conscientious objection

Soldiers of Conscience is a documentary about how soldiers deal with the morality of killing. It will be shown on PBS's POV next week, which interestingly is also the week of the Media Violence Fast - supported by Rainbow/PUSH Coalition as well as the United Church of Christ. 

Soldiers of Conscience is a dramatic window on the dilemma of individual U.S. soldiers in the current Iraq War – when their finger is on the trigger and another human being is in their gun-sight. Made with cooperation from the U.S. Army and narrated by Peter Coyote, the film profiles eight American soldiers, including four who decide not to kill, and become conscientious objectors; and four who believe in their duty to kill if necessary. The film reveals all of them wrestling with the morality of killing in war, not as a philosophical problem, but as soldiers experience it - a split-second decision in combat that can never be forgotten or undone.

- Soldier of Conscience: About the Film

Conscientious Objection and Counter-Recruitment in the U.S.

All across the country, young people are standing up and saying “NO” to military recruiters in their high schools and on their college campuses. Communities are mobilizing to create alternative jobs and find positive opportunities outside of the military. Youth in the military and “civilian” youth are defining themselves as conscientious objectors – those who refuse to fight what they deem as unjust and unnecessary wars.

“I’ve been lied to.” “I feel crazy.” “I can’t do this anymore.”

As a counselor with the GI Rights Network, a group of activists that offers advice to soldiers who are seeking information about how to get out the military, these are the kinds of comments I often hear from people who call our hotline.

The stories these callers have to tell are always different but the theme is often the same: “I feel alone and I don’t have a place where my story will be heard.”

Five years into the military occupation of Iraq, it’s no secret that soldiers are coming home from tours of duty with devastating physical and emotional trauma from combat. Doctors and therapists can try to treat these wounds but it takes a larger movement to break the sense of isolation that many soldiers feel about their experiences.

Ralph Di Gia and Tobias DaloisioRalph Di Gia, a conscientious objector imprisoned during World War II who worked with the War Resisters League (WRL) for more than 60 years, died on Friday, February 1st. He was 93. Matt Daloisio, a member of WRL's advisory board (with whose son Ralph is pictured here), writes:

"When Ralph DiGia got his notice to report to the Army for induction after Pearl Harbor, he went to the U.S. Attorney's office to say he wasn't reporting because he was a conscientious objector. The U.S. Attorney sent him to a WRL lawyer for advice, but in those benighted days, the armed services did not recognize conscientious objection that was not religiously based. Ralph therefore spent the war years in Federal prison, going on hunger strikes to integrate the prison dining hall (an effort that succeeded). When he got out of prison, he headed straight for WRL, and has been there ever since."

This past weekend, FOR and Interfaith Peace-Builders (IFPB) held a successful advocacy training event on Capitol Hill in Washington, where two dozen participants came together and walked the halls of Congress to call for an end to military intervention and aid in the Middle East, Latin America, and at home. We met with staff from 20 offices of U.S. Senators and Representatives, encouraging each of those political leaders to choose peace at a time when the White House -- and many in Congress -- continue to default to war.