US Army: Free Spc Marc A. Hall!
Sign online, we'll mail the letter for you. "Dear General Charles Campbell, I’m writing to protest the extraordinarily unjust court martial of
SPC Marc A. Hall..." that is scheduled for April 27 at Camp Liberty, Iraq.
Truth Commission on Conscience in War
Held last month at the Riverside Church in New York City, the commission found that "selective objection" recognition is urgently needed to protect the rights of service members.
IRR refusers now cut off from some
benefits
Some benefits of the “Post-9/11 GI
Bill”
are not available to IRR resisters. This is the first time that any benefits
have been affected, so this is a significant update to our IRR overview.
Rebirthing the anti-war movement
The antiwar movement is not dead, but there is plenty of work to be done. By
Sarah Lazare, Courage to Resist, and Clare Bayard, Catalyst Project.
Army: Free Marc Hall! Sign online, we'll mail the letter
Sign online here
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
By Courage to Resist. April 13, 2010
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.”
Video and links...
IRR refusers now cut off from some GI Bill benefits
By Jeff Paterson and Adam Seibert, Courage to Resist. April 13, 2010
This is an important update and change to our overview of
resisting involuntary activation from the IRR that has been widely referenced.
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.
Read more...
Rebirthing the anti-war movement
By Sarah Lazare, Courage to Resist, and Clare Bayard, Catalyst
Project. March 19, 2010
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.
Read more...
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