Questioning the war? You are not alone. "Why I refused to fight" by Steve Yoczk Wanted: Grassroots fundraising events We won’t go back War resisters held in legal limbo
At Fort Bragg, North Carolina, AWOL soldiers find themselves detained for months under difficult conditions in an extended legal limbo they cannot escape. Dustin Stevens is one of about 50 soldiers being held at Fort Bragg awaiting likely AWOL and desertion charges that seem like they will never arrive, he says. A former soldier who refused to continue military service seven years ago because he did not want to fight a war, Stevens says that he and his colleagues are being held in legal limbo - a no man's land of poor living standards and arbitrary punishments - while awaiting charges and possible court-martial. Stevens has been in a holdover unit for five months without charges, and he says that others have been held for up to a year in conditions he describes as harrowing. The unit is overcrowded and filthy, he says, with four people to a room. The command verbally abuses the soldiers, with one commanding officer proclaiming, "We should just shoot you all," according to Stevens. Troops are not receiving the medical and mental health care they need. "People around me are literally going crazy. I hear people threaten suicide on a daily basis," says Stevens. "They won't give us leave passes unless it's a dire emergency, so we're just sitting here, day by day." The command offered the soldiers a free pass if they agreed to deploy to Afghanistan, according to Stevens. About ten people took up the offer, he says. Those who decline must find a way to endure. At least 50 AWOL troops are being held right now in the holdover unit at the 82nd Replacement Company, constituting about three-quarters of its population, with the rest medical holdovers, says Stevens, who is corroborated by his civilian lawyer, James Branum. A holdover unit is a special unit for people who are on a legal hold of some kind, whether it is because they are seeking medical discharge, switching assignments or, as in Stevens' case, waiting for charges. Questioning the war? You are not alone. New GI outreach leaflet produced by Courage to Resist and Iraq Veterans Against the War. June 17, 2009 "GI resistance against war is anything that gives service members and veterans a voice and makes it harder for the military to function like a well-oiled machine. It ranges from reading anti-war literature to refusing an order to refusing deployment to a war zone. GI resistance is not dishonorable, and it will not put the lives of your buddies in jeopardy. Rather, it is a concrete way to end war and bring the troops home. GI resistance played a central role in ending the war in Vietnam. Having a fighting force that was difficult to control was a key factor in forcing the U.S. government to pull out..." The back side of leaflet lists contact information for various organizations that support GI resistance. View, print, and distribute the PDF GI outreach leaflet!
"Why I refused to fight" by Steve Yoczk
I am a former military servicemember who went AWOL rather than deploy to Iraq. This is the story of why I refused to fight. I joined the Coast Guard Reserve at age 17 in May 2002 and served uneventfully until June 2005. I decided to switch to the Regular Army for the handful of obvious and universal reasons: money, lack of education, desire for good working skill. More than that, though, I wanted to be a part of something I felt was just and right, with the spirit of the Second World War and the beginning months of the Vietnam conflict in my head. I believed the Army to be an institution that stressed “think before you shoot”. I was told I would be training for communications with the 25 Foxtrot program, or Network Switching Systems Operator/Maintainer. Read more and listen to the Courage to Resist audio interview... |
War resisters held in legal limbo
By Sarah Lazare, Courage to Resist for 
By Steve Yoczk. June 5, 2009
