AWOL youth challenges Amerikan military

In February MIM interviewed a young man who is AWOL from the Amerikan military and is actively seeking conscientious objector status in opposition to the U.$. wars. Joe (not his real name) is not just seeking to avoid combat, he has become an activist speaking out against the Amerikan military and its imperialist wars attending marches and rallies.

Joe explained his current situation: "I'm supposed to be down in Camp [X] relieving the active people there and sending them on their way. I'm supposed to be down there going 'go shoot someone for me, rah rah.' From what they tell us, we would probably have been [there] for a year and then who knows where they would send us. They would send us to wherever the war is at then. The CO status I am applying for is for someone who is opposed to all war. I don't want to participate in any war whatsoever."

Many youth in Amerika, especially oppressed nation youth, join the military looking for direction, money or a job. Joe explained why he joined the military: "Like other people trying to get out of a difficult situation; I was at a low point, I was depressed and a lot of recruiters take advantage of that. And I needed money for school, it was just things like that. Nothing was going right in my life and I wanted a direction, and I think that was the main reason I joined."

MIM: How have your views on the military have changed, why do you now want to get out?

Joe: I decided I wanted to get out while I was still in training. I never realized how hypocritical it had been for me to join; I thought I was just a reservist so I can just be there on the weekend. When I was in boot camp I was exposed to so many things about what the military does. How they train people I think is crazy. Beforehand I think the only strong feelings I had was that I was anti-violence and pro-civil rights. But then when I was exposed to everything I learned that I really was anti-war and that's their business. Plus they were trying to teach me to hate myself and dehumanize people. My convictions against these things are so strong now.

Some of the training is really crazy. We'd have combat training and every time we made a blow we had to shout out "Kill." And we had to fight each other, we had to hit each other hard and I never could really do that. If we didn't hit each other hard we were punished because we had morals about violence. The changes that I saw in other people that were going along with the program; you'd see them break down and all of a sudden they have no heart. You don't see them, you see a deprogrammed persyn and then all of the sudden they have another persyn's agenda. So that free will is taken away and that part about military training is crazy. And then when we actually got to use weapons and train with them, the amount of dehumanizing of the enemy they taught, you know it's just like killing an ant. You don't have to consider people more than just a bug."

MIM: Did they talk about specific regions of the world or other peoples?

Joe: I went in just after September 11 so the enemy was Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and Muslim people. And everybody in there that was Muslim had to constantly defend themselves, renounce their religion. And any enemy we have ever had... everybody in the world, we have been ruining their lives, if you were of a country like that you had to defend yourselves. But especially Muslim people, they would really make fun of their customs.

MIM: Did they give you reasons why you should be fighting?

Joe: They did try to instill that [the enemy] is wrong because they are not capitalist and they are not the same, but I think mainly the training was about making enemies seem like anybody that is against the U.$. is completely worthless and not human and therefore it is OK to kill them.

MIM: You may have read the news lately about the U.$. sending troops to the Philippines, they say to fight against Abu Sayaaf, a small terrorist band. [There is more evidence linking Abu Sayaaf to the Philippine military and the Amerikan CIA than to Al Queda, and Abu Sayaaf membership has dwindled to under 200.] But in reality the U.$. uses their troops in the Philippines both to train the Filipino military and to actively suppress the revolutionary movement there. What do you think about what's going on with the U.$. military there?

Joe: I think that the U.$., it isn't just in this situation, they don't have the right to do whatever they want, they're not the leaders of the world. They're going in there against the will of the entire country. And putting a different name on it than what their real intentions are. I think U.$. involvement in the Philippines has always been about having their own power and because of that I think the leaders there are really corrupt, but I don't think that's a result of the country itself, that's a result of the U.$. involvement. The more U.$. involvement in the Philippines the worse people turn out. All their resources are getting stolen, all the people are being exploited for low wages. Meanwhile they're not doing anything to help people. They make them reliant on Amerikan involvement so that they won't want them out. And then generations pass and they won't realize that it could be different. That makes a movement for the U.$. to be out a lot harder as if it's always been like that.

MIM adds: Joe's application for CO status is based on his moral opposition to war. He is firm in his pacifist stance stating that he would never use violence. MIM, on the other hand, points to the example in the Philippines to explain why war, on the part of the oppressed people, is necessary. This is revolutionary violence, a just peoples war to throw off their oppressors. These are oppressors who have demonstrated that they won't back down without a fight. And they leave the people no choice but to starve, dye of preventable diseases, be killed in imperialist wars, or fight back.

MIM: What do you hope to gain by publicizing your case?

Joe: I know it's really idealistic but the other day I was thinking about what is going to happen. I really don't know what's going to happen to me, I'll probably go to jail for a little while. But if I'm going to go to jail, everything's going to be the same anyway, why not get more ... to rethink things. I know when I was in active duty I was always talking to people, whenever I could, about their views and why they have their views and are you sure that's not just training, to just get people to think because I don't think there's a lot of that in the military. You're taught not to think. And maybe some people will change their mind.

MIM: I would add that it's not just about educating people in the military but also you can educate people on the outside.

Joe: Who knows, this is a crazy war, it's not just this war, and they might re-implement the draft. People who aren't in the military can still apply for conscientious objection. People can apply for that beforehand. I think in your newspaper most people will probably already be in that viewpoint.

MIM adds: We stand with Joe and others who have gone AWOL or are trying to get out of the military to avoid participating in this imperialist war on Iraq and other Amerikan militarist excursions around the world. We applaud his courage in taking this stand publicly to help build the anti-war movement. Although MIM does not agree with Joe's pacifism, we unite in supporting the just opposition to Amerikan imperialism around the world. And MIM hopes that all pacifists will step forward to promote an anti-imperialist message and condemn U.$. militarism.