Iraq Soldier to File as Conscientious Objector

A must-read:

In Iraq last April, freshly promoted Staff Sgt. Camilo
Mejia led squads of Florida National Guard soldiers in the fight
against insurgents in the deadly Sunni triangle.
But Mejia became increasingly pained by his war experiences, and when
he went on leave in the autumn, he decided not to come back. The staff
sergeant--one of about 600 soldiers counted as AWOL by the Army during
home leaves from Iraq--eventually was labeled a deserter. Now, after
five months in hiding, Mejia plans to surrender Monday in Boston on the
eve of the war's first anniversary, and he aims to become the first
Iraq war veteran to publicly challenge the morality and conduct of the
conflict. At a time when polls indicate that Americans' support for the
war is slipping, Mejia intends to seek conscientious-objector status to
avoid a court-martial. In an interview with the Tribune, Mejia, 28, of
Miami, said he found the war and many of his combat orders morally
questionable and ultimately unacceptable. He has been living in New
York and other Eastern cities, traveling by bus instead of by plane or
car to escape the attention of the police and military. He has avoided
using his credit cards and cell phone. Mejia accuses commanders of
using GIs as "bait" to lure out Iraqi fighters so that U.S. soldiers
could win combat decorations. He also says operations were conducted in
ways that sometimes risked injuring civilians. He has accused his
battalion and company commanders of incompetence and has reiterated
other guardsmen's complaints about being poorly equipped. Those
commanders, however, defended their conduct. His immediate commander
described Mejia as a poorly performing soldier who "lost his nerve" as
bloodshed intensified in one of Iraq's more violent cities, Ramadi.
Perhaps the turning point for Mejia was the day in Iraq when he was
ordered to shoot at Iraqis protesting and hurling grenades toward his
position from about 75 yards away, which he considered too far of a
distance to be a real threat. Mejia and his men opened fire on one, and
he fell, his blood pooling around him. "It was the first time I had
fired at a human being," Mejia recalled. "I guess you could say it was
my initiation at killing a human being. . . . One thing I ask myself a
lot, `Did I hit him?'

Posted by flow Frazao on March 15, 2004 at 12:09 PM | Permalink