By Dede Miller, 5/10/07
Today I attended a victory/Peace Rally at UC Fullerton in California. It was to
initially be a protest rally. The US Army was busing in 2,000 kids from low
income neighborhoods to speak with recruiters on campus. The uproar caused by the
Campus Peace Movement and area activists forced the Army to cancel its
recruiting day turning the day into a victory dance. As I figure it 2,000 kids
will live to see one more day. It was a beautiful sunny So Cal day. About 100
peace folks were in attendance and 10 Pro-war kids were on the side lines.
One of the most amazing and moving things I have seen to
date in the Peace Movement happened. A G.I. was in the crowd. Wearing full
desert cammies. At the end of the rally he stepped up to the podium and
announced that as of today he was officially AWOL. His National Guard unit was
being deployed to Iraq
TODAY. This would be his second deployment. His first was as a marine. And he did
not want to go back. He was visibly shaking as he told us his story. He then
spoke specifically to the young Republican counter protestors, asking them why
it is okay to send his brothers and sisters (he is Latino) to Iraq to fight and
die for the USA yet the US border patrol kill his brothers and sisters as they
cross the border. Of course they had no response or answer for him. This brave
young man is no longer willing to fight, kill and die for a war based on lies.
After he spoke he stepped back, pulled out his deployment orders and burned
them. My eyes welled with tears of pride for this young man. This was a spur of
the moment decision for him. He has made no plans. All of us “skin in the
game” folks in attendance immediately surrounded him, IVAW, MFSO and
myself Gold
Star Families for Peace.
All hugging him and telling him how proud we were of him. I told him that
I wished Casey had lived long enough to make the decision to resist. I am
confident that Casey would have done the same thing with the advantage of
knowledge about the realities of the “war”. This young man is now in
the hands of the IVAW and the G.I. Rights hotline. I am sure once he gets his
bearings and some advice he will go public. Which will encourage more to resists.
I think two of the most important things we can do in the
Peace Movement is Counter Recruiting and encouraging G.I. Resistance. They can
not fight a war with no one left to fight it. We need to plug their sources of
cannon fodder. We need to stop allowing our kids to be sacrificed in the name
of greed and power.
Over the summer while we were at Camp
Casey we did a G.I. Rights hotline
action at the gates of Ft.
Hood. We held signs with
the G.I. Rights hotline phone number. We held signs that said Resist, ask me
how. We had several kids stop. One was threatened and chased off by an officer.
We did this on a Friday afternoon. Come Monday we got word from the G.I. Rights
national office that they received a panic call from the Dallas/Ft.
Worth office that “something is going on at Ft. Hood”.
They had been inundated with calls over the weekend. We had an impact. This was
a very easy but meaningful action. Imagine if we could model this at every base
in the U.S.
I have done counter recruitment work with the folks who made
the film Arlington
west. They take their very powerful film into High Schools and after screening
the film have military families, gold star families and members of the military
speak. They ask before the presentations for a showing of hands as to how many
of the students are thinking of joining the military. Generally 20-30 hands
will raise. They again ask the question after the program. Only a few still
raise their hands. I firmly believe Peter Dudar and Sally Marr have saved
hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives with their counter recruiting efforts. Not
only the kids who do not enlist but the lives of the Iraqis these new recruits
would have been forced to kill.
It is the duty of both commissioned members of the military
and the enlisted to disobey illegal or immoral orders:
Oath enlisted military takes:
“I, (state your name), 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.”
The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) 809[890].ART.90 (20), makes it clear that military
personnel need to be the “lawful command of his superior officer,”
891.ART.91 (2), the “lawful order of a warrant officer”, 892.ART.92
(1) the “lawful general order”, 892.ART.92 (2) “lawful
order”. In each case, military personnel have an obligation and a duty to
only obey Lawful orders and indeed have an obligation to disobey Unlawful
orders, including orders by the president that do not comply with the UCMJ. The
moral and legal obligation is to the U.S. Constitution and not to those who
would issue unlawful orders, especially if those orders are in direct violation
of the Constitution and the UCMJ.
The Bush Crimes commission clearly lays out for us what
makes the orders to wage this war illegal.
Their indictments:
Wars of aggression:
Count 1: The Bush administration authorized a war of aggression
against Iraq.
Count 2: The Bush administrations authorized conduct of the
war that involved the commission of “war crimes.”
Count 3:
The Bush administration authorized the occupation of Iraq
involving, and continuing to involve, the commission of “war crimes”,
“crimes against humanity” and other illegal acts.
Torture:
Count 1:
The Bush administration authorized the use of torture and
abuse in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and domestic
constitutional and statutory law.
Rendition:
Count 2:
The Bush administration authorized the transfer
(“rendition”) of persons held in U.S. custody to foreign countries
where torture is known to be practiced.
Illegal Detention:
Count 3:
The Bush administration authorized the indefinite detent ion
of persons seized in foreign combat zones and in other countries far from any combat
zone and denied them the protections of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment
of prisoners of war and the protections of the U.S. Constitution.
Count 4:
The Bush administration authorized the round-up and
detention in the United
States of tens of thousands of immigrants on
pretextual grounds and held them without charge or trial in violation of
international human rights law and domestic constitutional and civil rights
law.
Count 5:
The Bush administration used military forces to seize and
detain indefinitely without charges U.S.
citizens, denying them the right to challenge their detention in U.S.
courts.
It is our obligation as a peace movement to support these
brave men and women who make the very hard decision to resist. We can’t let
them stand alone. Courage to Resist, and the AFSC has a good tool kit for GI’s
and counter-recruitment efforts.
In Peace,
Dede
Gold Star Families for Peace
www.gsfp.org