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Truth Commission on Conscience in War IRR refusers now cut off from some
benefits Rebirthing the anti-war movement
Army: Free Marc Hall! Sign online, we'll mail the letter Dear General Charles Campbell, I’m writing to protest the extraordinarily unjust court martial of SPC Marc A. Hall scheduled to be held in Iraq. The facts of this case clearly show that SPC Hall is being retaliated against for his persistent assertions of inadequate mental health care that culminated in a Dec. 7 complaint to the Army Investigator General (IG). While SPC Hall’s hip-hop song critical of the Army’s “stop-loss” policy serves as a pretext for this trial, it is telling that the Army took no action against SPC Hall for five months. Yet five days after SPC Hall filed an IG complaint, he was charged with violating “good order and discipline” at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
Read more and sign the letter...
Commission finds "selective objection" recognition needed
The Truth Commission on Conscience in War was held last month at the Riverside Church in New York City. The two-day event was an attempt to start a national conversation among community and religious leaders, veterans, and others about “just war”, international law, and greater freedom of conscience for service members. Currently, military regulations do not allow troops to conscientiously object only to certain wars, such as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, these “selective objectors” make up the majority of service members that Courage to Resist works with daily. A commissioner of the hearings, Courage to Resist project director Jeff Paterson noted, “Without recognized selective objection, the all-volunteer military is not all that voluntary. A renewed effort to offer some legal protections to these war resisters is overdue.”
IRR refusers now cut off from some GI Bill benefits
GI Counseling Alert - As of March 2010, members of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) who are involuntarily activated by the Army are now listed by the Veterans Administration (VA) as on "Active Duty Recall status", or just “active”. This affects some benefits of IRR recall refusers for the first time. Once the VA is notified by the Army that the individual has been activated, the VA is now required to stop payments for both the housing allowance and the book allowance otherwise covered by the “Post-9/11 GI Bill”. However, the VA will continue to pay tuition and college fees for IRR refusers.... This may mean that an IRR refuser will not receive the housing and books allowances even after eventually receiving an Honorable, General, or Other Than Honorable discharge from the IRR.
Rebirthing the anti-war movement
Think back seven years ago to this day. Where were you on March 19th, 2003, when the invasion began? Did you see “Shock and Awe” footage of the orange explosions in the clear Baghdad sky, piped in grainy TV shows, lit at night with the green glow of CNN cameras? Did you read the tickertapes under these images of neighborhoods lit on fire? Over those next days, did you, like many of us, collapse in overwhelmed grief and rage, frantic at not knowing how we could stop our government's onslaught? It's important to remember how we channeled this into organizing that built dynamic alliances, influenced public opinion, and communicated to the rest of the world that people inside the United States were not all united behind the war. At the same time, we failed to prevent the invasion and have not yet ended the occupation of Iraq, or Afghanistan. We say this, recognizing how many of us tried to put our bodies in the way as best we could, in a million different ways. Many people suffered burnout and heartbreak. The sheer numbers of antiwar demonstrators, which just a month before the invasion of Iraq coordinated the biggest street protests in the history of the world, have dropped precipitously each year as we hit this awful anniversary. |
US Army: Free Spc Marc A. Hall! 
