[THS] Veterans Group Calls On Soldiers to Refuse Orders to Deploy

[Peter Webster]

http://www.truthout.org/1214091

Veterans Group Calls On Soldiers to Refuse Orders to Deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq

Monday 14 December 2009

by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Report

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(Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: US Army Africa, The U.S. Army)

In response to President Barack Obama's announcement on December 1 to deploy
30,000 additional troops to the occupation of Afghanistan, the organization March
Forward!, comprising both veterans and active-duty members of the US military, has
called on all soldiers to refuse their orders to deploy.

"March Forward! calls on all service members to refuse orders to deploy to
Afghanistan and Iraq," reads a press release from the group from December 3. "We
offer our unconditional support and solidarity. Join us in the fight to ensure that no
more soldiers or civilians lose their lives in these criminal wars."

Michael Prysner, a former corporal in the Army who served from 2001-2005 and a
veteran of the occupation of Iraq, co-founded the group with another Iraq war
veteran, James Circello.

Truthout asked Prysner how he responds to those who believe a soldier should
always follow orders, no matter what.

"In my experience the majority of people joining the military today join out of
necessity, like money, jobs, help for their family, etc., so most don't join for
ideological or patriotic reasons. Most are driven into the military by economic
conditions. We see this playing out now, as people are joining in droves because of
the economy."

Prysner added, "Yes, people do sign a contract to follow orders, but those orders are
wrong and unlawful. We want to educate people to the fact that these are immoral
orders, and they [soldiers] are being used as muscle for corporations, to colonize the
developing world, and it's not legitimate. People who join and take this oath seriously
who think they are in [the military] to defend the US, this is not what we are being
used for in the military today."

Prysner has written about his experience in Iraq, "... there was no computer screen
separating me from the suffering civilian population. I spent 12 months in Iraq, doing
everything from prisoner interrogations, to ground surveillance missions, to home
raids. It was my firsthand experiences in Iraq that radicalized me. I believed I was
going to Iraq to help liberate and better the lives of an oppressed people, but I soon
realized that my purpose in Iraq was to be the oppressor, and to clear the way for US
corporations with no regard for human life."

After he separated from the Army in 2005, Prysner "understood that the occupation I
was a part of was a crime against humanity. I understood that illegal conquering of
Iraq was for profit, carried out by a system that serves a tiny class of super-rich
whose endless drive for wealth is at the expense of working people in the United
States and abroad."

According to Prysner, the lessons he learned from being part of the US occupation of
Iraq taught him that, "I still had the same drive to fight for freedom, justice and
equality as I did when I joined, and I understood that fighting for those things meant
fighting against the US government, not on behalf of it."

To those who call him and his organization "anti-American" and/or "unpatriotic,"
Prysner has this to say:

"I would say that I have more in common with my sisters and brothers in Iraq and
Afghanistan than I do with these people in DC who've sent us to war. If that's
unpatriotic, then yes, I am. But patriotism and racism are the only things the military
has to fall back on to convince people to do the things we are being asked to do
today."

March Forward! was founded in 2008, and the aim of the organization is "to unite all
those who have served and who currently serve in the US military, and who want to
stand up for our rights and for that which is right."

"We are new and growing," Prysner explained. "We have seen somewhat consistent
growth, and we're expecting this to accelerate now."

The group's statement from December 3 adds, "On December 1, we got a clear
order from President Obama. For many more years, we will be sent to kill, to die, to
be maimed and wounded, in a war where 'victory' is impossible, against a people
who are not our enemies. For over eight years, we have come home in coffins, in
wheelchairs, with our skin burned and with our days and nights haunted by the
trauma of war. We return home to a VA whose services are so inadequate that active
duty soldiers who succumb to suicide outnumber those killed in combat."

