving. Daniel worked to get him into Holy Cross in Worcester , Massachusetts . He went to Holy Cross for four years. Two of his brothers were seminarians at that point, and they were both doing good things and were decent and moral people. Phil felt that he was wasting his life. So he gave it a try. And made it through and graduated into the Josephite order that served American blacks, mostly in the deep South. His real education began there.

And throughout his life, Phil never stopped learning and he never stopped teaching. During the Vietnam War, he worked quite a bit with Vietnam Vets and chapters of VVAW. He would be moved (as we all are) by the more than 2500 US soldiers who have filed for Conscientious Objector discharges during the Gulf War the fastest rise in CO applications in US history. The government reacted harshly to these applications. The Army, for a time, refused to accept many applications. The Marine Corps ignored their own CO processing regulations. All branches of the military imprisoned some Conscientious Objectors. In the end, nearly 100 COs were imprisoned. A couple of dozen are still there now. Unlike the VVAW stereotype (white, middle-class, hippie), Gulf War Conscientious Objectors came from all walks of life. Most of the applicants were young enlisted personnel, 20 to 24 years old. A number were officers with ten or more years of military service. Ninety percent of the applicants were men, though there were a number of vocal and resourceful female resisters. African-American resisters comprised the largest ethnic group, but there were many white, Latino and Asian resisters also. Many CO applications were based on secular beliefs. Also represented were applications based on Muslim, Christian , Buddhist and other faiths.

Most of the COs had joined the military out of high school, drafted by the need for a job and financial aid for college. Encouraged by their recruiters, war was not something to worry about; the military was there to provide them with a job, training, travel, adventure and money for college. Many reservists were wrongly told that reservists were not sent to war. Most never considered whether they could kill another human or not. Faced with combat training in boot camp, many realized that they had made a mistake by enlisting, but it was too late. The military had their signature, their agreement to take orders , for eight years each.

There were two things they all had in common. They all refused to take part in the slaughter of Iraqi children, women and men. And, they all survived a boot camp devised to brainwash them to kill or to support killing when ordered to do so.

While enlistment contracts in the USA contain a provision barring conscientious objectors from joining, the military recognizes that some individuals' beliefs change after they sign a contract. As a result, each branch of the military has a regulation which offers discharges or reassignment to "noncombatant duty" to individuals who are morally, ethically or religiously opposed to all war. An individual's beliefs must have changed since their enlistment and their opposition must be to all war.

While the regulations appear straight-forward, there are many loopholes advantageous to the military.

•  the interpretation of CO is a narrow one not recognizing objection to particular wars or types of war.

•  the processing of applications rests within an individual's command structure. Some commands refused to accept applications, some have taken a year or longer to process applications, and some have denied CO applications without legal justification.

•  all regulations allow the military to send most COs into combat situations, (just without arms), while their applications are being processed.

I want to hold us a few of these resisters who have been a beacon for me..

Marine Jeff Patterson – Since his August refusal to board a plane bound for Saudi Arabia ( Jeff sat on the tarmac and refused to get up), the military saw resistance within its ranks grow at a rate never seen before. Charges against Jeff were dropped and he was given an other-than-honorable (OTH) discharge, but not before a 20 October press conference where seven more soldiers publicly stated their refusal to fight in the Gulf. By early December over 1,000 soldiers had filed CO applications. In the Bronx , NY, first five and later seven members of a single Company of 150 soldiers filed for CO discharges. By the end of December, the Army was experiencing problems of its own. In Germany over 40 US soldiers applied for CO status.

Pressed for troops and striking back at the resisters, on 28 December the Army handcuffed and forcibly deployed Specialist David Carson . David and at least seven other Army soldiers, all with pending CO discharge applications, were forcibly deployed from Germany to Saudi Arabia . Due to public pressure, charges were never filed against them.

With the arrival of call-up notices at the homes of 30,000 Individual Ready Reservists in mid-January, a new wave of military resisters was born. Dozens of churches declared themselves sanctuary for COs. University Baptist Church in Seattle, University Lutheran Chapel in Berkeley and the Riverside Church in New York City took leading roles in harboring COs. Joining the effort to protect military COs, Amnesty International recognized Sgt George Morse at Ft Riley, Kansas, as a "prisoner of conscience" their first recognition of a prisoner in the USA since 1987. AI now recognizes 28 imprisoned COs as individuals whose human rights the US government has infringed.

Stephen Funk , a 20-year old Marine Corps Reservist, is another of an unknown number of reservists and active-duty personnel who have declared themselves in opposition to the Iraqi War."I refuse to kill," said the Seattle native, "It is scary to confront the military, because the military teaches you to submit to orders even when you object. I may not be a hero, but I know that it takes courage to disobey. I know that it demands courage to say 'no' in the face of coercion." "I cannot in good conscience take part in war... I object to war because I believe that it is impossible to achieve peace through violence. I hope that other soldiers will find the courage to follow their beliefs. I hope the soldiers will listen to the voice of their conscience and come, in their own ways, to question the 'logic' of war. I hope that other soldiers will come to see that they are more than cogs in the machinery of war, but free individuals with the unconquerable power of free will."

