A Warrior Resists Deployment

If we are getting out of Iraq, why were more American soldiers killed in April than in any month since the presidential election? We actually seem to be accelerating the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan! We are constantly told that the number of actual troops in Iraq will be down to about 50,000 within the next few months but this says nothing of the “stability contractors” employed in our empire’s latest quagmire (that’s “mercenaries” for those of you who don’t like idiotic euphemisms). Currently, the U.S. has about 150,000 mercs on the payroll in Iraq.

So, given that we are escalating our resource wars, what should the peace movement be doing right now? Well, for starters, I think we should be celebrating a huge victory very few of us are even aware of.

Sergeant Mathis Chiroux, a young reservist who spent five years serving in Afghanistan, Japan and Germany refused to deploy to Iraq about a year ago. He has been waiting since for some resolution with the Army. He was told by people in the know that he could receive anywhere from a year of incarceration right on up to the death penalty if they really wanted to make an example of him.

On April 21st, he appeared before a board of Army officers in St. Louis, Missouri to explain his refusal to deploy. He told the truth. He said he felt that he was being called on to commit war crimes and that he could not participate. He also said that he could not participate in an illegal and unconstitutional war.

The hearing resulted in Chiroux being honorably discharged from the United States Army and the board allowed him to keep his G.I. Bill benefits. Did you hear about this big news?! I can only imagine that many will now also refuse to deploy (or re-deploy).

I find it amazing that this could happen with nary a peep from the mainstream media. This is a great example of the kind of information we are regularly being denied by the mainstream media. A whole lot of someones had to decide not to write about this and not to cover it on TV. That’s pretty scary to contemplate.

Chiroux is quite well-known within the peace movement for his work with IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against the War) and VFP (Veterans For Peace). Especially interesting was his testimony at the Winter Soldier hearings held in March of 2008 which were also ignored by the media.

These modern hearings were meant to emulate the “Winter Soldier Investigations” that took place in Detroit in January of 1971 at which a sizable group of Vietnam combat veterans, flying the VVAW banner (Vietnam Veterans Against War), spoke on camera for two days about the atrocities they had both witnessed and committed in Vietnam.

If you have never seen the film “Winter Soldier”, it has been out on DVD now for several years winter-soldier and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s simply phenomenal.

I also strongly urge you to read the powerful words that Mathis wrote about his trials and tribulations. His is not a typical war story. It is a very well-written description of the terribly dehumanizing effects of military training and culture and how it impacts human beings on all sides of the conflicts we are involved in.

Lets hope that the peace movement regroups and stops playing politics (Bush war bad, Obama war good). We are still very much involved in two wars and ramping up both. There are plenty of other soldiers out there standing up to the military-industrial-congressional complex who really need our help. G.I. resistance to the war in Vietnam was absolutely crucial to ending it. Please contact IVAW and make a donation today!