James Circello is a former Army sergeant and veteran of the US occupation of Iraq.
Circello, who joined the military in 2001, describes his experience in Iraq as follows:

"During the occupation of Iraq, the truth about what the United States government
has done to the country of Iraq became more apparent. Open wastewater flowed
through neighborhood streets where children played soccer. Families were thrown
out of their homes with simple accusations from others. Vehicles were taken on sight
by the military if individuals couldn't provide proper documents claiming they own the
vehicle. These events and others helped in strengthening my opposition to the so-
called 'War on Terror.'"

In April 2007, Circello left his base in Vicenza, Italy, and went absent without leave
(AWOL) in protest of US policy in the Middle East. In November 2007, he turned
himself in to the military at Fort Knox and was discharged within three days.

Circello has remained very active with his work against US Foreign Policy, having
worked with Iraq Veterans Against the War and the group Courage to Resist before
joining March Forward!.

Circello's decision to go AWOL was his way of refusing to deploy to Afghanistan.

I had been fighting myself internally after my time in Iraq, about whether to deploy
again," he explained to Truthout, "I ended up back in my old unit that was preparing
to deploy, so at that moment I took it into my hands, and decided I wasn't going to
go kill Afghans that had done nothing to me, or the American people. It was a
defining moment for me."

According to Pentagon figures, since October 2001, more than 50,000 soldiers from
all branches of the military have gone AWOL.

John Raughter is the communications director for the American Legion, an
organization that describes itself as "a patriotic, war-time veterans organization,
devoted to mutual helpfulness," according to its web site.

Raughter is clear about his stance on the rights of soldiers. "We have an all-volunteer
force," he explained to Truthout, "These are not draftees. They swore an oath to
obey the orders of the Commander in Chief."

According to Raughter, the American Legion does not, in any way, support AWOL
soldiers or those who refuse to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan. "Within reason, the
military should be able to enforce obedience. Obedience and order are critical for the
military to do its mission. People can't pick and choose which orders to obey and
which not to [obey]. If it's a lawful order, they are obliged to obey."

Yet the oath enlisted soldiers must take before being deployed, reads:

"I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the
Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will
bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the
President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me,
according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild, is the co-author of "Rules of
Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent" with Kathleen Gilberd. In
the book, they write, "Rules of Engagement limit forms of combat, levels of force,
and legitimate enemy targets, defining what is legal in warfare and what is not.
(They're also) defined by an established body of international (and US) law that
leaves no ambiguity."

Cohn and Gilberd argue that every US war since WWII has been illegal. Article 51 of
the UN Charter only permits the "right of individual or collective self-defense if an
armed attack occurs against a Member ... until the Security Council has taken
measures to maintain international peace and security."

In addition, Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 (the war powers clause) of the US
Constitution authorizes only both houses of Congress, not the president, to declare
war. Nonetheless, that process has been followed only five times in our history and
last used on December 8, 1941, after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

Nevertheless, Raughter believes soldiers who are dissenting against the occupations
should have never joined the ranks. "If they are ethically opposed to wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, I would say that most of these people have enlisted or reenlisted since
the beginning of the war. These wars were occurring when they made this oath of
enlistment. It should have come to their minds."

Circello's response to those who refer to their tactic of encouraging soldiers to refuse
deployment orders as being "unpatriotic or un-American?

"This is a tactic of demonization and we reject it," he explained, "The corporations
profiting in these wars don't care about America or the American people. Is providing
mercenaries to kill innocent people overseas, and bombs to kill innocent people, is
that American and patriotic? The people who use these terms are demagogues. We
can't forget that America was a land of institutionalized slavery, slavery was American,
and folks like Dr. Martin Luther King, when they stood up to racism were called un-
American ... so the same thing happens today. When you protest war, or call on
soldiers to desert based on their own interest, you are called un-American."

Prysner and Circello's organization has stated, "March Forward! supports the right of
all service members to refuse illegal and immoral orders. Orders to deploy to
Afghanistan and Iraq are just that: illegal and immoral. We have no reason to fight in
these wars, and we have every right to refuse to be a part of them."