At an antiwar rally held on February 15 on the streets of New York City , Ghanim Khalil, 26, of Staten Island , NY , announced that he would refuse orders to be part of the attack against the people of Iraq . Khalil was with the Army Nation al Guard in Brooklyn and his unit had been told it was "only a matter of time" before they would be called to active duty in the Gulf. Khalil, an American citizen of Pakistani/Kashmiri descent and a Sufi Muslim, served four years on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps. While there, he acted as the lay leader for Muslim Marines and he was an advocate for Marines who had suffered from anti-Muslim prejudice at the base. Khalil said, "I have objections to this war. I believe that this war is for material gain. I believe that this war will lead to security problems for the American people and that our children will be endangered in the future."

When reporters asked how Ghanim squared his current stand with the enlistment contract he'd signed years earlier, he responded; "Just because you sign a contact doesn't mean that you'll go along with everything you're told, especially if the orders are illegal under international law."

Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia is serving a one-year sentence at Ft. Sill , Oklahoma for desertion stemming from his refusal to return to his unit in Iraq after going on leave last October. He had served eight years in the Florida Nation al Guard, including six months in Iraq 's Sunni Triangle where his duties included guarding prisoners at the Al-Assad air base. Sgt. Mejia had already been ordered to use illegal interrogation techniques at Al-Assad, such as sleep deprivation and cocking a loaded gun near the head of a blindfolded prisoner. He knew that if he returned to duty he would be ordered to do so again. Mejia testified that some of the sleep deprivation tactics used on Al-Assad prisoners were making them stand for long periods, holding their arms above their heads, and hitting their cell walls with a sledge hammer when they fell asleep. At his conviction Mejia stated that, "There comes a point when you have to realize there is a difference between being a soldier and being a human being."

Friends vigiled and fasted outside his prison at Ft. Sill

Our own efforts with regard to REFUSE TO FIGHT/REFUSE TO KILL

Over 500 signators. Each committed to welcome resisters and or to serve the prison time

Can sign it on our web site.

Where we've gone with it and what that was like... Marine Barracks and BWI airport

Gathered here tonight, we know a world rife with deceit and treachery - a world that has embraced endless war and bankrupting military spending - a world where lies pass for truth, sound bites for wisdom, arrogance for understanding. Leader follows leader from bad to worse, as though by a malign law of nature. One ruler, evil or stupid or violent, breeds another more evil or stupid or violent.

Social critics, politicians, conventional religionists multiply moral and political confusion. Wearyingly, they advocate verbal drugs, promises of relief, formulas of salvation, invocations to the god of the moment, pointing fingers at enemies – immigrants, the poor in our midst, the axes of evil. Political and military "experts" push their wares: violence, domination, prospering of a few, misery for multitudes. And the people, stuck fast in falsehood, are urged: "Go out and buy! See and enjoy this great country!"

All of the above commonly go under acceptable names like patriotism. But they are evidence of the spirit of death at large in our world, hidden persuaders, beckoners of the mighty, urging them to further unconscionable folly. In our day, the same powers legitimate the "law of the land," act as guardian spirits of "justice systems" and world banks and prisons and torture chambers and death rows. They normalize the excesses of the Pentagon, the military budget, the necessity of military intervention. They grease the wheels of the domination system.

Against such realities, the hope people like ourselves have to offer is a literal hope against hope, promulgated in the teeth of the worst times. And it proceeds from a faith that implies a great refusal. With a sense of lively contempt, it is up to us to shuck off the victim role; cease to be mute, passive, resigned, otherworldly - roles urged (imposed) by the culture

Our claims may be crusty, at times they may seem even morbid, curmudgeonly. But we know a hope that overrides historical failure. And it is up to us to live as if we believed it. This much is clear - hope is concrete, of this world, and offered against the despair of present circumstances. I think we can grab it only if we grab the despair and if in that despair we are driven to a deeper well-spring of living and being . It is from that perspective, I believe, that it can become clear that things are way more dynamic and alive that those in power calculate. Those in control are deceived. They can choose their full moon timeline, but people rise up unaccountably in the streets. They can shred the fabric of international law and find themselves utterly exposed. They can perform a precise military victory celebrated live on primetime, and find that it marks the onset of their unraveling and collapse.

We are in a period of struggle with a movement spiritually deep and broadly connected. And we need to keep connecting across barriers of faith and ideology. We have not collapsed or imploded with despair at this war! Many of us understand that a deeper resistance is summoned of us. We are trying, praying, working to be strategic, faithful, human. And we know that we must keep at it:
conspire the next steps
be in conversation
be in community
be in the streets
refuse taxes
refuse to fight
disrupt business as usual
prefer poetry to ideology
pray for victims before nations.